Rallying Around the Flag and Partisan Change: The Case of the Persian Gulf War

Abstract

The Persian Gulf war boosted President George Bush's popularity in the classic rally-around-the-flag pattern. This paper explores whether such a rally has additional effects by influencing partisan attachments. We find that small shifts in party indentification and slightly larger changes in party affect can be explained by people's reactions to the Gulf war. Thus foreign policy rallies can be added to the growing list of variables which explain fluctuations in party identification.