Paul M. Sniderman and Edward H. Stiglitz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154145
- eISBN:
- 9781400842551
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154145.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book presents a new theory of party identification, the central concept in the study of voting. Challenging the traditional idea that voters identify with a political party out of blind ...
More
This book presents a new theory of party identification, the central concept in the study of voting. Challenging the traditional idea that voters identify with a political party out of blind emotional attachment, this pioneering book explains why party identification in contemporary American politics enables voters to make coherent policy choices. Standard approaches to the study of policy-based voting hold that voters choose based on the policy positions of the two candidates competing for their support. This study demonstrates that candidates can get a premium in support from the policy reputations of their parties. In particular, the book presents a theory of how partisans take account of the parties' policy reputations as a function of the competing candidates' policy positions. A central implication of this theory of reputation-centered choices is that party identification gives candidates tremendous latitude in their policy positioning. Paradoxically, it is the party supporters who understand and are in synch with the ideological logic of the American party system who open the door to a polarized politics precisely by making the best-informed choices on offer.Less
This book presents a new theory of party identification, the central concept in the study of voting. Challenging the traditional idea that voters identify with a political party out of blind emotional attachment, this pioneering book explains why party identification in contemporary American politics enables voters to make coherent policy choices. Standard approaches to the study of policy-based voting hold that voters choose based on the policy positions of the two candidates competing for their support. This study demonstrates that candidates can get a premium in support from the policy reputations of their parties. In particular, the book presents a theory of how partisans take account of the parties' policy reputations as a function of the competing candidates' policy positions. A central implication of this theory of reputation-centered choices is that party identification gives candidates tremendous latitude in their policy positioning. Paradoxically, it is the party supporters who understand and are in synch with the ideological logic of the American party system who open the door to a polarized politics precisely by making the best-informed choices on offer.
Diana Burlacu and Gábor Tóka
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198716334
- eISBN:
- 9780191784934
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716334.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines whether various features of what Lijphart called consensus democracy, such as proportional representation, multiparty systems, and coalition governments promote party–voter ...
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This chapter examines whether various features of what Lijphart called consensus democracy, such as proportional representation, multiparty systems, and coalition governments promote party–voter linkages based on policy and ideology, either in an absolute sense or relative to accountability for performance in office. The chapter reviews the possible causal mechanisms that may generate the expected relationship between type of democracy and whether performance evaluations or ideological proximity dominate voting behaviour. Empirically, the chapter uses two-step multilevel models to examine the link between ideological proximity-based voting and key dimensions of political institutional variation across types of democracy, using behavioural indicators that address the endogeneity of political attitudes to partisanship as well as issues in comparability across two-party and multiparty systems. As expected, the chapter finds an ambiguous but very weak relationship between type of democracy and incidence of ideological proximity-based voting and highlight the relatively independent development of ideological polarization from type of democracy.Less
This chapter examines whether various features of what Lijphart called consensus democracy, such as proportional representation, multiparty systems, and coalition governments promote party–voter linkages based on policy and ideology, either in an absolute sense or relative to accountability for performance in office. The chapter reviews the possible causal mechanisms that may generate the expected relationship between type of democracy and whether performance evaluations or ideological proximity dominate voting behaviour. Empirically, the chapter uses two-step multilevel models to examine the link between ideological proximity-based voting and key dimensions of political institutional variation across types of democracy, using behavioural indicators that address the endogeneity of political attitudes to partisanship as well as issues in comparability across two-party and multiparty systems. As expected, the chapter finds an ambiguous but very weak relationship between type of democracy and incidence of ideological proximity-based voting and highlight the relatively independent development of ideological polarization from type of democracy.
