The Electoral Logic of Party Reputations

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Sniderman ◽  
Edward H. Stiglitz
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Candidate Positioning

This chapter presents a theory of candidate positioning. The key to this account is the policy reputations of the two political parties. Candidates must take positions consistent with the policy reputations of their parties to collect a reputational premium. The chapter's job is twofold. The first task is to demonstrate that programmatic party identifiers favor candidates of their party on the grounds that they represent the overall outlook of their party, independent of the specific policy positions that the candidates take. The second task is to specify the range of positions that a candidate may take and still be judged to represent the overall outlook of the party by supporters of his party who know and share its outlook.

Partisan values and gay rights: Public opinion about employment nondiscrimination

Politics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-314
Author(s):  
Laurie Rhodebeck ◽  
Jason Gainous ◽  
Tricia Gray
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Relationship

Partisan elites justify policy positions by invoking underlying values, and political parties are associated with value reputations that connect particular values to specific policy positions. Value recruitment theory explains the relationship between value framing and policy positions. Newspaper content analysis and statistical analysis of survey data show that Democrats are more likely to frame employment nondiscrimination against gay rights as an equality issue, while Republicans are more likely to frame it as morality- and capitalism-based values. Surprisingly, however, equality framing has a stronger effect on Republicans. The study extends research on nondiscrimination in employment with an empirical test of value recruitment theory. The results largely confirm expectations that the application of values can be shaped through citizen attachment to parties, generate insights into value recruitment in policy debates, and point to other questions for further analysis.

Political Cleavages and Political Parties

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell J. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
New Left ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Policy Choices

This chapter uses the cleavage positions of Candidates to the European Parliament (CEPs) to as representative of their parties’ political positions. Three surveys of CEPs track the evolution of party supply in European party systems. In 1979 parties were primarily aligned along a Left–Right economic cleavage. Gradually new left and Green parties began to compete in elections and crystallized and represented liberal cultural policies. In recent decades new far-right parties arose to represent culturally conservative positions. The cross-cutting cultural cleavage has also prompted many of the established parties to alter their policy positions. In most multiparty systems, political parties now compete in a fully populated two-dimensional space. This increases the supply of policy choices for the voters. The analyses are based on the Candidates to the European Parliament Studies in 1979, 1994, and 2009.

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 Follow the foreign leader? Why following foreign incumbents is an effective electoral strategy

2019 ◽  
pp. 135406881988470
Author(s):  
Lawrence Ezrow ◽  
Tobias Böhmelt ◽  
Roni Lehrer ◽  
Hugh Ward
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
Model Specification ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Election Strategies

Previous research suggests that political parties respond to left–right policy positions of successful foreign political parties (“foreign leaders”). We evaluate whether this is an effective electoral strategy: specifically, do political parties gain votes in elections when they respond to successful foreign parties? We argue that parties that follow foreign leaders will arrive at policy positions closer to their own (domestic) median voter, which increases their electoral support. The analysis is based on a two-stage model specification of parties’ vote shares and suggests that following foreign leaders is a beneficial election strategy in national election because it allows them to better identify the position of their own median voter. These findings have important implications for our understanding of political representation, parties’ election strategies, and for policy diffusion.

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 Interpreting toxic masculinity in political parties: A framework for analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 135406881988759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Daddow ◽  
Isabelle Hertner
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Paired Comparison ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
The Uk ◽  
New Research ◽  
Alternative For Germany

The term ‘toxic masculinity’ (TM) was coined in the 1990s by sociologists and psychologists. It has since been appropriated by scholars and commentators interested in gendered behaviours, policies and outcomes in politics. However, despite the attention belatedly being paid to masculinities as part of that research, the analysis of, specifically, TM’s part in shaping political practices remains underdeveloped. This article proposes a move in this direction by designing a conceptual framework for exploring TM inside political parties. We adapt findings from the original TM literature to generate a series of indicators of TM spanning the vital realms of party political activity: its policy positions, accompanying discourse and the formal and informal practices – often behind the scenes – that express the party’s values broader ethos and outlook. We then test the framework using a paired comparison of two parties of the populist right where we might expect to see relatively high levels of TM: the Alternative for Germany and the UK Independence Party. Our empirical findings give us confidence that drawing on the concept of TM can provide us with novel insights into the interplay between masculinity and political party cultures. We also hope that it will inspire a significant body of new research into TM in political parties from across the party spectrum as well as globally.

scholarly journals Japan Under the DPJ: The Paradox of Political Change Without Policy Change

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Y. Lipscy ◽  
Ethan Scheiner
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
Rural Regions ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Liberal Democratic

In 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) brought an end to the long reign of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). However, despite high expectations, this politically transformative event has not unleashed significant policy change in Japan. We highlight five electoral factors that have acted as important constraints on policy change under DPJ rule. First, majoritarian electoral rules have led to a convergence in the policy positions of the two major political parties. Second, as the parties' policy positions have become more similar, voters have increasingly cast ballots based on “valence” (i.e., nonpolicy) evaluations. Third, large national vote swings have limited the tenure of young, inexperienced candidates who might otherwise serve as the instigators of reform. Fourth, Japan's electoral rules permit inconsistency across policy positions within parties and discourage greater policy coherence. Fifth, the continuing influence of rural regions has limited the scope of policy reform under the DPJ.

Policy Attitudes of Party Members in Canada: Evidence of Ideological Politics

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 859-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Cross ◽  
Lisa Young
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Party Members

This article considers the degree to which characteristics of the ideological model of political parties are evident in the Canadian party system. Four questions are considered: are members attracted to parties on the basis of their policy positions; is there a structure to party members' issue attitudes; is there significant attitudinal space between the parties; and is there cohesion within the parties on the identified attitudinal measures? Data collected through a national mail survey of members of the five federal parties are used to answer these questions. The article finds there is substantial evidence of the ideological model in the Canadian party system and concludes by considering the effect this may have on the brokerage traditions of Canadian parties.

The Best Argument Wins

2020 ◽  
pp. 80-94
Author(s):  
John Gastil ◽  
Katherine R. Knobloch
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Individual Behavior ◽  
Social Safety Net ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Deliberative Processes ◽  
Cultural Cognitions ◽  
Policy Proposals ◽  
Best Argument

Deliberation encourages participants to reason with one another chapter 6 details how cultural biases often impede such reasoning. Cultural predispositions are an indication of people’s beliefs along two dimensions: hierarchical-egalitarian and individualism-collectivism. The first relates to whether government should regulate individual behavior and the second to whether government should provide a social safety net. US political parties and subsequent policies map onto these dimensions, with Republicans more likely to identify as hierarchical individualists and Democrats more likely to identify as egalitarian collectivists. As outlined here, deliberative processes, such as the CIR and Deliberative Polling, ask participants to overcome their cultural predispositions in the interest of reaching the best decision possible. Deliberation can produce such results, particularly when the available evidence clearly favors specific policy proposals. On values-based questions, however, deliberative participants may ultimately rely on their cultural cognitions to reach decisions.

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