Left-Right Orientations and Voting Behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Jou ◽  
Russell J. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Conservative Policy ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Societal Influences ◽  
Voting Choice

One of the ways that citizens and elites orient themselves to politics is in reference to a Left-Right vocabulary. Left and Right, respectively, refer to a specific set of progressive and conservative policy preferences and political goals. Thus, Left-Right becomes a framework for positioning oneself, political figures, and political parties into a common framework. Most citizens identify themselves in Left-Right terms and their distribution of these orientations vary across nations. These orientations arise both from long-term societal influences and from the short-term issues of the day. Most people also place political parties in Left-Right terms. This leads citizens to use Left-Right comparisons as an important factor in their voting choice, although this impact varies considerably across nations. Most parties attract voters that broadly share their Left-Right orientations.

scholarly journals Perception and risk of Covid-19 and climate change: investigating analogies in a common framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonello Pasini ◽  
Fulvio Mazzocchi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Risk Equation ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Policy Level ◽  
Common Framework

This paper investigates analogies in the dynamics of Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. A comparison of their common features (such as nonlinearity and inertia) and differences helps us to achieve a correct scientific perception of both situations, increasing the chances of actions for their solutions. Besides, applying to both the risk equation provides different angles to analyse them, something that may result useful especially at the policy level. It shows that not only short-term interventions are needed, but also long-term strategies involving some structural changes. More specifically, it also shows that, even if climate change is probably more critical and long-lasting than the Covid-19 crisis, we still have, at least currently, more options for reducing its related risk.

scholarly journals Economic internationalization and the decline of the left–right dimension

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-49
Author(s):  
Emiliano Grossman ◽  
Nicolas Sauger
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Economic Openness ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
Economic Exchanges ◽  
European Election ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the continuing importance of the left–right dimension for voting behavior in Western Europe. We test the extent to which economic internationalization may affect the capacity of this dimension to structure party preferences. We explore two dimensions of internationalization, long-term openness and short-term changes, assessing, respectively, the impact of international trade and foreign investments on voters’ preference formation. To study the influence of changing context, we use four waves of the European Election Study (1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014). We show that openness to international economic exchanges tends to weaken the left–right cleavage. At the same time, long-term economic openness appears to soften the impact of short-term shocks for the relevance of left–right politics.

Thermodynamic optimality principles in Earth sciences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislaus J. Schymanski ◽  
Benjamin Dewals ◽  
Henk A. Dijkstra ◽  
Hisashi Ozawa ◽  
Erwin Zehe
Keyword(s):  
State Variables ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Rigorous Testing ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Optimality Principles ◽  
Systematic Framework

<p>Ecohydrological systems are a result of long-term co-evolution of soils, biota and atmospheric conditions, and often respond to perturbations in non-intuitive ways. Their short-term responses can be explained and sometimes predicted if we understand the underlying dynamic processes and if we can observe the initial state precisely enough. However, how do they co-evolve in the long-term after a change in the boundary conditions? In 1922, Alfred Lotka hypothesised that the natural selection governing the evolution of biota and composition of ecosystems may be obeying some thermodynamic principles related to maximising energy flow through these systems. Similar thoughts have been formulated for various components of the Earth system and individual processes, such as heat transport in the atmosphere and oceans, erosion and sediment transport in river systems and estuaries, the formation of vegetation patterns, and many others. Different thermodynamic optimality principles have been applied to predict or explain a given system property or behaviour, of which the maximum entropy production and the maximum power principles are most widespread. However, the different studies did not use a common systematic approach for the formulation of the relevant system boundaries, state variables and exchange fluxes, resulting in considerable ambiguity about the application of thermodynamic optimality principles in the scientific community. Such a systematic framework has been developed recently and can be tested online at:</p><p><span><span>https://renkulab.io/projects/stanislaus.schymanski/thermodynamic_optimality_blueprint</span></span></p><p>In the present study, we illustrate how such a common framework can be used to classify and compare different applications of thermodynamic optimality principles in the literature, and discuss the insights gained and key criteria for a more rigorous testing of such principles.</p>

scholarly journals How Stable Is Political Parties’ Issue Ownership? A Cross-Time, Cross-National Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Bech Seeberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Issue Ownership ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Know How ◽  
Comprehensive Data ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Cross National

Research on issue ownership is accelerating and so is its use in studies of voting and party behaviour. Yet we do not know how stable issue ownership is. Does it describe a solid, persistent association between a party and an issue in the eyes of the electorate, or does it describe a more fluid and fragile issue reputation of a party among the electorate? Theoretical and empirical work suggests both stability and variability in issue ownership. To get closer to an answer, this article presents and analyses unprecedented comprehensive data on issue ownership. The analysis identifies stability rather than change in issue ownership over time and similarity more than difference across countries, and therefore suggests that issue ownership is a general and long-term rather than a local and short-term phenomenon. The implications for how voters perceive parties are important.

The Effect of Aggregate Economic Variables on Congressional Elections

1975 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1232-1239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Arcelus ◽  
Allan H. Meltzer
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Congressional Elections ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Economic Variables ◽  
Principal Finding ◽  
Term Performance

This paper uses rational voting behavior as an organizing device to develop a framework within which to consider the effect of economic aggregates on voters. Unlike most previous studies, ours permits the voter to vote for candidates of either party or to abstain. A principal finding is that the effect of the main economic aggregates on the participation rate is much clearer than the effects on either party. Our results deny that an incumbent administration can affect the control of Congress by stimulating the economy. Voters appear to make judgments about inflation, unemployment and economic growth. We investigated on the basis of long-term, not short-term performance.

First avoidance, then engagement: Political parties’ issue competition in the electoral cycle

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882097035
Author(s):  
Henrik Bech Seeberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
Multiple Issues ◽  
Saliency Theory ◽  
Issue Competition ◽  
Election Cycles

A major contradiction in party research is between the saliency theory and the logic of issue convergence, or what is often referred to as issue avoidance vs. engagement. Extant research shows that parties both emphasize only their own issues and engage each other’s issues. This study addresses this contradiction and argues that both perspectives have merits. The key to unlocking the puzzle is to unwind the electoral cycle. As far as possible into the electoral cycle, parties apply a long-term strategy and talk past each other. Yet, as the election draws closer, parties realize that they cannot change the agenda and therefore switch to a short-term strategy to engage rival parties’ issues. This argument is tested across multiple issues on a new dataset consisting of 19,350 press releases issued by the political parties in Denmark during several election cycles, 2004–2019.

A Simultaneous Equation Model of Canadian Voting Behaviour

1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Archer
Keyword(s):  
Party Identification ◽  
Simultaneous Equation ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Short Term ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Complex Models ◽  
Voting Choice

AbstractRecent research on voting in United States presidential elections has begun to disentangle long-term and short-term components of electoral choice. This has been achieved through the use of complex models involving instrumental variables and two-stage or three-stage least squares regression. These techniques are particularly appropriate to understanding the voting decision in Canada because of the short-term variability of partisan identifications. Modelling voting choice, using simultaneous equations and data from the 1979 Canadian National Election Study, it was found that the major attitudinal determinants of voting—party identification and attitudes towards issues and party leaders—were strongly related to one another and to the direction of vote whereas sociodemographic characteristics were only weakly related to political attitudes and behaviour. In addition, the strength of these variables may vary across the major parties in any given election.

Government Spending and Coalition Parties in Italy (1960–1993): A Cointegration-Based Approach

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-207
Author(s):  
Nadia Fiorino ◽  
Umberto Triacca
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Social ◽  
Voting Power Index

Abstract This note attempts to test the relation between the parties that take part in coalition governments and specific spending programs in Italy from 1960 to 1993. In doing so, we: 1) build a voting power index to describe the relative position of political parties in government and 2) analyze the long-term relationship between expenditure by functions and political parties. Data indicate that the Christian Democratic party was the leading party. It adopted long run policies; nevertheless, it did not refer to specific items of public expenditure. T h e three smaller parties (the Liberal, the Republican and the Social Democratic) did not have enough strength to pursue spending programs in the long run. Finally, the analysis shows that the Socialists tried to find a key role in the political framework by swinging from a long-term opposition to the policy formation in the Senate to short-term agreements on spending policies in the Chamber of Deputies.

Political Parties and the Study of Political Development: New Insights from the Postcommunist Democracies

2004 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 608-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Kreuzer ◽  
Vello Pettai
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Party Switching ◽  
Historical Legacies

This article reviews the literature on postcommunist parties, which, by applying old Westernbased theories to a new and very different context, makes two important contributions to comparative politics. First, the literature stresses the importance of long-term and short-term historical legacies for the institutionalization of parties and electoral alignments; in trying to incorporate such legacies, it offers refinements to works on path dependency and political development. Second, the literature highlights the underinstitutionalization of postcommunist parties and thereby offers new insights—particularly on the party switching of electoral candidates—for studying the formation and consolidation of political parties.

Explaining French Elections

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Lewis-Beck ◽  
Richard Nadeau
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Short Term ◽  
French Elections ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
French Case

This chapter reviews research done on French elections, focusing on presidential contests. Initially, the scientific literature on voting behavior, coming out of the Michigan Model, is looked at. Then, we bear down specifically on the French case, comparing the perspectives of French scholars, such as exploration of “heavy variables,” to the perspectives of non-French scholars, for example the search for general models. Attention is given also to the search for a Michigan Model à la française. The final part of the chapter considers the convergence between the two traditions of studying French elections, from different sides of the Atlantic. In conclusion, we see a “meeting in the middle,” with each tradition contributing to the understanding of electoral choice in France, via consideration of long-term forces such as patrimony, and short-term forces such as leader image. Lastly, we offer specific recommendations for further enhancement of French election surveys.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document