A Matter of Representation: Spatial Voting and Inconsistent Policy Preferences

Abstract

The application of spatial voting theories to popular elections presupposes an electorate that chooses political representatives on the basis of their well-structured policy preferences. Behavioral researchers have long contended that parts of the electorate instead hold unstructured and inconsistent policy beliefs. This article proposes an extension to spatial voting theories to analyze the effect of varying consistency in policy preferences on electoral behavior. The model results in the expectation that voters with less consistent policy preferences will put less weight on policy distance when learning about candidates who should represent their political positions. The study tests this expectation for the 2008 US presidential election, and finds that for respondents with less consistent self-placements on the liberal-conservative scale, policy distance less strongly affects their voting decision. The results have implications for the quality of political representation, as certain parts of the electorate are expected to be less closely represented.

Assessing the Predictive Value of Parasocial Relationship Intensity in a Political Context

“…This approach to political support has been hotly contested since its inception (see Stokes, 1963) but remains a persistent underlying framework in the political science literature. Several refinements to the theory have been offered of late (e.g., Abou-Chadi, 2016;Bolstad & Dinas, 2017;Stoetzer, 2017), but the fundamental assumption that rational voters seek to support political actors who best reflect their own policy preferences remains a pillar in political behavior research.…”

The Impact of Political Knowledge on the Voting Decision

“…Existing work does not clearly answer whether political knowledge affects spatial voting. Many argue that higher political knowledge makes its impact stronger (Delli Carpini and Keeter, 1996; Goren, 1997; Lau and Redlawsk, 2001; Boatright, 2008; Jessee, 2010; Singh and Roy, 2013; Stoetzer, 2019; Stubager et al, 2018). Other studies find limited or no variation in the strength of spatial considerations as a function of political knowledge (Cutler, 2002; Goren, 2004; Ansolabehere et al, 2008; Roy, 2009).…”

The activation of nationalist attitudes: how voters respond to far-right parties’ campaigns

“…There is also evidence that European voters use the left-right dimension as inferential device to impute the parties' specific positions and to estimate their distance from the parties on policy issues(Dahlberg and Harteveld 2016;Stoetzer 2017). …”