Why Parties Gain Votes When the Public Perceives Them Shifting to the Right
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6345299 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Adams (0000-0003-0415-4632, Department of Political Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA), Luca Bernardi (0000-0001-5875-9990, University of Liverpool), Lawrence Ezrow (0000-0002-5936-0997, University of Essex, corresponding author), Zeynep Somer-Topcu (0000-0001-7499-5571, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1203-1222 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00323217231178979 |
| OpenAlex | W4381511422 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 56 |
We combine two dominant approaches to studying how issues influence elections: one that emphasizes parties’ issue positions, and the other parties’ issue ownership. Research from the latter approach shows that voters ascribe greater economic competence to right-wing parties. Based on this finding, we argue that parties enhance their economic issue ownership when voters perceive them shifting to the right. In the following step, we show that perceived rightward shifts of parties also lead to subsequent increases in electoral support. We analyze economic ownership survey data and election outcomes in 15 democracies over the period 1986–2015 that supports the expectations that parties’ perceived rightward shifts result in increases in economic ownership and subsequent vote shares. We also show that the right-shift vote gains are strongest during recessions when voters prioritize parties’ economic competence
Business · Competence (human resources · Economics · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Public ownership · Recession · Survey data collection · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social Policy and Reform Studies
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Do Voters Pay Attention to Transnational Politics? Party Positions, Transnational Families, and Voter Perceptions
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Political Survival of Small Parties in Europe
Performance Politics and the British Voter
Elections, Parties, Democracy
The Politics of Competence
An economic theory of democracy
European Social Democracy between Political Economy and Electoral Competition
The decline of the working-class vote, the reconfiguration of the welfare support coalition and consequences for the welfare state
Is Anybody Listening? Evidence That Voters Do Not Respond to European Parties’ Policy Statements During Elections
Congruence and party responsiveness in Western Europe in the 21st century
The Growing Importance of Issue Competition
Are moderate parties rewarded in multiparty systems? A pooled analysis of Western European elections, 1984–1998
Organization and Strategy of Belgian and West German Ecology Parties
Who Says “It’s the Economy”? Cross-National and Cross-Individual Variation in the Salience of Economic Performance
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How political parties’ issue ownerships reduce to spatial proximity
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Interdependence, Government Constraints, and Economic Voting
Helping or Hurting? How Governing as a Junior Coalition Partner Influences Electoral Outcomes
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Measuring Issue Ownership
The Associative Dimension of Issue Ownership
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When growth is not enough
Issue Ownership, Issue Positions, and Candidate Assessment
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A problem with empirical studies of party policy shifts
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A Cross-National Analysis of Economic Voting
Moderation and Competence
Issue Ownership in Presidential Elections, with a 1980 Case Study
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Perceptions of Partisan Ideologies
Government versus Opposition at the Polls
Does Government Support Respond to Governments’ Social Welfare Rhetoric or their Spending? An Analysis of Government Support in Britain, Spain and the United States
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A comparative spatial analysis of majoritarian and proportional elections
Issue Yield
The Rise and Fall of Social Democracy, 1918-2017
Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policy
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |