scholarly journals It’s Not Only What you Say, It’s Also How You Say It: The Strategic Use of Campaign Sentiment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Crabtree ◽  
Matt Golder ◽  
Thomas Gschwend ◽  
Indridi H. Indridason
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Economic Voting ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Campaign Strategies ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
Electoral Campaign ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Positive Sentiment ◽  
New Perspective

What explains the type of electoral campaign run by political parties? We provide a new perspective on campaigns by focusing on the strategic use of emotive language. We argue that the level of positive sentiment parties adopt in their campaigns depends on their incumbency status, their policy position, and objective economic conditions. We test these claims with a novel dataset that captures the emotive language used in over 400 party manifestos across eight European countries. As predicted, we find that incumbent parties, particularly incumbent prime ministerial parties, use more positive sentiment than opposition parties. We find that ideologically moderate parties employ higher levels of positive sentiment than extremist parties. And we find that all parties exhibit lower levels of positive sentiment when the economy is performing poorly but that this negative effect is weaker for incumbents. Our analysis has important implications for research on campaign strategies and retrospective economic voting.

From Text to Political Positions on Foreign Aid: Analysis of Aid Mentions in Party Manifestos from 1960 to 2015

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 980-990
Author(s):  
Simone Dietrich ◽  
Helen V Milner ◽  
Jonathan B Slapin
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Election Manifestos ◽  
Positive Sentiment

Abstract Looking at texts of election manifestos, this paper examines systematic differences among political parties within and across countries in how they position themselves on foreign aid and in how these manifesto pledges translate into commitments to disburse aid. Conventional wisdom suggests that left-leaning parties may be more supportive of foreign aid than rightwing parties, but also that foreign aid may not be sufficiently electorally salient for parties to stake out positions in campaign materials, such as manifestos. We leverage a new data set that codes party positions on foreign aid in election manifestos for 13 donors from 1960 to 2015. We find that parties differ systematically in how they engage with foreign aid. Left-leaning governments are more likely to express positive sentiment vis-à-vis aid than right-leaning governments. We evaluate the effects of positions on aid outcomes and find that positive aid views expressed by the party in government translate into higher aid commitments, though only for left-leaning parties.

scholarly journals Learning at Home and Abroad: How Competition Conditions the Diffusion of Party Strategies

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Sebastian Juhl ◽  
Laron K. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Mechanism ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
Party Strategies ◽  
Electoral Campaign ◽  
Electoral Strategies ◽  
Learning At Home ◽  
Independent Decision ◽  
Issue Competition ◽  
Issue Emphasis

How do parties decide when to campaign on valence issues given high degrees of uncertainty? Although past studies have provided evidence of transnational emulation of parties' position-taking strategies, these findings do not directly apply to saliency strategies. Moreover, the exact diffusion mechanism remains largely elusive. Based on the issue saliency literature, this study develops novel theoretical propositions and argues that conscious learning enables parties to infer the relative utility of emphasizing consensual issues during an electoral campaign. The proposed theory gives rise to different expectations at the domestic and transnational levels because of the distinct logic of issue competition. By analyzing environmental issue emphasis in party manifestos, the authors find direct transnational dependencies and indirect spillover effects among the parties' saliency strategies. They identify conscious learning, rather than mere imitation or independent decision making, as the diffusion mechanism at work. Yet, in line with saliency-based theories, electoral competition mutes the diffusion of electoral strategies domestically.

scholarly journals Savings Habit Among Individuals in the Informal Sector: A Case Study of Gbegbeyishie Fishing Community in Ghana

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bismark Addai ◽  
Adjei Gyamfi Gyimah ◽  
Wendy Kumah Boadi Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Fishing Communities ◽  
Fishing Community ◽  
Earning Capacity ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Positive Effect

Savings among individuals in the informal sector is imperatively expedient if they are to have any decent and comfortable living conditions at retirement as savings in the informal sector become the obvious substitute for formal pensions. However, much is not known regarding the savings habits of informal sector, particularly, the fishing communities in Ghana. Apparently, this study investigates into the determinants of savings habit of the informal sector in Ghana, using the case of the Gbegbeyishie Fishing community. The data for the study was obtained through administering questionnaires and interviewing targeted respondents. A 120 sample size was randomly drawn from Gbegbeyishie fishing community in Ghana. This study employs the probit model in estimating the determinants of savings in the informal sector. SPSS and STATA statistical packages were employed in descriptive analysis and estimation of the probit model respectively.It is glaring in this study that age, gender and income are statistically significant conditions for savings in the informal sector. It is also evincing in this study that Age has a significant negative effect on savings and aging decreases the propensity to save by 0.1577656. On the other hand, income has statistically significant positive effect on savings and that a one unit change in the income variable increases the propensity to save by 0.1292502. Also, the probability for a male, all other factors held constant, to save is higher than for a female to save and being a man increases the propensity to save by 0.2024894. The study also revealed that the main hindrance to savings in the Gbegbeyishie Fishing Community is Low income.As a result, the authors recommend that men and married people should be targeted whiles paying little attention to the aged in stimulating savings among fishing communities in Ghana. Educational programs could also be organized for the workers in the informal sector as most of the workers have no education which could hinder their income earning capacity and for that matter savings. Further research could also be engineered to consider macro-economic conditions for savings habit in Ghana.

Economic Origins of Electoral Support for Authoritarian Successors

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byong-Kuen Jhee
Keyword(s):  
Economic Performance ◽  
Economic Voting ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Knee Jerk ◽  
The Past ◽  
Electoral Support

This study explores how economic performance prior to democratic transitions affects the fate of successors to authoritarian rulers in new democracies. It investigates 70 founding election outcomes, finding that successful economic performance under an authoritarian regime increases the vote share of successors. It also finds that the past economic performance of authoritarian rulers decreases the likelihood of government alternation to democratic oppositions. Interim governments that initiate democratic transition, however, are neither blamed nor rewarded for economic conditions during transition periods. This study concludes that electorates are not myopic and that economic voting is not a knee-jerk reaction to short-term economic performance in new democracies.

scholarly journals INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FINANCING OF POLITICAL PARTIES (CASE STUDY OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA)

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1(31)) ◽  
pp. 57-65
Author(s):  
Rodica Svetlicinâi ◽  
Mariana Iațco ◽  
Tatiana Turco
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Republic Of Moldova ◽  
Financial Activity ◽  
Electoral Campaign ◽  
The Republic ◽  
European Standards

The issue of reporting on the financial activity of political parties is crucial for any democratic society. At the same time, the presentation of financial reports by political parties is a mandatory element in ensuring greater transparency of their activity as a whole. Transparency of party financing activities is necessary to protect voters' rights to obtain the necessary information on financial support to political parties as well as the costs associated with running the electoral campaign, etc., which ensures a more trained and informed voter for the exercise of his / her rights in a democratic system. One way to increase the transparency of political parties' funding is the system of online reporting of political party incomes and expenditures. For the Republic of Moldova this is an a priori, given that our society has set its course towards European standards and values, and the political arena is characterized by the diversity of political actors segmented according to the ideals claimed in their platform and status.

The effects of party identification on perceptions of pledge fulfilment: Evidence from Portugal

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Maria Belchior
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Performance Research

Empirical research has found that, despite citizens’ perceptions to the contrary, political parties tend to deliver on their campaign promises. What are the reasons for this mismatch between perceptions and performance? Research to date has paid insufficient attention to the reasons for such a mismatch, neglecting the effects of political predispositions such as party identification and sympathy for the government. This article argues that it is such political predispositions that cause biased perceptions of pledge fulfilment. Bias towards perceiving pledges as unfulfilled is expected to be higher for voters whose political predispositions are more unfavourable to government. The argument is supported by data on Portuguese voters and party manifestos in the 2011 election, contributing to better understanding of the mechanisms of political accountability.

The Company They Keep

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Baum ◽  
Neal Devins
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Dominant Ideology ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
The People ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The U.S

Today’s ideological division on the U.S. Supreme Court is also a partisan division: all the Court’s liberals were appointed by Democratic presidents, all its conservatives by Republican presidents. That pattern never existed in the Court until 2010, and this book focuses on how it came about and why it’s likely to continue. Its explanation lies in the growing level of political polarization over the last several decades. One effect of polarization is that potential nominees will reflect the dominant ideology of the president’s political party. Correspondingly, the sharpened ideological division between the two political parties has given presidents stronger incentives to give high priority to ideological considerations. In addition to these well-known effects of polarization, The Company They Keep explores what social psychologists have taught us about people’s motivations. Justices take cues primarily from the people who are closest to them and whose approval they care most about: political, social, and professional elites. In an era of strong partisan polarization, elite social networks are largely bifurcated by partisan and ideological elites, and justices such as Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg live in milieus populated by like-minded elites that reinforce their liberalism or conservatism during their tenure on the Supreme Court. By highlighting and documenting this development, the book provides a new perspective on the Court and its justices.

Incumbent Tenure Crowds Out Economic Voting

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Martin Vinæs Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Voting ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Growing Stock ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Economic Vote ◽  
The Government

AbstractDoes the importance of the economy change during a government's time in office? Governments arguably become more responsible for current economic conditions as their tenure progresses. This might lead voters to hold experienced governments more accountable for economic conditions. However, voters also accumulate information about governments' competence over time. If voters are Bayesian learners, then this growing stock of information should crowd out the importance of current economic conditions. This article explores these divergent predictions about the relationship between tenure and the economic vote using three datasets. First, using country-level data from a diverse set of elections, the study finds that support for more experienced governments is less dependent on economic growth. Secondly, using individual-level data from sixty election surveys covering ten countries, the article shows that voters' perceptions of the economy have a greater impact on government support when the government is inexperienced. Finally, the article examines a municipal reform in Denmark that assigned some voters to new local incumbents and finds that these voters responded more strongly to the local economy. In conclusion, all three studies point in the same direction: economic voting decreases with time in office.

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