Political and Economic Interactions with National Security Opinion

Abstract

Public opinion drives policy, and public opinion is driven by policy. These propositions are explored using economic developments, government budget policy, national security policy, and public opinion variables in two sets of conditions using routine or crisis conditions as a control variable. The relationships are examined during the Gulf War crisis in Israel (1990-1991). Different sets of significant statistical relations were found for routine and crisis conditions. The findings show that the relationships between public opinion and politics are not direct, but to a large extent, recursive. The intensity of the relationships varied according to the state of national security, with greater intensity in the crisis situation. The relationship was more direct under normal conditions. In the crisis situation, the influence of politics on public opinion was greater than the influence of public opinion on politics.

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