scholarly journals A Common Left-Right Scale for Voters and Parties in Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Lo ◽  
Sven-Oliver Proksch ◽  
Thomas Gschwend
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Scaling Method ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Systematic Biases ◽  
European Election ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Cross National

This article presents a scaling approach to jointly estimate the locations of voters, parties, and European political groups on a common left-right scale. Although most comparative research assumes that cross-national comparisons of voters and parties are possible, few correct for systematic biases commonly known to exist in surveys or examine whether survey data are comparable across countries. Our scaling method addresses scale perception in surveys and links cross-national surveys through new bridging observations. We apply our approach to the 2009 European Election Survey and demonstrate that the improvement in party estimates that one gains from fixing various survey bias issues is significant. Our scaling strategy provides left-right positions of voters and of 162 political parties, and we demonstrate that variables based on rescaled voter and party positions on the left-right dimension significantly improve the fit of a cross-national vote choice model.

scholarly journals Party Responsiveness to Public Opinion in Young Democracies

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172199363
Author(s):  
Raimondas Ibenskas ◽  
Jonathan Polk
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
Expert Surveys ◽  
Cross National

Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on a comprehensive dataset that uses expert surveys, parties’ manifestoes and election surveys to measure parties’ positions, and several cross-national and national surveys to measure voters’ preferences provide strong support for this argument.

scholarly journals How Voters Distort their Perceptions and Why this Matters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea De Angelis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Ideal Point ◽  
Point Estimation ◽  
Perceptual Bias ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Perceptual Distortions ◽  
European Election ◽  
Election Studies

Voters’ ability to perceive political parties’ positions on policy scales is a precondition for a functioning and responsive electoral democracy. Appropriate measures of policy distance are thus key to addressing the link between political parties and the citizens. This chapter reviews the scholarship on ideal point estimation, identifying the main methodological and substantial implications for empirical studies involving issue scales. Next, the chapter applies two-stage Bayesian Aldrich-McKelvey scaling to European Election Studies data to find evidence of systematic perceptual distortions: right-wing voters perceive political parties as more progressive than they actually are, while knowledgeable voters perceive greater differences between parties. Perceptual bias is also shown to correlate with standard polarization measures based on perceived party positions.

Private Donations and Policy Ambiguity

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 754-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Cahill ◽  
Andrey Tomashevskiy
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Campaign Contributions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Private Donations ◽  
Cross National

An important dimension of party positioning remains largely unexamined—that is, the clarity with which parties present policies to the electorate. Moreover, the effects of private campaign contributions on party positions are also vastly understudied. We address these gaps using a unique new data set on private contributions to political parties in eight Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from the early 1990s to the present. We argue that parties are incentivized to present increasingly ambiguous, or broad appeal, policy positions as a result of increased private campaign contributions. Broad appeal campaigns allow parties to appease their donors with more extreme policy preferences while maintaining the support of their more moderate base supporters. We find support for this argument and show that increasing donations are associated with increased policy ambiguity. Using new data, this article is the first to examine an important connection between political finance and party positioning on a cross-national and time-series basis.

scholarly journals Selection Bias in Comparative Research: The Case of Incomplete Data Sets

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hug
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Monte Carlo Simulations ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Selection Bias ◽  
Incomplete Data ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Comparative Case Studies ◽  
Cross National

Selection bias is an important but often neglected problem in comparative research. While comparative case studies pay some attention to this problem, this is less the case in broader cross-national studies, where this problem may appear through the way the data used are generated. The article discusses three examples: studies of the success of newly formed political parties, research on protest events, and recent work on ethnic conflict. In all cases the data at hand are likely to be afflicted by selection bias. Failing to take into consideration this problem leads to serious biases in the estimation of simple relationships. Empirical examples illustrate a possible solution (a variation of a Tobit model) to the problems in these cases. The article also discusses results of Monte Carlo simulations, illustrating under what conditions the proposed estimation procedures lead to improved results.

scholarly journals Analyzing the cross-national comparability of party positions on the socio-cultural and EU dimensions in Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Ryan Bakker ◽  
Seth Jolly ◽  
Jonathan Polk
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Core ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Common Scale ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Cross National

Abstract Using survey vignettes and scaling techniques, we estimate common socio-cultural and European integration dimensions for political parties across the member states of the European Union. Previous research shows that party placements on the economic left-right dimension are cross-nationally comparable across the EU; however, the socio-cultural dimension is more complex, with different issues forming the core of the dimension in different countries. The 2014 wave of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey included anchoring vignettes which we use as “bridge votes” to place parties from different countries on a common liberal/authoritarian dimension and a separate common scale for European integration. We estimate the dimensions using the Bayesian Aldrich–McKelvey technique. The resulting scales offer cross-nationally comparable, interval-level measures of a party's socio-cultural and EU ideological positions.

scholarly journals How Voters Distort their Perceptions and Why this Matters

2019 ◽  
pp. 945-973
Author(s):  
Andrea De Angelis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Ideal Point ◽  
Point Estimation ◽  
Perceptual Bias ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Perceptual Distortions ◽  
European Election ◽  
Election Studies

Voters’ ability to perceive political parties’ positions on policy scales is a precondition for a functioning and responsive electoral democracy. Appropriate measures of policy distance are thus key to addressing the link between political parties and the citizens. This chapter reviews the scholarship on ideal point estimation, identifying the main methodological and substantial implications for empirical studies involving issue scales. Next, the chapter applies two-stage Bayesian Aldrich-McKelvey scaling to European Election Studies data to find evidence of systematic perceptual distortions: right-wing voters perceive political parties as more progressive than they actually are, while knowledgeable voters perceive greater differences between parties. Perceptual bias is also shown to correlate with standard polarization measures based on perceived party positions.

Dilemmas of Inclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafaela M. Dancygier
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Political Incorporation ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Equality And Diversity

As Europe's Muslim communities continue to grow, so does their impact on electoral politics and the potential for inclusion dilemmas. In vote-rich enclaves, Muslim views on religion, tradition, and gender roles can deviate sharply from those of the majority electorate, generating severe trade-offs for parties seeking to broaden their coalitions. This book explains when and why European political parties include Muslim candidates and voters, revealing that the ways in which parties recruit this new electorate can have lasting consequences. The book sheds new light on when minority recruitment will match up with existing party positions and uphold electoral alignments and when it will undermine party brands and shake up party systems. It demonstrates that when parties are seduced by the quick delivery of ethno-religious bloc votes, they undercut their ideological coherence, fail to establish programmatic linkages with Muslim voters, and miss their opportunity to build cross-ethnic, class-based coalitions. The book highlights how the politics of minority inclusion can become a testing ground for parties, showing just how far their commitments to equality and diversity will take them when push comes to electoral shove. Providing a unified theoretical framework for understanding the causes and consequences of minority political incorporation, and especially as these pertain to European Muslim populations, the book advances our knowledge about how ethnic and religious diversity reshapes domestic politics in today's democracies.

Research and approaches to the integration processes in the European Union

2017 ◽  
pp. 126-133
Author(s):  
Alexander Motsyk
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Fourth Level ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Integration Levels

The article is devoted to the study of modern trends of integration processes. We studied the methodological principles and approaches to the study of the integration of subjects. Specifically analyzed integration levels: individual, regional, domestic, interstate, global. Also, isolated and characterized various forms of integration: political, economic, informational, cultural and others. We analyzed the integration process as a result of the relationship, cooperation, convergence and integration into a single unit of any parts, components countries, their economies, social and political structures, cultural, social and political groups, ethnic groups, political parties, movements and organizations. It is proved that integration has several levels of development. Interaction at the level of enterprises and organizations (first level) – directly to producers of goods and services. The integration of the economies of the main links of different countries is complemented by the interaction at the country level (the second level). The third level of development of integration processes – interaction at the level of parties and organizations, social groups and individuals from different countries – can be defined as a social and political one. Fourth level – is the level of the actual integration group as an economic community, with its characteristics and peculiarities. It was noted that today is used by political science approaches to the study of integration. It is important to the following principles: federalism, functionalism, communicative approach, and others. Keywords: Integration, levels, approaches, studies, European integration, politics, economics, features

The New Progressive Dilemma through the Lens of Comparative Welfare State and Party Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Spies
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Attitudinal Change ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Expenditures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

The chapter summarizes the New Progressive Dilemma (NPD) debate, identifying three arguments from comparative welfare state and party research likely to be relevant to the relationship between immigration and welfare state retrenchment: public opinion, welfare institutions, and political parties. Alignment of anti-immigrant sentiments and welfare support varies considerably between countries, especially between the US and Europe, leading to different party incentives vis-à-vis welfare state retrenchment. The chapter introduces insights from comparative welfare state and party research to the debate, discussing inter alia, political parties in terms of welfare retrenchment, immigrants as a voter group, and cross-national variation of existing welfare institutions. It addresses the complex debates around attitudinal change caused by immigration, levels of welfare support, voting behavior, and social expenditures. Combining these strands of literature, a common theoretical framework is developed that is subsequently applied to both the US and Western European context.

scholarly journals When Does Income Inequality Cause Polarization?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jacob R. Gunderson
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Economic Elites ◽  
The Right ◽  
Issue Content

Scholars have long been concerned with the implications of income inequality for democracy. Conventional wisdom suggests that high income inequality is associated with political parties taking polarized positions as the left advocates for increased redistribution while the right aims to entrench the position of economic elites. This article argues that the connection between party positions and income inequality depends on how party bases are sorted by income and the issue content of national elections. It uses data from European national elections from 1996 to 2016 to show that income inequality has a positive relationship with party polarization on economic issues when partisans are sorted with respect to income and when economic issues are relatively salient in elections. When these factors are weak, however, the author finds no relationship between income inequality and polarization.

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