Abstract

The central importance of relationships among economy, polity and society to the wealth of nations and the well-being of people has attracted much interest among academic researchers and non-academic observers for many years (see, for example, Smith 1776; Keynes 1936; Acemoglu and Robinson 2012). Since at least the early 1970s, this interest has been heightened by the varying fortunes of governing parties and their opponents, of government policies and of economic conditions (see, for example, Vig and Schier 1985: Chapter 1; Clarke et al. 1992: Chapter 1; Clarke et al. 2016). One area of interest involves reaction functions and outcomes functions, whereas another is popularity-vote (V-P) functions (see, for example, Whiteley 1986; Clarke et al. 1992: Chapters 1 and 8; Lewis-Beck and Stegmaier 2013; Stegmaier, Lewis-Beck and Park 2017). Reaction functions refer to government effects on economic policies, as well as policy effects on economic outcomes, notably whether and how government policies can stimulate employment, growth and investment and reduce inflation and poverty. V-P functions pertain to the effects of economic conditions (the objective economy) and economic evaluations (the subjective economy) on people’s party support, including their economic voting.