“I think Canadians look like all sorts of people”: ethnicity, political leadership, and the case of Jagmeet Singh

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Joanie Bouchard
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Sociodemographic Profile ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Voting Intentions

Abstract Research into the impact of a politician's sociodemographic profile on vote choice in Westminster-style systems has been hindered by the relative sociodemographic homogeneity of party leaders. Past research has focused mainly on the evaluation of local candidates in the American context, but given that elections in plurality systems are far less candidate-oriented , the evaluation of local candidates tells us little about the prevalence of affinity or discrimination in other contexts. This article investigates the effect of political leaders' ethnicity on political behavior by looking at the case of Jagmeet Singh in Canada, the first federal party leader of color in the country's history. While the literature has shown that the gender of leaders in Canada can matter, little is known about the attitudes of Canadians toward party leaders of color specifically. We are interested in the evaluations of Singh and his party, as well as the shifts in voting intentions between elections in 2015 and 2019. We uncover affinity-based behaviors from individuals who identify as Sikh, as well as a negative reception of Singh's candidacy in Quebec.

Presidentialization of Japanese Politics? Examining Political Leader Evaluations and Vote Choice

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLY JOU ◽  
MASAHISA ENDO
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Election Coverage ◽  
Electoral Performance ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn recent years, the impact of party leaders on voting behavior has attracted increasing attention, leading some scholars to identify a phenomenon of ‘presidentialization’. Many extant studies of this topic in Japan are limited to one or two electoral cycles. In order to trace long-term trends, this paper analyses longitudinal survey data to investigate the existence and magnitude of the effect party leader evaluations exert on vote choice in Japan. Empirical results show that while only dominant and forceful personalities substantially influenced voters' likelihood of supporting their parties in the 1980s and 1990s, by the 2000s assessments of most major party leaders had a significant impact on their parties' electoral performance. In short, party leaders affect vote choice due not to their personalities, but instead to the position they hold. We also test the hypotheses that the association between leader appraisal and voting behavior would be particularly conspicuous among voters who lack party identification and those who are most heavily exposed to media reportage. Analysis reveals that (1) independent voters are not more likely to vote on the basis of leader evaluations than partisans; (2) a leader effect is found more frequently among voters with greater exposure to election coverage on television.

scholarly journals “I’LL BE BACK…”: The chance of a political comeback as party leader

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 402-422
Author(s):  
Joakim Eidenfalk ◽  
Stuart Woodcock
Keyword(s):  
Attribution Theory ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Political Capital ◽  
Leadership Position ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Collective Group

Political leadership has become increasingly volatile in recent times, as experienced directly by many of the leaders of both major parties in Australia over the last few decades who have been ousted by their own party. While some of these leaders have returned to power, others have faded away into history. Political capital can play a key role in the demise or reclaim of leadership and an immediate response can become critical not only in preventing any further loss of political capital but to begin the re-building of political capital towards a return to a leadership position. This study examined ousted political leaders and the likelihood of a return to leadership. Attribution theory was applied to the first press conference given by six Australian major party leaders immediately after having lost their leadership and were analysed thematically to show what the attributional causes of their successes and failures were during their tenure as party leader. The results indicate that what one says and how one says it can be important for their prospects of returning to the seat of power. The major party leaders who returned to power tended to acknowledge successes due to the collective group, while the other major party leaders tended to attribute the successes to themselves and failures on external factors, including their own collective group. The results illustrate the importance of how one handles one’s downfall in order to climb back up.

Politicians' Expressions of Anger and Leadership Evaluations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Masch
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Heinrich Heine ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
System P ◽  
The Social ◽  
Angela Merkel ◽  
Emotional Behaviour ◽  
The Impact

This book explores the impact of politicians’ expressions of anger on viewers. Electoral candidates may alter their emotional behaviour strategically during election campaigns as a means of gaining voters’ support. Hence, this study investigates empirically how expressions of anger affect leadership evaluations. An experiment was conducted to establish the impact of politicians’ expressions of emotions on viewers. This study focuses on politicians as a social group, as well as three politicians in particular: Chancellor Angela Merkel; Gregor Gysi, the former parliamentary leader of the Left; and Sigmar Gabriel, the former party leader of the Social Democrats. These three case studies are well-suited to testing the effects of expressions of emotion by political leaders with varying positions in the political system. Lena Masch is a lecturer at the Institute of Social Sciences at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität in Düsseldorf.

scholarly journals Formation of political leaders in countries of democratic transition

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-398
Author(s):  
Valentyna Goshovska ◽  
Lydiia Danylenko ◽  
Iryna Dudko ◽  
Liliia Makarenko ◽  
Nadiia Maksimentseva
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Level Of Economic Development ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

The transition of Ukraine to democracy requires studying the experience of forming political leaders in developing countries. In particular, political leadership, in particular, the values, ideology, and policies of the leader, determine the level of democracy in a country. The results of the research provide evidence of the impact of political leadership on democratization and economic growth. It has been established that leadership determines the values and priorities for the development of political and economic systems as well as democratization has a positive effect on economic growth under the condition of an open economy, unity, and solidarity of the principles of leaders within the party and the opposition. The growth of opposition protests and the conservatism of political leaders leads to a decrease in the level of political culture, civil liberties, and the effectiveness of the government’s actions. As a result, the level of economic development declines.

The impact of ethical political leadership on the public: The mediating role of confidence in political leaders

Leadership ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weichun Zhu ◽  
Steve M Norman ◽  
Zongchao Peng ◽  
Ronald E Riggio ◽  
John J Sosik
Keyword(s):  
Random Sample ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Dynamic Relationships ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

This study examined the dynamic relationships among ethical political leadership, the public’s confidence in political leaders, commitment to the nation, and the perception of being safe from a terrorist attack. Based on a U.S. national random sample (n = 1604), we found that the public’s confidence in political leaders mediates the effect of ethical political leadership on the public’s commitment to the nation and the perception of being safe from a terrorist attack. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Does Changing the Party Leader Provide an Electoral Boost? A Study of Canadian Provincial Parties: 1960–1992

1993 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Stewart ◽  
R. K. Carty
Keyword(s):  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Leadership Change ◽  
Competitive Position ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Regional Variance

AbstractThe long-standing centrality of party leaders to Canadian elections and politics, and the use of televised extra-parliamentary conventions to choose leaders, have led parties to believe that a new leader will provide them with an electoral boost at the subsequent election. This article tests this perception using the record of 136 cases of leadership change in Canadian provincial parties over the last three decades. The data allow the authors to consider the impact of divisive contests, the relevance of a party's competitive position, and the regional variance on any leadership convention electoral boost. It concludes the conventional wisdom is wrong.

Personalization Online

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
Tom Carlson ◽  
Kim Strandberg ◽  
Göran Djupsund
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

Research on the increasing importance of party leaders in elections has observed that party leaders maintain personal websites, blogs, and social networking sites in order to personalize the image of themselves by mixing personal and professional matters. This chapter examines whether these efforts affect the party leader character impressions by voters in a positive way. The chapter presents two experiments that examine the impact of exposure to authentic personal websites and, as a form of social media, blogs of party leaders on voters' perceptions regarding various traits of party leaders during a Finnish election campaign. The findings are mixed. The perception of one leader was significantly enhanced by exposure to his website as well as his blog. Moreover, exposure to the blog by this politician resulted in an enhanced assessment of his personality traits whereas exposure to his website had positive effect on the evaluation of his professional traits. In making sense of the findings, web and social media approaches, and participant expectancies are discussed.

scholarly journals How candidate characteristics matter: Candidate profiles, political sophistication, and vote choice

Politics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 026339572092207
Author(s):  
Hilde Coffé ◽  
Åsa von Schoultz
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Candidate Characteristics ◽  
Sociodemographic Profile ◽  
Preference Voting ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

Our study examines the influence of various candidate characteristics (sociodemographic profile, competence and experience, issue positions, and party affiliation) on voters’ preference for a candidate, and investigates the impact of voters’ levels of political sophistication on their likelihood of considering various candidate characteristics when deciding whom to support. Using data from the 2015 Finnish National Election Study, this study is situated within the complex Finnish open list system with many candidates at display and mandatory preference voting. We find that voters mostly argue to make their choice based on candidate characteristics with direct politically relevant information such as candidate party affiliation and issue positions. Candidate sociodemographic profile has relatively little stated impact. Overall, voters with higher levels of political sophistication tend to be more likely to consider a broad range of candidate characteristics. When investigating the relative impact of each candidate characteristic (that is, their impact relative to the other candidate characteristics) on voting behaviour, political sophistication increases the likelihood of saying to rely on candidate characteristics that are more demanding in terms of information processing such as competence and experience, and issue positions. Our analyses also show how different measures of political sophistication have distinct effects.

scholarly journals How Do Populist Voters Rate Their Political Leaders? Comparing Citizen Assessments in Three Jurisdictions

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Seijts ◽  
Cristine De Clercy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Leader Characteristics

Drawing from the field of management studies, we explore how a sample of voters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom use a leader character framework to judge political leadership. We ask, how do voters actually assess the character of their current leaders? And, in light of the populist zeitgeist, do people who hold a populist attitude differ markedly in how they judge the character of political leaders? Our results show that voters generally consider character important. However, voters who lean toward populism believe character matters less in political leadership than individuals who scored low on the populism indicator. This durable difference merits more exploration in a political context marked by populism. Our findings about the factors that influence vote choice contribute to this conversation and to extant research that reports that some voters pay greater attention to leader characteristics than do others.

scholarly journals The Personalization of Politics in Anglo-American Democracies

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Bittner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

In American politics, few argue with the idea that leaders matter: in the 2020 American election, the media closely tracked the performance and activities of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, for example, suggesting to us that who they are matters. Voters indicate on their ballot which presidential candidate they prefer, marking an x next to the person’s name, giving further credence to the idea that the individual matters in the process. Contemporary Anglo-Westminster-style democracies have many things in common with the United States, but operate with completely different political systems, and without a direct vote for a specific party leader. What is the relationship between voters and party leaders in these contexts? Do party leaders matter the same way in these countries? Has this relationship changed over time? Are we really seeing the personalization of parliamentary elections, as some scholars have suggested? The personalization literature provides us with mixed evidence of the increasing importance of leaders, and part of the reason for that maybe linked to the lack of comparable data. This paper assesses the role of leaders in the United States as well as four parliamentary democracies (Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia) over time. Combining data from the election studies of these five countries from the 1960 s to the present, the analyses presented here suggest that leaders are not increasingly important to voters over time, but that leaders have always been important to election outcomes. What has changed over time, however, is the way partisans see the leaders of other parties. Partisans are increasingly polarized in their views of opposing party leaders, and this has the potential to change the impact of leaders in the electoral process.

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