Interesting debate at John Quiggin on whether the election revealed a rightward shift by Australian voters. Left-inclined posters keen to deny this, but the evidence seems irrefutable. Consider two key issues: immigration and greenhouse policy. Conservatives have long been anxious about the decline of Anglo-Australia particularly since the 1970s when non-Anglo immigrants became assertive and […]
Polls reconsidered
I was very critical of the JWS marginals poll. However it performed better than I predicted, the R-Sq between their predictions and the outcome (using the ABC figures from the close of election night) was 0.58. However it predicted five ALP victories wrongly and 3 Liberal victories wrongly. However the average Labor across all the […]
Union-free America?
More evidence of the rightward drift of American public opinion on economic issues apparent in distrust of unions from Pew Research Center: Favorable views of labor unions have plummeted since 2007, amid growing public skepticism about unions’ purpose and power. Currently, 41% say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions while about as many […]
Lenin, economic management and public opinion
Recent commentary by some on the left in Australia and the US has highlighted the extent of public confusion about economic policy and criticised populist campaigns by conservatives against debt and deficits. This is certainly true but it also counts against the tradition of left-wing populism that has tended to attribute economic liberalism to an […]