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Elections from time to time are widely believed to carry a mandate, to express a message about changed policy preferences of the electorate. Whatever the accuracy of such beliefs--a matter about which we are skeptical--perceptions of a mandate should affect the behavior of actors in government. Politicians lack the scholarly luxury of waiting for careful analyses. They must act in the months following elections. We postulate that many will act as if the mandate perceptions were true, veering away from their normal voting patterns. This is driven by election results and interpretations that undermine old calculations about what voters want. As the flow of information gradually changes these perceptions, and the election becomes more distant, members of Congress return to their normal position. We first ask, how would members observe an emerging consensus of mandate? And then we model the duration of the change in behavior in an event-history framework. That permits a depiction of important movements of the median member and, from this, inferences about policy impact.

Background: Despite evidence of the nosocomial transmission of novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in hospitals worldwide, the contributions of the pathways of transmission are poorly quantified.Methods: We analysed national records of hospital admissions and discharges, linked to data on SARS-CoV-2 testing, using an individual-based model that considers patient-to-patient, patient-to-healthcare worker (HCW), HCW-to-patient and HCW-to-HCW transmission.Results: Between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2020, SARS-CoV-2 infections that were classified as nosocomial were identified in 0.5% (0.34-0.74) of patients admitted to an acute National Health Service trust. We found that the most likely route of nosocomial transmission to patients was indirect transmission from other infected patients, e.g. through HCWs acting as vectors or contaminated fomites, followed by direct transmission between patients in the same bay. The risk of transmission to patients from HCWs over this time period is low, but can contribute significantly when the number of infected inpatients is low. Further, the risk of a HCW acquiring SARS-CoV-2 in hospital is approximately equal to that in the community, thereby doubling their overall risk of infection. The most likely route of transmission to HCWs is transmission from other infected HCWs.Conclusions: Current control strategies have successfully reduced the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between patients and HCWs. In order to reduce the burden of nosocomial COVID-19 infections on health services, stricter measures should be enforced that would inhibit the spread of the virus between bays or wards in the hospital. There should also be a focus on inhibiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 between HCWs. The findings have important implications for infection-control procedures in hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helmut Norpoth's 'Presidents and the Prospective Voter' presents the idea that the president's approval rating is based on retrospection. This challenges the idea presented in the article, 'Peasants or Bankers? The American Electorate and the US Economy,' which claims that presidents are rated according to economic expectation. Norpoth claims that the public does not exhibit such behavior which manifests prospective economic reasoning. However, standard multivariate analysis shows otherwise.

'Public opinion,' in modern political science, usually appears before a conjunction. Part of 'public opinion and elections,' 'public opinion and voting,' or 'public opinion and political behavior,' it has been [...]

'Public opinion,' in modern political science, usually appears before a conjunction. Part of 'public opinion and elections,' 'public opinion and voting,' or 'public opinion and political behavior,' it has been [...]

'Public opinion,' in modern political science, usually appears before a conjunction. Part of 'public opinion and elections,' 'public opinion and voting,' or 'public opinion and political behavior,' it has been [...]

'Public opinion,' in modern political science, usually appears before a conjunction. Part of 'public opinion and elections,' 'public opinion and voting,' or 'public opinion and political behavior,' it has been [...]

'Public opinion,' in modern political science, usually appears before a conjunction. Part of 'public opinion and elections,' 'public opinion and voting,' or 'public opinion and political behavior,' it has been [...]