Issue congruence between voters and parties

Examining the democratic party mandate in Ireland

Bibliographic Data

ID6074629
AuthorsR Costello (0000-0003-4045-6005, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick, Ireland, UK, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume36
Issue4
Pages581-605
Publication date2021-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIrish Political Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0790-7184 • E-ISSN: 1743-9078
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07907184.2021.1973318
OpenAlexW3197059293
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited51

Political parties often employ the rhetoric of electoral mandates, claiming that the people who voted for them endorsed their policies. However, the level of voter-party issue congruence may vary across parties, issues, and elections; and the views of certain types of voters may be better represented by their party than others. This paper puts forward a series of hypotheses to explain variation in issue congruence, relating to how well-informed voters are about party policy, the role of non-policy determinants of vote choice, and the nature of policy competition between parties. The hypotheses are tested using data from surveys of voters and parties conducted during the 2020 general election and the 2019 European Parliament election in Ireland. Congruence is found to be higher when a party is particularly associated with an issue. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, for whom non-policy attributes play a significant part in voters’ assessments, are found to have lower policy congruence with their voters overall than other parties. While there is no evidence that certain socio-demographic groups are systematically more or less well represented by their parties across all policy areas, some gaps in representation are identified, particularly in relation to so-called ‘cultural’ issues

Democracy · Mandate · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Proportional representation · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Social Psychology

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