Political efficacy is a term that refers to the feeling that one's own political actions can have an impact upon the political process. Like with many important concepts in the field of political communication and sociology, its origins can be traced back to a string of biannual surveys directed by Angus Campbell and his associates at the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center (SRC) that eventually became to be known as the (American) National Election Studies (ANES).

The SRC's approach to the study of politics focused on three basic tenets: (1) the idea that attitudes guide political behavior, (2) the notion that research has to be

cumulative, and (3) the willingness to draw on the rich tradition of political polling that was already established as well as ...