Holding governments to account for the state of the nation is an essential element of democratic governance. Yet numerous studies have shown that objective outcomes alone do not predict party support, but rather that this link is conditioned by political beliefs – partisanship or ideology. In this paper we suggest an integrative model of ideological distance (MID): (1) between a citizen and the political agent; (2) between a citizen and the policy (adopted by the political agent); and (3) between the political agent and the policy (policy incongruence). This model contributes to the literature on public opinion by proposing one simple model that integrates partisan bias, policy preferences, and the 'Nixon Goes to China' (NGC) thesis. The model's predictions were supported by the results of two survey experiments, conducted in Israel and Germany.
