Who Has School Spirit? Explaining Voter Participation in School Board Elections

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 923-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Michael McGregor ◽  
Jack Lucas
Keyword(s):  
School Board ◽  
Voter Participation ◽  
Parental Status ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
Municipal Election ◽  
School Board Elections

AbstractThis research note examines the correlates of turnout in Canadian school board elections. Using individual-level data from the Canadian Municipal Election Study, we find that gender, education, left-wing ideology, Conservative partisanship and parental status were associated with participation in Calgary's 2017 public school board elections. Some of these patterns relate to the specific details of Calgary's 2017 election; others, we suggest, may be characteristic of school board elections more generally. We relate our findings to the literature on ballot roll-off and low-turnout elections.

scholarly journals Alternative Legacies of Authoritarianism: Pro-dictator Bias in Ideology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Party Strength

How does an authoritarian past shape voters’ left-right orientation? Recent studies investigate “anti-dictator bias” in political ideology, where citizens in a former right-wing (left-wing) dictatorship may display a leftist (rightist) bias in their ideological self-identification. In this paper, I provide evidence for a “pro-dictator bias” where citizens hold ideological positions corresponding to those of the dictator depending on their experiences during and after transition. In countries with negotiated transitions and stronger former ruling parties, these successors could continue mobilizing the popular base of the former dictatorship with inherited advantages from the past and by invoking nostalgia through consistent reference to previous authoritarian achievements. I test this hypothesis with variables measuring successor party strength and the type of regime transition by combining individual-level survey data and country-level data. The findings emphasize the role of post-transition features in shaping alternative legacies on voter attitudes in former authoritarian societies.

scholarly journals Political Regimes and Immigrant Party Preferences

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 651-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Just
Keyword(s):  
Party Identification ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Established Democracies

This article examines how political regimes in migrants’ origin countries influence their party identification in adopted homeland. I posit that immigrants are more likely to acquire partisanship in their host country if they came from a nonparty autocracy as opposed to a party-based autocracy or democracy. Moreover, among partisans, immigrants are less likely to identify with a left-wing party if they came from a communist regime. Finally, these effects are particularly pronounced among foreign-born individuals from highly authoritarian regimes. The analyses using Geddes, Wright, and Frantz Autocratic Regimes data along with individual-level data from the European Social Survey (ESS) 2002-2017 in 19 established democracies confirm these expectations. These findings have important implications for debates on immigrant political integration, party politics, and the prospects of electoral stability in contemporary democracies.

Incumbency and Competitiveness in City Council Elections: How Accurate Are Voter Perceptions?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Cameron D. Anderson ◽  
R. Michael McGregor ◽  
Scott Pruysers
Keyword(s):  
City Council ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Incumbency Advantage ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Coordination Problems ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Ward Level ◽  
Municipal Election ◽  
Do So

Abstract Incumbent city councillors have an almost insurmountable advantage in Canadian municipal elections. This article aims to improve our understanding of the municipal incumbency advantage by considering the ability of electors to correctly identify the two most competitive candidates in one's ward and the factors associated with being able to do so. Using survey data from the Canadian Municipal Election Study (CMES), we consider the case of the 2018 elections in Mississauga, a city with typically high rates of incumbent re-election. Survey respondents were asked to identify the two most competitive candidates in their local ward races. We find that comparatively few electors are able to recognize which challenger serves as the strongest threat to a sitting councillor, a finding that suggests that coordination problems may help to contribute to high rates of incumbent success. We identify several individual-level and ward-level correlates of correctly identifying the first-place and second-place finishers. We do note, however, that there is a significant amount of variation among the thousands of municipalities in Canada, so findings from this case should be tested in other settings, including larger or smaller cities where levels of information might be different.

Spatial Preferences and Voter Choices in the Dutch Electorate

1985 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-263
Author(s):  
LEE E. DUTTER
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Relevant Issue ◽  
Ideological Position ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Endogenous Variables

Voters' preferences for political parties and their choices can be modeled as a set of equations with three endogenous variables: (1) the perceived distance between the voter's ideological position and that of a party; (2) the utility that the voter assigns to a party; and (3) behavior—whether or not a voter votes for a given party. Spatial models of party competition imply that (1) the perceived ideological distance between a voter and a party is a function of the perceived spatial distances between the voter's most preferred point on each electorally relevant issue and the party's position—the greater these distances, the greater the perceived ideological distance; (2) the utility assigned to each party is a function of this ideological distance, as well as the issue distances; and (3) the higher the assigned utility, the higher the probability that a voter votes for a given party, but the greater the ideological and issue distances, the lower this probability. These hypotheses are operationalized and tested with individual-level data from the 1970-1973 Dutch Election Study.

scholarly journals The Happiness Gap Between Conservatives and Liberals Depends on Country-Level Threat

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Onraet ◽  
Jasper Van Assche ◽  
Arne Roets ◽  
Tessa Haesevoets ◽  
Alain Van Hiel
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Total N ◽  
Protective Function ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Objective Indicators ◽  
Representative Samples

In the present study, we investigated the much debated “happiness gap” between conservatives and liberals, approaching the issue from a multilevel person × context perspective. More specifically, we investigated whether this relationship depends on country-level threat. We used individual-level data for right-wing attitudes and psychological well-being from 94 large, representative samples collected worldwide (total N = 137,890) and objective indicators of country-level threat as the contextual variable. Our results suggest that, especially in countries characterized by high levels of threat, individuals with right-wing attitudes experienced greater well-being than individuals with left-wing attitudes. In countries with a low level of threat, this relationship was considerably weaker or even absent. Our findings corroborate the view that right-wing attitudes may serve a self-protective function, helping individuals to manage and cope with threat.

Employment Insecurity, Incumbent Partisanship, and Voting Behavior in Comparative Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
pp. 1489-1523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnar Freyr Helgason ◽  
Vittorio Mérola
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Economic Insecurity ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Bayesian Hierarchical ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Employment Insecurity ◽  
Level Data

We argue that occupational unemployment rates, by informing perceptions of economic insecurity, serve as a salient and powerful heuristic for aggregate economic performance. Consequently, high and rising occupational unemployment leads to negative evaluations of the economy and reduces the probability of supporting the incumbent government. Simultaneously, however, such changes shift support toward left-wing parties. Thus, economic insecurity serves as a valence issue, but is also inherently a positional issue, due to the distributional consequences of welfare policies. This brings about a potential conflict as under left-wing incumbent governments the economically insecure are cross-pressured, which increases their likelihood of exiting the electoral arena completely. We test our hypotheses using a Bayesian hierarchical multinomial model, with individual-level data from 43 elections in 21 countries. We find support for the hypothesized effects of employment insecurity on voting behavior, with a follow-up analysis supporting the posited informational mechanism.

Housing Prices and Government Approval: The Impact of Housing Booms on Left- and Right-Wing Governments in 16 Advanced Industrialized Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-185
Author(s):  
Sung Min Han ◽  
Mi Jeong Shin
Keyword(s):  
Housing Prices ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Approval Ratings ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn this article, we argue that rising housing prices increase voter approval of incumbent governments because such a rise increases personal wealth, which leads to greater voter satisfaction. This effect is strongest under right-wing governments because those who benefit from rising prices—homeowners—are more likely to be right-leaning. Non-homeowners, who are more likely to vote for left-leaning parties, will view rising housing prices as a disadvantage and therefore feel the government does not serve them well, which will mitigate the advantage to left-wing governments. We find support for our arguments using both macro-level data (housing prices and government approval ratings in 16 industrialized countries between 1960 and 2017) and micro-level data (housing prices and individuals’ vote choices in the United Kingdom using the British Household Panel Survey). The findings imply that housing booms benefit incumbent governments generally and right-wing ones in particular.

scholarly journals Review of Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Risk

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7561
Author(s):  
Jingjing Wang ◽  
Xueying Wu ◽  
Ruoyu Wang ◽  
Dongsheng He ◽  
Dongying Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Infection Risk ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Transit Accessibility ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Transmission Pathways

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has stimulated intensive research interest in its transmission pathways and infection factors, e.g., socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, climatology, baseline health conditions or pre-existing diseases, and government policies. Meanwhile, some empirical studies suggested that built environment attributes may be associated with the transmission mechanism and infection risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, no review has been conducted to explore the effect of built environment characteristics on the infection risk. This research gap prevents government officials and urban planners from creating effective urban design guidelines to contain SARS-CoV-2 infections and face future pandemic challenges. This review summarizes evidence from 25 empirical studies and provides an overview of the effect of built environment on SARS-CoV-2 infection risk. Virus infection risk was positively associated with the density of commercial facilities, roads, and schools and with public transit accessibility, whereas it was negatively associated with the availability of green spaces. This review recommends several directions for future studies, namely using longitudinal research design and individual-level data, considering multilevel factors and extending to diversified geographic areas.

scholarly journals The Role of Snack Choices, Body Weight Stereotypes and Smoking Behavior in Assessing Risk Factors for Adolescent Overweight and Obesity

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 557
Author(s):  
Elena Raptou
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Smoking Behavior ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Prevention Interventions ◽  
Frequent Consumption ◽  
Adolescent Overweight ◽  
Relationship Of

This study investigated the relationship of behavioral factors, such as snack choices, obesity stereotypes and smoking with adolescents’ body weight. Individual-level data for 1254 Greek youths were selected via a formal questionnaire. Snack choices seem to be gender specific with girls showing a stronger preference for healthier snacks. Frequent consumption of high-calorie and more filling snacks was found to increase Body Mass Index (BMI) in both genders. Fruit/vegetable snacks were associated with lower body weight in females, whereas cereal/nut snacks had a negative influence in males’ BMI. The majority of participants expressed anti-fat attitudes and more boys than girls assigned positive attributes to lean peers. The endorsement of the thin-ideal was positively associated with the BMI of both adolescent boys and girls. This study also revealed that neglecting potential endogeneity issues can lead to biased estimates of smoking. Gender may be a crucial moderator of smoking–BMI relationships. Male smokers presented a higher obesity risk, whereas female smokers were more likely to be underweight. Nutrition professionals should pay attention to increase the acceptance of healthy snack options. Gender differences in the influence of weight stereotypes and smoking on BMI should be considered in order to enhance the efficacy of obesity prevention interventions.

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