Effects of debate viewing and citizen discussion on political malaise.

Abstract

The last Presidential election of the twentieth century is over; and, as the United States quickly approaches the next millennium, it is appropriate to examine the state of political attitudes. This study examines the state of political malaise--a vague sense of mental, moral, or physical uneasiness or ill-being directed toward politics--during the United States 1996 election season. On October 6, 1996, participants viewed the first presidential debate between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole and then participated in focus group discussions. To test for possible changes in participants' levels of political malaise, a repeated measure design--pretest, posttest, and post-posttest--was utilized whereby subjects responded to a series of political malaise scales prior to viewing the first 1996 presidential debate, immediately following the debate, and then again following participation in a focus group discussion about the debate and the political process. Participants consisted of 64 adult voters reflecting their community demographics. Data were gathered from six different groups located at five different geographic sites. Survey results indicated that the debates did not appear to influence political malaise levels while participation in focus group discussion resulted in higher levels of political malaise. Focus group responses were categorized into these major areas: low personal political efficacy due to the overwhelming influence on the political system by special interests and the media; political corruption creating citizen disillusionment; and a growing preoccupation with citizen self interests overwhelming an already low sense of civic duty.