Competence Issue Ownership, Issue Positions and the Vote for the Greens and the Social Democrats

Abstract

Applying a consideration set approach to panel data, we contribute to the literature on intra-bloc voting by studying the vote for the Greens and the Social Democrats in the 2019 Swiss elections. Theoretically, because the two parties are ideologically and programmatically so similar, we argue that potential left-wing voters have a hard time making a final choice based on issue positions, and rely instead on their evaluations of parties' issue competence. The empirical tests partly support our expectations. Maintaining or shifting the attribution of competence on the environment to the Greens during the election campaign prompts potential left-wing voters to end up voting for the Greens; similar effects hold for the Social Democrats regarding social policy. Yet, this does not wipe out the impact of issue positions, which also help potential left-wing voters decide between the Greens and the Social Democrats. These results have important theoretical and practical implications. Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel leistet einen Beitrag zur Literatur über die Wahl von Parteien, die demselben politischen Lager angehören, indem er den sogenannten «consideration set»-Ansatz auf die Stimmabgabe für die Grünen und die Sozialdemokraten bei den Schweizer Nationalratswahlen 2019 anwendet. Da diese zwei Parteien ideologisch und programmatisch Funding information Swiss National Science Foundation 165489.

Hit the right target! The Role of Issue Saliency among a Party's Potential Voters as a Determinant of the Party's Issue Emphasis in Switzerland

“…Parties may have mobilized their voters or appealed to voters other than their base. Similar to past outcomes, voters of the Social Democrats party voted for the Green party in 2019 (Petitpas & Sciarini, 2022; Sciarini, 2010). The voters who switched their vote to the Greens represent an interesting group for both parties.…”

“…campaigning, issue emphasis, party behavior, party strategy, Switzerland party voted for the Green party in 2019 (Petitpas & Sciarini, 2022;Sciarini, 2010). The voters who switched their vote to the Greens represent an interesting group for both parties.…”

“…The concept of potential voters stems from the notion of the potential electorate and the consideration set theory (Lichteblau et al, 2020). Both are powerful tools to analyze vote transfers between parties (see Petitpas & Sciarini, 2022). In the literature on party politics, the concept of potential voters is innovative, and, to the best of my knowledge, no study on Switzerland offers an analysis of party strategy based on it.…”

Introduction to the Special Issue “The 2019 Swiss National Elections”

“…Altogether, and in spite of the important vote transfers from the SP to the GPS (see Petitpas & Sciarini, 2022, in this volume), the 2019 elections to the National Council resulted in a reinforcement of the political left: in terms of vote shares and seats, the SP, the GPS, and the smaller parties of the radical left increased their joint representation. This results stands in stark contrast to the 2015 elections, which saw the National Council shift markedly to the right.…”

“…When looking at citizen's voting behavior, it is important to understand how the perception of different parties' issue competences influences vote choices. Petitpas and Sciarini (2022) contribute to research that conceptualizes the vote decision as a two‐step process consisting of a consideration and a choice stage (e.g. Oscarsson & Rosema, 2019).…”