Party Leader Effects on the Vote

Bibliographic Data

ID23735487
AuthorsSören Holmberg, Henrik Oscarsson (0000-0002-5946-004X)
Year2013
Pages35-51
Publication date2013-03-14
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenuePolitical Leaders and Democratic Elections (Comparative European Politics) (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199259007.003.0003
OpenAlexW2498974316
ISBN9780199259007
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited6

This chapter examines the effects of party leaders on the vote. It tests the following hypotheses: first, that party leader popularity has a fairly substantial impact on the vote in most political systems irrespective of electoral procedures; second, that party leaders over time have become a greater influence on the vote; third, that to the extent that we find leader effects on the vote, we expect them to be more pronounced in elections characterized by relatively low degrees of party polarization; and fourth, that party leader effects on the vote are larger in countries employing plurality/majoritarian electoral systems than in countries using proportional systems. The results show that in the United States, leader effects are stronger than party effects in presidential elections. In countries using plurality/majoritarian electoral systems, leader effects are less strong than party effects, but leader effects tend nevertheless to be sizeable and non-trivial. In countries that use proportional list systems, party effects are much stronger than leader effects, which does not mean that leader effects are non-existent in these countries, but that they are in most cases close to trivial.

Contingent vote · Democracy · Duverger's law · Economics · General election · Group voting ticket · Polarization (electrochemistry) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Popularity · Presidential system · Single non-transferable vote · Spoilt vote · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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