An approval rating is a polling term which reflects the percent of respondents to an opinion poll who approve of a particular person or programme. Most oftentimes an approval rating is given to a political figure based on responses to a poll in which a sample of people are asked whether they approve or disapprove of that particular political figure. A typical question might ask:
- "Which of the following best describes your opinion of the things President George W. Bush has done: strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove, or no opinion/undecided."
Like most surveys that predict public opinion, the approval rating is subjective. Many unscientific approval rating systems exist that skew popular opinion. However, the approval rating is generally accepted as the general opinion of the people.
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Presidential job approval ratings were introduced by George Gallup in the late 1930s to gauge public support of the president. George W. Bush holds the record high approval rating of over 85 percent shortly after the Sept 11 attacks. The lowest approval rating ever recorded is held by Harry S. Truman, who in Feb 1952 had an approval rating of 22 percent. At the same time, Truman's disapproval rating was 65 percent (falling 2 percent from 67 percent in Jan 1952). Jimmy Carter is a close second, with approval ratings as low as 26 percent during his presidency.
Richard M. Nixon had a disapproval rating of 66 percent just before he resigned. Only four presidents since 1930 have gone their entire term in office without their disapproval rating reaching 50 percent: John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt & Gerald Ford.
A popular president, John F. Kennedy's lowest approval rating was 56 percent.
Currently, the approval rating of President George W. Bush is estimated by a Newsweek poll to be around 31 percent as of Nov 9, 2006.
Related conceptsThere are several polling concepts related to an approval rating. A disapproval rating measures the number of people who disapprove of a politician, and is essentially the opposite of an approval rating. A net approval rating is the difference between an individual's approval and disapproval numbers. This number is especially useful with individuals who lack name recognition. A candidate which registers 50 percent undecided, and has a 30 percent approval versus a 20 percent disapproval could be judged to have a favorable net approval rating, even though 30 percent approval looks bad on its own.
References for this article- ^ Presidential Job Approval - Joseph Carroll, Gallup poll, Jun 28, 2005
- ^ President Bush - Overall Job Rating - PollingReport.com, Nov 9, 2006
- Public perception & assessments of George W. Bush
- Historical Presidental Job Performance Ratings - Roper centre
- Historical Midterm Presidential Approval Ratings Data from Data360
Category: Politics
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- This page was last modified by Admin. Previous modification to this article was done on 03:20, 15 Dec 2006 by Anonymous user(s) of Wikipedia. Based on work by Wikipedia user(s) Delirium, Lankiveil, Blue403, Liberlogos, CoolGuy, Kotra, JoeBot, Ligulem, KarlFrei, Brookshawn, The Famous Movie Director, Ntk53s, Wikieizor, Fightindaman, Lifeverywhere, Aemdschej, Talldean, Not my leg, Alynna Kasmira and Lotsofissues. Click here to view authors profile Pub date - 2009-05-15 10:49:06 Related resources:
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