Rules, institutions and the economic vote: clarifying clarity of responsibility

Comparative economic voting studies have found great instability in economic voting across countries and over time. In explaining this instability, we highlight the role of welfare systems because strong welfare protection attenuates voters’ incentives to base their vote on government economic performance. By analyzing 174 legislature elections in 31 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1980 to 2010 and by taking into account clarity of responsibility, we find that welfare protection weakens the linkage between macroeconomic outcomes and incumbent electoral fortunes. This result implies that strong welfare protection enables politicians to avoid blame for economic failures.

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Rules, institutions and the economic vote: clarifying clarity of responsibility

West European Politics ◽

10.1080/01402382.2016.1266186 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 534-559 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Ruth Dassonneville ◽

Michael S. Lewis-Beck

Keyword(s):

Clarity Of Responsibility ◽

Economic Vote

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Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability, and Corruption

10.1017/cbo9781316412404 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer ◽

Margit Tavits

Keyword(s):

Clarity Of Responsibility

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“Do perceptions of EMU alter clarity of responsibility? A comparison of German and Greek electorates”

Electoral Studies ◽

10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102287 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 70 ◽

pp. 102287

Author(s):

Marina Costa Lobo ◽

Roberto Pannico

Keyword(s):

Clarity Of Responsibility

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Clarity of responsibility and foreign policy performance voting

European Journal of Political Research ◽

10.1111/1475-6765.12251 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 57 (3) ◽

pp. 587-614 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

SIBEL OKTAY

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Policy Performance ◽

Clarity Of Responsibility

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The Economic Vote: How Political and Economy Institutions Condition Election Results. By Raymond M. Duch and Randolph T. Stevenson. (Cambridge University Press, 2008.)

The Journal of Politics ◽

10.1017/s0022381609090616 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 71 (2) ◽

pp. 756-757

Author(s):

Lynn Vavrick

Keyword(s):

Cambridge University ◽

Economic Vote ◽

Election Results

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The Global Financial Crisis

Electoral Shocks ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198800583.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 94-112

Author(s):

Edward Fieldhouse ◽

Jane Green ◽

Geoffrey Evans ◽

Jonathan Mellon ◽

Christopher Prosser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Financial Crisis ◽

Great Depression ◽

Global Financial Crisis ◽

British Politics ◽

Voting Behaviour ◽

Political Opportunity ◽

The Great Depression ◽

Economic Vote ◽

The Global Financial Crisis ◽

Economic Competence

The Global Financial Crisis, which began in 2007–8, was the most significant financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and acted as a large shock to British politics. The economic vote is usually thought about as a short-term mechanism: a reward or punishment for the incumbent depending on recent economic conditions. In this chapter we examine how this shock played a role in the outcome of the 2015 General Election, seven years after the crisis began. The Global Financial Crisis continued to affect voting behaviour in 2015 for two reasons: first, it did long-lasting damage to perceptions of Labour’s economic competence, and second, it created a political opportunity for the Conservatives to blame the previous Labour government for the aftermath of the financial crisis.

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Effective local government council leadership: reassessing the facilitative model of leadership

International Journal of Public Leadership ◽

10.1108/ijpl-02-2021-0015 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Michael K. Dzordzormenyoh

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Binary Logistic Regression ◽

Board Effectiveness ◽

Facilitative Leadership ◽

Data Set ◽

Content Type ◽

Public Issues ◽

Cooperative Relationships ◽

Clarity Of Responsibility ◽

Cooperative Relationship

PurposeThis paper utilizes Svara's facilitative leadership model to examine local government council/board effectiveness in Michigan, United States.Design/methodology/approachThis study performs a binary logistic regression to assess the influence of four independent variables–consensus building, cooperative relationship, clarity of responsibility and existence of factions/partisanship on five measures of council/board effectiveness (long-term goal setting, administrative, financial, addressing citizen expectations and overall performance), while controlling for other variables.FindingsOverall, the findings of this study have serious theoretical and practical implications. Specifically, the findings revealed that cooperative relationships, clarity of responsibility, discussion of public issues and partnership influence council/board effectiveness. The findings further support Svara's (2003) model on facilitative leadership and the model's usefulness in understanding local government leadership, i.e. council/board leadership effectiveness.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, survey data contains desirability bias which can affect the results presented in this study. Second, the data does not include socio-demographic variables of the respondents.Originality/valueThe study is original because it utilizes a data set that is not commonly used in understanding local government council/board effectiveness. Furthermore, the study also shows the usefulness of Svara's facilitative leadership in local government.

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