Responsive Campaigning
Evidence from European Parties
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8031394 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Miguel M Pereira (0000-0001-6621-9863, Southern California University for Professional Studies, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 82 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1183-1195 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/707827 |
| OpenAlex | W3000513577 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 63 |
How do parties respond to public opinion shifts on the campaign trail? While a vast literature looks at ideological updating across elections, the dynamics of short-term responsiveness remain largely a black box. I argue that campaign rhetoric reflects parties' need to balance office and policy goals. Shifts in voter preferences alter the salience of these goals, leading parties to adjust their strategies. A novel data set combining opinion polls with campaign statements by 68 European parties provides support for this argument. Parties performing well in the campaign pursue their dominant aims. However, when voters shift away from a party, leaders are impelled to accommodate their secondary goals: mainstream parties polarize to secure the support of core voters, while niche parties moderate their rhetoric to guarantee survival in parliament. The fluidity of party positioning uncovered here helps in enlightening multiple questions left open by previous studies of policy responsiveness
Argument (complex analysis · Ideology · Mainstream · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Public relations · Rhetoric · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Protest and opposition parties’ election strategies
Pirates the Czech way
Leaking season
A picture is worth a thousand words
Campaigning in the dark
Parties’ issue responsiveness between elections
Our Issue Positions are Strong, and Our Opponents’ Valence is Weak
Do more inclusive parties change less? Intraparty democracy and programmatic change
Opposition parties seek more conflict with the government when losing electoral support
Policy over votes
Using Social Media to Respond to Negative Polls
The program-to-campaign linkage
When do political parties listen to interest groups
The times they are a‐changin
Varieties of Ambiguity
The Expertise Paradox
Understanding and Reducing Biases in Elite Beliefs About the Electorate
Elections and the political order
Political Survival of Small Parties in Europe
The Transformation of European Social Democracy
Party Policy in Modern Democracies
Party Competition and Responsible Party Government
Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism
The Message Matters
Principle vs. Pragmatism
Equilibrium in multicandidate probabilistic spatial voting
Economic theory of democracy
Who Do European Parties Represent? How Western European Parties Represent the Policy Preferences of Opinion Leaders
When Extremism Pays
The validity of the Rile left–right index as a measure of party policy
Are moderate parties rewarded in multiparty systems? A pooled analysis of Western European elections, 1984–1998
Catchall or Catch and Release? The Electoral Consequences of Social Democratic Parties’ March to the Middle in Western Europe
Why Are American Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable
Do Voters Respond to Party Manifestos or to a Wider Information Environment? An Analysis of Mass‐Elite Linkages on European Integration
Are Niche Parties Fundamentally Different from Mainstream Parties? The Causes and the Electoral Consequences of Western European Parties' Policy Shifts, 1976–1998
Everything to Everyone
Policy Adjustment by Parties in Response to Rival Parties’ Policy Shifts
Timely Decisions
Improving Tests of Theories Positing Interaction
Moderate as Necessary
Why Do Parties Change Position? Party Organization and Environmental Incentives
An Analysis of the Accuracy of "Trial Heat" Polls During the 1992 Presidential Election
The Internal Politics of Parties
You’ve Got Some Explaining To Do The Influence of Economic Conditions and Spatial Competition on Party Strategy
The Dynamics of Issue Ownership in Presidential Campaigns
Issue Convergence in Presidential Campaigns
Manifestos, salience and junior ministerial appointments
Competing on the issues
Political Parties and Political Development
Defining and measuring niche parties
A theory of organizational choice
Towards a renewal of the niche party concept
Mean voter representation and partisan constituency representation
Office Seeking and Policy Pursuit in Coalition Theory
An Integrated Theory of Party Goals and Party Change
Valence Competition in the Spatial Stochastic Model
When dimensions collide
Research Note
Modeling the interaction of parties, activists and voters
Symbols of priority? How the media selectively report on parties’ election campaigns
Issue Entrepreneurship and Multiparty Competition
Mainstream or Niche? Vote-Seeking Incentives and the Programmatic Strategies of Political Parties
Constructing Accountability
What Moves Parties
Centripetal and Centrifugal Incentives under Different Electoral Systems
The Timeline of Elections
The Effect of Inequality and Social Identity on Party Strategies
The Fulfillment of Parties’ Election Pledges
Government versus Opposition at the Polls
A New Spatial Theory of Party Competition
Party Activists, Campaign Resources and Candidate Position Taking
Understanding Change and Stability in Party Ideologies
Political Knowledge and Enlightened Preferences
Who Responds? Voters, Parties and Issue Attention
Are Parties Equally Responsive to Women and Men
A Test of Core Vote Theories
Niche Party Success and Mainstream Party Policy Shifts - How Green and Radical Right Parties Differ in Their Impact
A valence model of political competition in Britain
Do parties respond strategically to opinion polls? Evidence from campaign statements
Competition Between Unequals
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 17 |