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Abstract: While government support is often a function of its economic record, this is not always the case. We look at the forces that lead some citizens to focus on economic issues while other citizens are more interested in foreign policy, corruption, social policy, or some other issue. Data compiled from 32 countries participating in the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) project demonstrate that while the economy is generally viewed as important, the economy's place on the issue agenda varies across individuals and also electoral contexts. If the economy is not perceived as important, its effect on government approval is strongly mitigated. Our data suggest that the economy is more likely to dominate other issue concerns when the economy is in a recession, in countries with volatile economies, if the citizen in unemployed, or if the citizen is economically vulnerable. Governance crises related to corruption and human rights reduce attention to the economy, though we do not find clear evidence that terrorist attacks or participation in wars do the same. Thus variations in the economy's salience need to be further incorporated into studies of economic voting. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a larger project looking at the factors that cause some voters to place greater weight on economic concerns when evaluating the incumbent or voting. Here we argue that informal employment, working without a written contract with your employer, makes voters vulnerable to shifts in the job market by inducing wage volatility and increasing the ease of being dismissed while denying workers access to potential coping mechanisms during economic downturns such as severance pay, unemployment insurance, or pensions. The result, we predict, is that informally employed voters will place greater weight on national economic outcomes and capabilities to generate jobs when voting. We test this hypothesis with original survey data on approval of Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo as well as of voting intentions in the 2006 Peruvian presidential elections. The implications of the growth of the informal sector on electorasl outcomes is then discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]