Vol. 21 · No. 1 · Issue 66 · Spring 2003
Foreign and European Policy Issues in the 2002 Bundestag ElectionsWilliam M. Chandler
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Abstract
Is it always the economy, or do external issues sometimes matter, too? Consistent with the Clinton campaign slogan of 1992, political scientists generally predict that domestic economic issues are primary in determining election winners. This proposition, with its several variants, rests on many years of survey data and analysis that have consistently indicated that international conditions and foreign policy rarely, if ever, rate highly in public concerns and therefore seldom affect election outcomes.