Maxime Walder
Biographic Data
| ID | 3718043 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maxime Walder |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maxime |
| FAMILY NAME | Walder |
| SIGNATURE | WALDER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Geneva |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4753-2090 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Parties’ responsiveness to voters’ positions in a direct democratic setting
The responsiveness of political parties to voters’ policy preferences is a core feature of democracies. A growing number of studies analyze this phenomenon, but key obstacles remain, such as the availability of reliable measures and the infrequency of these measures (election periods). As a consequence, the literature remains vague in theorizing and analyzing instances where the preferences of the median voter clash with those of the party electo…
Voting Advice Applications and Their Impact on Ideological and Affective Polarization
Political polarization has been one of the most researched topics in political science over the past few years. While many scholars focus on the factors that foster ideological and affective polarization, less is known about the drivers of depolarization. In this article, we are addressing this gap by investigating the potential effects of using voting advice applications (VAAs) on both the ideological polarization of vote choice and the level of…
Does It Matter What You Do (Or Only Who You Are)? On the Effects of Parliamentarians' Behavior on Vote Choice
Politicians differ in their policy positions, but also in their behavior in parliament and the constituency. While research has shown that personal characteristics of politicians matter for voter evaluation, we have little knowledge as to which activities inside and outside parliament have the greatest impact on voters' evaluation of their representatives. Based on survey experiments conducted in the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, France, and Belgi…
Latent Ideological Positions of Swiss Parties and Subsets of the Population
Prominent theories of political representation consider ideology to be a central concept that links political elites and citizens. However, studies usually rely on different data and measures to operationalize this concept. This paper presents a two‐step estimation strategy for measuring the ideological positions of parties and population subsets in the party competition space using observational data on Swiss direct democracy. I first use a (dyn…
Unequal Voices
This contribution examines the educational gap in voting behavior in Swiss direct democracy, moving beyond the well‐documented turnout differences to assess how education shapes citizens' choices. Drawing on survey data covering 300 votes between 1985 and 2020, we analyze the extent to which low‐ and highly‐educated voters diverge in their support for government positions. Results show that, on average, low‐educated voters are less supportive of …
On the same space? Measuring the ideology of voters and political elites
Ideology is a key concept in political science. In studies related to political representation, policy responsiveness, and the quality of decision-making in elections, ideology is a central concept that needs precise measurement to test related hypotheses. Despite its prominence in the political science literature, ideology is often measured differently for elites and voters with indicators that do not correlate among themselves. As a result, it …
The partisan heuristic and the voters' knowledge
The low-information rationality theory expects voters with low political knowledge to make more use of the partisan heuristic than those with high knowledge. However, empirical studies on decision making in direct democracy observe a positive correlation between political knowledge and the use of party cues. We resolve this tension between theory and empirical evidence by demonstrating that the relationship between political knowledge and the use…
Negative Party Identification and the Use of Party Cues in the Direct Democratic Context
The use of party cues is a fundamental process of how voters adopt policy preferences. While research has shown that party identification is an important driver of political attitudes in general and policy positions in particular, we know little about how negative party identification (identifying as an opponent to a party) impacts voters’ political preferences. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by combining an experimental and…
The partisan heuristic and the voters' knowledge
The low-information rationality theory expects voters with low political knowledge to make more use of the partisan heuristic than those with high knowledge. However, empirical studies on decision making in direct democracy observe a positive correlation between political knowledge and the use of party cues. We resolve this tension between theory and empirical evidence by demonstrating that the relationship between political knowledge and the use…
On the same space? Measuring the ideology of voters and political elites
Ideology is a key concept in political science. In studies related to political representation, policy responsiveness, and the quality of decision-making in elections, ideology is a central concept that needs precise measurement to test related hypotheses. Despite its prominence in the political science literature, ideology is often measured differently for elites and voters with indicators that do not correlate among themselves. As a result, it …
Negative Party Identification and the Use of Party Cues in the Direct Democratic Context
The use of party cues is a fundamental process of how voters adopt policy preferences. While research has shown that party identification is an important driver of political attitudes in general and policy positions in particular, we know little about how negative party identification (identifying as an opponent to a party) impacts voters’ political preferences. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by combining an experimental and…
Negative Party Identification and the Use of Party Cues in the Direct Democratic Context
The use of party cues is a fundamental process of how voters adopt policy preferences. While research has shown that party identification is an important driver of political attitudes in general and policy positions in particular, we know little about how negative party identification (identifying as an opponent to a party) impacts voters’ political preferences. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by combining an experimental and…
The partisan heuristic and the voters' knowledge
The low-information rationality theory expects voters with low political knowledge to make more use of the partisan heuristic than those with high knowledge. However, empirical studies on decision making in direct democracy observe a positive correlation between political knowledge and the use of party cues. We resolve this tension between theory and empirical evidence by demonstrating that the relationship between political knowledge and the use…
On the same space? Measuring the ideology of voters and political elites
Ideology is a key concept in political science. In studies related to political representation, policy responsiveness, and the quality of decision-making in elections, ideology is a central concept that needs precise measurement to test related hypotheses. Despite its prominence in the political science literature, ideology is often measured differently for elites and voters with indicators that do not correlate among themselves. As a result, it …
Does It Matter What You Do (Or Only Who You Are)? On the Effects of Parliamentarians' Behavior on Vote Choice
Politicians differ in their policy positions, but also in their behavior in parliament and the constituency. While research has shown that personal characteristics of politicians matter for voter evaluation, we have little knowledge as to which activities inside and outside parliament have the greatest impact on voters' evaluation of their representatives. Based on survey experiments conducted in the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, France, and Belgi…
Latent Ideological Positions of Swiss Parties and Subsets of the Population
Prominent theories of political representation consider ideology to be a central concept that links political elites and citizens. However, studies usually rely on different data and measures to operationalize this concept. This paper presents a two‐step estimation strategy for measuring the ideological positions of parties and population subsets in the party competition space using observational data on Swiss direct democracy. I first use a (dyn…
Unequal Voices
This contribution examines the educational gap in voting behavior in Swiss direct democracy, moving beyond the well‐documented turnout differences to assess how education shapes citizens' choices. Drawing on survey data covering 300 votes between 1985 and 2020, we analyze the extent to which low‐ and highly‐educated voters diverge in their support for government positions. Results show that, on average, low‐educated voters are less supportive of …
Parties’ responsiveness to voters’ positions in a direct democratic setting
The responsiveness of political parties to voters’ policy preferences is a core feature of democracies. A growing number of studies analyze this phenomenon, but key obstacles remain, such as the availability of reliable measures and the infrequency of these measures (election periods). As a consequence, the literature remains vague in theorizing and analyzing instances where the preferences of the median voter clash with those of the party electo…
Voting Advice Applications and Their Impact on Ideological and Affective Polarization
Political polarization has been one of the most researched topics in political science over the past few years. While many scholars focus on the factors that foster ideological and affective polarization, less is known about the drivers of depolarization. In this article, we are addressing this gap by investigating the potential effects of using voting advice applications (VAAs) on both the ideological polarization of vote choice and the level of…
Electoral Systems and Political Participation (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Populism, Right-Wing Movements (5 works) · Voting (5 works) · Ideology (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Voting behavior (4 works) · Democracy (3 works) · Law (3 works)