Replication Data For: Empirically Contrasting Presidential Rhetorical Simplicity and the Public's Policy Preferences

Research on presidential rhetoric has noted the explicit communications strategy of simplifying the language in presidential remarks to the public. Rhetorical simplification removes in-depth political analysis and argumentation from executive branch communications. Research by Elvin T. Lim (2008) shows that presidential rhetoric that is linguistically simplified is also substantively simplified language. Linguistically and substantively simplified language can be interpreted to mean the political environment is lacking complications or difficulties. Simplified presidential rhetoric has the potential to encourage people to perceive there is no need for an expansion in government involvement in domestic affairs. As an initial attempt to assess this possibility, time series analyses of presidential rhetorical simplicity and public opinion in the United States are performed using quarterly information spanning between 1993 and 2011.

有关总统演说修辞的研究已发现，美国行政部门在面向公众的总统讲话中，存在明确的语言简化传播策略。修辞层面的语言简化，会剥离行政部门沟通内容中的深度政治分析与论证环节。埃尔文·T·利姆（Elvin T. Lim）2008年的研究表明，语言形式上简化的总统演说，其内容实质也同样趋于简化。语言与内容双重简化的表述，可被解读为政治环境缺乏复杂性与挑战。简化版的总统演说修辞，有可能引导民众认为无需扩大政府在国内事务中的介入范围。本研究作为评估这一可能性的初步尝试，采用1993年至2011年的季度数据，对美国总统演说修辞的简化程度与公众舆论开展了时间序列分析。