Dieter Stiers
Biographic Data
| ID | 122291 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dieter Stiers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dieter |
| FAMILY NAME | Stiers |
| SIGNATURE | STIERS D |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7242-8477 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 268 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 52 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Two competing giants: An experimental test of spatial and valence models of voting
Rational choice theories offer one of the major explanations for citizens’ voting behavior. The most prominent models within the rational choice framework – spatial and valence voting – share the same roots but differ in central aspects, emphasizing ideological congruence and competence evaluations, respectively. In this note, we provide a direct test of the models’ relative strength. Does a party’s issue congruence with a voter (spatial) or its …
Does Compulsory Voting Improve Democratic Attitudes and Engagement? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Belgium
For over a century, scholars, policymakers, and advocates have argued that compulsory voting not only boosts turnout but also promotes prodemocratic attitudes and political engagement. However, empirical tests of this claim have been limited by trade-offs between internal and external validity. To address this challenge, we investigate the consequences of compulsory voting for democratic attitudes and engagement using a design that yields relativ…
Does electoral volatility imply short-term voting motives?: A comparative analysis of long- and short-term voting motives in Flanders and Wallonia (Belgium)
The effect of political knowledge on voting motives in the 2024 Belgian elections
Subjective Well-Being and Voting for Protest Parties. A Mediation Analysis for Election Survey Data From Belgium, 2024
News avoidance and congruent voting. Results of an electoral panel study in Belgium
There is a strong consensus in the literature that political sophistication is associated with ‘correct voting’, i.e., the ability to identify the political party that is closest to one’s own political preferences (Lau & Redlawsk, 2006). Since the theory was first formulated two decades ago, however, patterns of news consumption have changed dramatically. Not only is there a massive transfer from print to online formats, but a growing an increasi…
Economic voting in European elections: Explaining abstention and support for Eurosceptic parties
The theory of economic voting has been successfully applied to elections on different electoral levels. Less attention has been paid to the association between economic evaluations and the vote choice in European elections. In this study, we argue that economic perceptions can matter in European elections beyond rewarding or punishing the national incumbent. Instead of punishing incumbent parties, we examine electoral abstention and voting for Eu…
Finding your perfect match nearby. A test of proximity and issue salience voting in local elections
Between intentions and acts: How valid is the hypothetical turnout question? A benchmarking test on abolishing compulsory voting
Who decides what are second-order elections? A study of ticket-splitting in simultaneous federal and regional elections in Belgium
status: Published online
Political Trust and Electoral Behavior Among 16- and 17-Year-Old First-Time-Voters in Belgium
Citizens’ electoral behaviors tend to persist over time and are driven by long-standing political attitudes acquired during the formative years of adolescence. We contribute to this literature by building on the object-specific nature of political trust, captured by trust in order and representative institutions, and investigating its relationship with turnout and vote choices among Belgian 16- and 17-year-olds, who were eligible to vote during t…
No Longer “Walloon Exceptionalism”. TheDecline of Leftist Parties in the Walloon Region of Belgium, 2014-2024
Electoral input and political legitimacy
The Authentic A**hole: Candidate Consistency, Causality, and the Vote
Despite politicians’ authenticity being increasingly invoked in public discourse to explain their electoral fortunes, empirical research on the trait in electoral studies remains nascent. Here we advance our knowledge through a vignette survey experiment carried out on a national British sample. Firstly, we demonstrate that respondents are more likely to perceive a hypothetical politician as authentic when that politician resists political pressu…
The Role of Education in Political Information Processing and Correct Voting: Inequality at the Voting Booth
Why do voters support niche parties
Niche parties have gained substantial political ground in many liberal democracies. While party behaviour scholars have examined which strategies these parties can use to increase their electoral success, less is known about the individual-level determinants of support for niche parties. In this study, I investigate why voters support niche parties. Building on previous research, I hypothesise that niche voting can be driven both by ideological c…
How parties can shape their competence reputations: Issue attention, position and performance
Issue ownership is an important determinant of the vote, and it is electorally beneficial for parties to build a strong reputation on their core issues. Even though issue ownership has already been studied extensively in the party literature, we know less about how citizens form ownership perceptions. We contribute to this literature by means of two studies on the connection between party behaviour and perceptions of issue ownership, with an empi…
Lower support for redistribution and progressive taxes among young adults in Belgium
status: Published online
Abolishing Compulsory Voting: The 2024 Experience in the Flemish Region of Belgium
There are few clear-cut examples of countries that have abolished or introduced compulsory voting. When the Netherlands abolished the system in 1971, Irwin (1974) documented how this led to a sharp reduction in voter turnout, especially among young people, women, and those with little political interest. Flanders, the largest autonomous region of Belgium, abolished compulsory voting in October 2024, and we accessed panel data collected before and…
What is the Best Way to Measure Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: A Comparison of Two Measurement Instruments in a Representative Election Survey in Belgium
While anti-immigrant sentiments have a profound political influence, there is no consensus on a measurement scale for this attitude. Not only are there theoretical differences on what exactly determines anti-immigrant sentiments, we can also observe differences in measurement scales. Two of the largest available comparative data projects use different scales: while the European Social Survey ( ESS ) uses 0–10 measurement scales, the Comparative S…
Who misses the bare necessities? Material deprivation as an indicator for egotropic economic voting
There is strong empirical support for the theory of sociotropic economic voting, stating that voters decide which party to vote for based on their perception of the country’s economic situation. There is less evidence, however, for the occurrence of egotropic economic voting, where electoral preferences are determined by individual economic circumstances. We argue that this lack of support is partly caused by the way in which personal economic ev…
Has the electoral college grown more disproportional? An analysis of election results, 1876–2020
Especially following the 2000 and the 2016 presidential elections, some authors have denounced the legitimacy of the Electoral College as a presidential selection method. It is alleged that the college is not representative of the electorate as a whole and tends to favor one specific political party. In this article, we compare the popular vote with the composition of the Electoral College for every presidential contest since 1876 ( n = 37 electi…
Do Postal Stamps (Still) Lead to a Higher Response Rate? An Empirical Test in Belgium
When conducting a postal survey, a traditional recommendation is to use paper postage stamps instead of an automated postage system, to make sure that invitations have a more personal and attractive appearance. In this research note, we investigate whether this traditional recommendation is still valid. In the autumn of 2020, a postal survey was conducted among high-school teachers in Belgium strictly adhering to the Dillman protocol. The overall…
How Do Voters Evaluate Performance in Opposition
Recent scholarship on retrospective voting has shown that when they go to the polls, voters evaluate not only incumbent performance, but also the performance of parties in opposition. So far, however, these studies have not been able to identify how voters evaluate the performance of parties in opposition. The answers to a unique open-ended question included in a Belgian electoral survey in 2019 provide new insights into voters' minds. First, thi…
Toward an Ever Looser Union? Investigating Diverging Trends in Public Opinion in Three Divided Societies
The stability of divided societies is an important and recurring concern in political science research. It has been suggested that distinctive socialization processes in the different regions of divided societies will lead to diverging trends in public opinion. Therefore, we investigate trends in public opinion on key political issues and attitudes in three divided societies: Canada (Quebec), the United Kingdom (Scotland) and Spain (Catalonia). U…
What makes people believe that their party won the election
Candidate Authenticity: To Thine Own Self Be True
Elections as a democratic linkage mechanism: How elections boost political trust in a proportional system
Compulsory Voting Rules, Reluctant Voters and Ideological Proximity Voting
The abiding voter: The lengthy horizon of retrospective evaluations
Although the theory of retrospective voting receives wide support in the literature on voting behaviour, less agreement exists on voters’ time horizon when assessing the government's performance – that is, whether voters are myopic. Previous studies on voter myopia tend to focus on aggregate‐level measures of the economy, or use an experimental approach. Using panel data, this article offers the first investigation into voter myopia that uses ind…
Beyond the distinction between incumbency and opposition: Retrospective voting at the level of political parties
Retrospective voting is one of the most frequently investigated theories of voting behaviour. It postulates that voters punish or reward incumbent parties according to their performance. This approach, however, cannot explain why voters cast a stable opposition vote, or switch between incumbent parties or opposition parties, respectively. This study fills this gap by showing that this traditional view should be complemented with the approach of r…
Do reluctant voters vote less accurately? The effect of compulsory voting on party–voter congruence in Australia and Belgium
We know compulsory voting is associated with higher levels of electoral turnout. It has been suggested, however, that this leads to a trade-off with the quality of the vote, i.e., the ideological congruence between voters and the party they vote for. In this study, this claim is investigated using data from the 2007, 2010, and 2013 elections in Australia. We also include a comparison with two recent elections in Belgium, another country with comp…
Support for progressive taxation: Self-Interest (Rightly Understood), Ideology, and Political Sophistication
Progressive tax rates are one of the main instruments for redistribution within advanced liberal democracies. In this study, we investigate public support for this policy. In our analysis of a novel question included in the Belgian Electoral Study (2019) we show that left-wing citizens are strongly in favour of this system. Importantly, high levels of political sophistication strengthen the association between ideology and preferences for progres…
Voting at 16: Does lowering the voting age lead to more political engagement? Evidence from a quasi-experiment in the city of Ghent (Belgium)
While youth suffrage is widely debated, the causal effects of being eligible to vote on adolescents' political attitudes are less well known. To gain insights into this question, we leverage data from a real-life quasi-experiment of voting at 16 in the city of Ghent (Belgium). We compare the attitudes of adolescents that were entitled to vote with their peers that just fell below the age cut-off. We also examine the effects of the enfranchisement…
Are 16-year-olds able to cast a congruent vote? Evidence from a "voting at 16" initiative in the city of Ghent (Belgium)
How Do Voters Evaluate Performance in Opposition
Recent scholarship on retrospective voting has shown that when they go to the polls, voters evaluate not only incumbent performance, but also the performance of parties in opposition. So far, however, these studies have not been able to identify how voters evaluate the performance of parties in opposition. The answers to a unique open-ended question included in a Belgian electoral survey in 2019 provide new insights into voters' minds. First, thi…
Political information and retrospective voting
This study aims to provide a comprehensive view of the role of political information in retrospective voting by simultaneously investigating the effects of levels of information on the individual level and the availability of information on the contextual level. It is argued that the sophistication-gap in retrospective voting is confined to those contexts in which it is hard for voters to assign responsibility for the country’s state of affairs t…
Retrospective Voting and the Polarization of Available Alternatives
Government cohesiveness is known to moderate retrospective voting. While previous work on this topic has focused on characteristics of the government, we build on the literature on clarity of responsibility and the literature on valence to argue that the extent to which government and opposition are ideologically distinct also moderates retrospective voting. Two alternative expectations follow from these two theoretical perspectives. While the cl…
How parties can shape their competence reputations: Issue attention, position and performance
Issue ownership is an important determinant of the vote, and it is electorally beneficial for parties to build a strong reputation on their core issues. Even though issue ownership has already been studied extensively in the party literature, we know less about how citizens form ownership perceptions. We contribute to this literature by means of two studies on the connection between party behaviour and perceptions of issue ownership, with an empi…
Same Problems, Different Solutions: Stealth Democracy and the Vote for a Populist Party
In this study, we explore heterogeneity in the relationship between dissatisfaction with democratic representation and voting for a populist party. More specifically, we argue that numerous citizens are dissatisfied with modern political elites and processes, but that not all are attracted by populist parties' programmatic appeal. In particular, while citizens with stealth democratic attitudes are also dissatisfied with democratic representation …
Toward an Ever Looser Union? Investigating Diverging Trends in Public Opinion in Three Divided Societies
The stability of divided societies is an important and recurring concern in political science research. It has been suggested that distinctive socialization processes in the different regions of divided societies will lead to diverging trends in public opinion. Therefore, we investigate trends in public opinion on key political issues and attitudes in three divided societies: Canada (Quebec), the United Kingdom (Scotland) and Spain (Catalonia). U…
A Tale of Two Regions: An Analysis of Two Decades of Belgian Public Opinion
It has been assumed that a trend toward devolution within a federal country would be associated with a growing apart of public opinion, and the federal kingdom of Belgium is routinely cited as an obvious example in this regard. Since the publication of the seminal Billiet et al. article, more competences have been devolved toward the autonomous regions, and in this research note we update the expectation that this has led to a further growing apa…
Retrospective Voting on the Party Level: An Icelandic Test
This research note adds to the emerging body of literature arguing that retrospective voting works on the level of political parties – for government and opposition parties alike – by investigating the generalisability of previous research findings. Furthermore, it tests whether there is a knowledge gap in retrospective voting on the party level. Using the data of the Icelandic National Election Study (ICENES), support is found for the argument t…
Cyclical accountability
Why do voters support niche parties
Niche parties have gained substantial political ground in many liberal democracies. While party behaviour scholars have examined which strategies these parties can use to increase their electoral success, less is known about the individual-level determinants of support for niche parties. In this study, I investigate why voters support niche parties. Building on previous research, I hypothesise that niche voting can be driven both by ideological c…
Nationalist identities, preferences and voting for sub‐state nationalist parties in the Flemish region of Belgium
There is an ongoing academic debate about the question whether sub‐state nationalist parties should be considered as niche parties, focusing almost exclusively on their core issue of centre‐periphery relations, or whether their electoral appeal can be considered as multidimensional. In that case, these other dimensions can vary with regard to the specific ideological position, historical circumstances and strategic considerations. In this article…
Accountability and alternation: How wholesale and partial alternation condition retrospective voting
Holding the government accountable is a crucial function of elections. The extent to which voters can actually do so depends on the political system. One element that may influence the likelihood that voters hold the government accountable is the difference between wholesale and partial alternation. Prominent political scientists like Mair, Bergman and Strøm and Pellegata and Quaranta propose that in countries with wholesale alternation voters ar…
Spatial and valence models of voting: The effects of the political context
Economic inequality and electoral accountability: Inequality and differences in economic voting across Western democracies
Electoral input and political legitimacy
Elections as a democratic linkage mechanism: How elections boost political trust in a proportional system
Do reluctant voters vote less accurately? The effect of compulsory voting on party–voter congruence in Australia and Belgium
We know compulsory voting is associated with higher levels of electoral turnout. It has been suggested, however, that this leads to a trade-off with the quality of the vote, i.e., the ideological congruence between voters and the party they vote for. In this study, this claim is investigated using data from the 2007, 2010, and 2013 elections in Australia. We also include a comparison with two recent elections in Belgium, another country with comp…
What makes people believe that their party won the election
Static and Dynamic Models of Retrospective Voting: A Clarification and Application to the Individual Level
This study draws attention to an important distinction between different types of models in the field of retrospective voting, namely static and dynamic models. Both types of models are often used interchangeably, but their interpretation and implications are fundamentally different. Furthermore, while both types have been used in aggregate‐level studies, so far, most studies on the individual level rely on static models. However, there is a spec…
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words. A Visual Test of Political Knowledge: Does It Reduce the Effect of Age and Gender
Beyond any doubt, political knowledge is a crucial resource for citizens of democratic societies. It enables them to participate in politics in a more effective manner, and to identify more successfully the candidate and the political party that best represents her/his beliefs and preferences (Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996). We also know from decades of accumulated research that there are strong and persistent inequalities in the level of politica…
Retrospective Voting on the Party Level: An Icelandic Test
This research note adds to the emerging body of literature arguing that retrospective voting works on the level of political parties – for government and opposition parties alike – by investigating the generalisability of previous research findings. Furthermore, it tests whether there is a knowledge gap in retrospective voting on the party level. Using the data of the Icelandic National Election Study (ICENES), support is found for the argument t…
Compulsory Voting Rules, Reluctant Voters and Ideological Proximity Voting
Beyond the distinction between incumbency and opposition: Retrospective voting at the level of political parties
Retrospective voting is one of the most frequently investigated theories of voting behaviour. It postulates that voters punish or reward incumbent parties according to their performance. This approach, however, cannot explain why voters cast a stable opposition vote, or switch between incumbent parties or opposition parties, respectively. This study fills this gap by showing that this traditional view should be complemented with the approach of r…
Economic inequality and electoral accountability: Inequality and differences in economic voting across Western democracies
The abiding voter: The lengthy horizon of retrospective evaluations
Although the theory of retrospective voting receives wide support in the literature on voting behaviour, less agreement exists on voters’ time horizon when assessing the government's performance – that is, whether voters are myopic. Previous studies on voter myopia tend to focus on aggregate‐level measures of the economy, or use an experimental approach. Using panel data, this article offers the first investigation into voter myopia that uses ind…
Retrospective Voting and the Polarization of Available Alternatives
Government cohesiveness is known to moderate retrospective voting. While previous work on this topic has focused on characteristics of the government, we build on the literature on clarity of responsibility and the literature on valence to argue that the extent to which government and opposition are ideologically distinct also moderates retrospective voting. Two alternative expectations follow from these two theoretical perspectives. While the cl…
Are 16-year-olds able to cast a congruent vote? Evidence from a "voting at 16" initiative in the city of Ghent (Belgium)
Regional identity and support for restrictive attitudes on immigration. Evidence from a household population survey in Ghent (Belgium)
It has been argued that supporting a restrictive view on the inclusion of immigrants finds its origin in a localized feeling of group identity. We test this hypothesis with a household survey in the Belgian city of Ghent (n = 3735). The results show that local and national identities are salient, but also that regional, European, and cosmopolitan identities are supported simultaneously. Especially the regional, Flemish identity is strongly associ…
Cyclical accountability
Political information and retrospective voting
This study aims to provide a comprehensive view of the role of political information in retrospective voting by simultaneously investigating the effects of levels of information on the individual level and the availability of information on the contextual level. It is argued that the sophistication-gap in retrospective voting is confined to those contexts in which it is hard for voters to assign responsibility for the country’s state of affairs t…
Same Problems, Different Solutions: Stealth Democracy and the Vote for a Populist Party
In this study, we explore heterogeneity in the relationship between dissatisfaction with democratic representation and voting for a populist party. More specifically, we argue that numerous citizens are dissatisfied with modern political elites and processes, but that not all are attracted by populist parties' programmatic appeal. In particular, while citizens with stealth democratic attitudes are also dissatisfied with democratic representation …
Voting at 16: Does lowering the voting age lead to more political engagement? Evidence from a quasi-experiment in the city of Ghent (Belgium)
While youth suffrage is widely debated, the causal effects of being eligible to vote on adolescents' political attitudes are less well known. To gain insights into this question, we leverage data from a real-life quasi-experiment of voting at 16 in the city of Ghent (Belgium). We compare the attitudes of adolescents that were entitled to vote with their peers that just fell below the age cut-off. We also examine the effects of the enfranchisement…
Candidate Authenticity: To Thine Own Self Be True
Political discussion begins at home. Household dynamics following the enfranchisement of adolescent children
Most studies on lowering the voting age to 16 exclusively focus on the effects on the adolescents concerned. In this paper we investigate the family dynamics of this extension of voting rights, by including the parents of adolescents in the study. The Ghent Study is based on a quasi-experiment of the city of Ghent (Belgium), where adolescents of 16 and 17 years old were invited by the local city government to take part in an election. The results…
The heterogeneous effects of an education for sustainable development intervention in schools: Evidence from a Belgian panel study
Education for sustainable development aims at strengthening levels of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours beneficial for sustainable development which are crucial to tackle urgent sustainability-related global challenges. In this study, we present the results of a one-year panel study measuring levels of sustainable development knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours in primary and secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). During this year, a large-…
Performance voting, retrospective voting, and economic voting. Conceptual clarity and empirical testing
Objective The main objective of the study is to distinguish the often-used concepts and measures of retrospective (economic) performance voting. I argue that concepts that have been used synonymously—such as performance voting, retrospective voting, and economic voting—should be distinguished theoretically and empirically, as they address different phenomena. Methods I use the data of the fifth module of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems…
Nationalist identities, preferences and voting for sub‐state nationalist parties in the Flemish region of Belgium
There is an ongoing academic debate about the question whether sub‐state nationalist parties should be considered as niche parties, focusing almost exclusively on their core issue of centre‐periphery relations, or whether their electoral appeal can be considered as multidimensional. In that case, these other dimensions can vary with regard to the specific ideological position, historical circumstances and strategic considerations. In this article…
A Tale of Two Regions: An Analysis of Two Decades of Belgian Public Opinion
It has been assumed that a trend toward devolution within a federal country would be associated with a growing apart of public opinion, and the federal kingdom of Belgium is routinely cited as an obvious example in this regard. Since the publication of the seminal Billiet et al. article, more competences have been devolved toward the autonomous regions, and in this research note we update the expectation that this has led to a further growing apa…
Accountability and alternation: How wholesale and partial alternation condition retrospective voting
Holding the government accountable is a crucial function of elections. The extent to which voters can actually do so depends on the political system. One element that may influence the likelihood that voters hold the government accountable is the difference between wholesale and partial alternation. Prominent political scientists like Mair, Bergman and Strøm and Pellegata and Quaranta propose that in countries with wholesale alternation voters ar…
Support for progressive taxation: Self-Interest (Rightly Understood), Ideology, and Political Sophistication
Progressive tax rates are one of the main instruments for redistribution within advanced liberal democracies. In this study, we investigate public support for this policy. In our analysis of a novel question included in the Belgian Electoral Study (2019) we show that left-wing citizens are strongly in favour of this system. Importantly, high levels of political sophistication strengthen the association between ideology and preferences for progres…
Electoral Systems and Political Participation (45 works) · Political science (42 works) · Politics (40 works) · Voting (31 works) · Law (30 works) · Law (28 works) · Economics (27 works) · Political economy (20 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Psychology (17 works)