Right populist parties and support for strong leaders

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882092085
Author(s):  
Todd Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
World Values Survey

This article tests if radical right populist (RRP) parties draw support from voters with non-mainstream, illiberal attitudes. This follows from assumptions that these parties have rhetorical, stylistic and practical critiques of liberal democracy that appeal to people with politically authoritarian attitudes. I use Module 5 Comparative Study of Electoral Systems data and Wave 7 World Values Survey data to test how authoritarian attitudes, in particular, approval of strong, unchecked leaders, may be associated with support for RRP parties. Of 12 unique cases where RRP parties received at least 5% support in a recent election, in most cases preferences for strong, unchecked leaders differentiated RRP party supporters from supporters of other parties generally, and from supporters of centre-right parties. In some cases, negative views of democracy, and acceptance of army rule, also characterized RRP supporters. Most cases have evidence consistent with the hypotheses, with the strongest evidence from supporters of Austria’s FPÖ and Germany’s AfD.

Digital Campaigning across Space

2020 ◽  
pp. 44-71
Author(s):  
Rachel K. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Voter Mobilization ◽  
Internet Penetration ◽  
Digital Campaigning ◽  
The Comparative Study

This chapter examines developments in digital campaigning in comparative perspective. It does so using survey data from Wave 4 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) to measure the extent of digital voter contact occurring in eighteen countries (2011–2015). Based on the understanding that extensive voter mobilization is a key feature of a country’s entry into phase IV digital campaigning, the authors infer which nations have progressed more rapidly through the four phases, and are thus most advanced in their use of digital campaign tools. Using this measure, they find that the United States is the most advanced nation and Thailand the least. They investigate the rankings more systematically using multilevel modeling techniques, and find that presidential elections and higher internet penetration rates are most predictive of higher rates of digital campaign contact. The results are helpful in building expectations about the digital campaign performance of the four national case studies.

The Effects of Compulsory Voting on Individuals

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-132
Author(s):  
Shane P. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
The Comparative Study

This chapter empirically tests the expectation that compulsory voting moderates the effects of orientations toward democracy on political attitudes, behavior, and sophistication. It first employs cross-national survey data from the AmericasBarometer and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems to estimate multilevel models. It also uses cross-cantonal data from the Swiss Election Study, and novel survey data from Argentina collected for this book. The analyses of the Swiss and Argentine data leverage age-based thresholds in the application of compulsory voting with discontinuity models. Results suggest that, in line with the predictions of the theory advanced in Chapter 3, compulsory voting polarizes behavior and attitudes, and broadens gaps in political sophistication levels, among those with negative and positive orientations toward democracy.

scholarly journals Remembering One’s Representative: How District Magnitude and List Type Affect Candidate Recognition

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 786-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Van Coppenolle
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Differential Effect ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
List Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
District Magnitude ◽  
The Comparative Study

District magnitude and list type shape the incentives for politicians to develop a personal vote. If voters also react to these strategies, their knowledge about candidates should be influenced by these features of the electoral system. This article directly tests the responsiveness of voters by employing individual-level survey data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. As district magnitude increases, more people remember at least one candidate in closed list systems, but there is no such effect in open list systems. These influences are also larger for non-voters than for voters. A measure of political contact is not affected in this way. The differential effect of district magnitude can be explained by a different campaign focus.

The Effects of Compulsory Voting on Political Parties

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-166
Author(s):  
Shane P. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Multilevel Analyses ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
The Comparative Study

Chapter 7 test the expectations about compulsory voting’s effects on political parties. Analyses shown in the first part of the chapter leverage data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the original survey data from Argentina. The results are somewhat perfunctory but suggest that parties may expend less effort mobilizing turnout under strict obligatory voting, especially of ideological moderates. The latter portion of the chapter presents multilevel analyses of data from the Comparative Manifestos Project. As anticipated in Chapter 6, it finds that mainstream parties de-emphasize ideologically salient issues in order to moderate their stances under enforced compulsory voting. It also finds some evidence that, as predicted, non-mainstream parties take more extreme positions where voters are compelled to the polls.

scholarly journals Winning, Losing, and the Quality of Democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110261
Author(s):  
Richard Nadeau ◽  
Jean-François Daoust ◽  
Ruth Dassonneville
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The Comparative Study

Citizens who voted for a party that won the election are more satisfied with democracy than those who did not. This winner–loser gap has recently been found to vary with the quality of electoral democracy: the higher the quality of democracy, the smaller the gap. However, we do not know what drives this relationship. Is it driven by losers, winners, or both? And Why? Linking our work to the literature on motivated reasoning and macro salience and benefiting from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project—covering 163 elections in 51 countries between 1996 and 2018, our results show that the narrower winner–loser gap in well-established electoral democracies is not only a result of losers being more satisfied with democracy, but also of winners being less satisfied with their victory. Our findings carry important implications since a narrow winner–loser gap appears as a key feature of healthy democratic systems.

Closer to the state, closer to the polls? The different impact of corruption on turnout among public employees and other citizens

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 659-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabina Haveric ◽  
Stefano Ronchi ◽  
Laura Cabeza
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
The Political ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Relevant Question ◽  
Employment Sector ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Success

Research on the link between turnout and corruption has produced inconclusive evidence: while some studies find corruption to be positively related to turnout, others report a negative relationship. This article argues that the relevant question is not whether corruption has a positive or negative effect on turnout, but for whom. We hypothesize that the effect of corruption on the likelihood to vote depends on individuals’ employment sector. Public employees have different incentives to vote in corrupt settings since their jobs often depend on the political success of the government of the day. Hence, while corruption dampens turnout among ordinary citizens, public employees are more likely to vote in highly corrupt countries. Analysis of World Values Survey data from 44 countries, shows that the differential in voting propensity between public employees and other citizens gets larger as corruption increases, partially confirming our expectations.

Values and Corruption

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Kravtsova ◽  
Aleksey Oshchepkov ◽  
Christian Welzel
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Ecological Effect ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
The World ◽  
Moral Attitudes ◽  
The Relationship

Using World Values Survey data from several dozen countries around the world, this article analyzes the relationship between postmaterialist values and bribery (dis)approval in a multilevel framework. We find that people, who place stronger emphasis on postmaterialist values, tend to justify bribery more. However, the “ecological” effect of postmaterialism operates in the exactly opposite direction: A higher prevalence of postmaterialist values induces more bribery disapproval, and especially among postmaterialists themselves. In our view, this happens because the large number of people who internalized postmaterialist values generate positive social externalities which strengthen negative attitudes toward corruption. We outline a theoretical framework that explains why and how these externalities may emerge. Our results contribute to the literature on the sociocultural factors of corruption, provide a better understanding of the complex nature of postmaterialism, and also might be interesting in the light of ongoing discussions on whether moral attitudes are culturally universal or culturally specific.

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