Performance Politics and the British Voter

Clarke, Harold D.; Sanders, David; Stewart, Marianne C.; Whiteley, Paul

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511596872

Cited by 296 publications

(178 citation statements)

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“…This means that other forms of representation are disregarded: voters may have other concerns and other objectives in determining their vote choice than simple policy congruence. First, VAAs do take into account non-policy attributes of parties and politicians, such as their competence, trustworthiness or public spiritedness, yet these are empirically and normatively important to citizens' electoral decision making (Stokes, 1963;Fiorina, 1981;Clarke et al, 2009;Mansbridge, 2009). Moreover, accountability for past behaviour and the alternation of governments are also frequent and legitimate democratic concerns (Schumpeter, 1942;Manin et al, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Matching voters to parties: Voting advice applications and models of party choice

Wagner

Ruusuvirta

2011

Acta Polit

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Online voting advice applications (VAAs) have become very popular and may significantly influence voting behaviour. It is therefore important to ask which model of party choice VAAs follow. We establish that VAAs see party choice largely as proximity-based issue congruence, with some elements of the directional and salience models. We then assess how well VAAs follow the proximity model by comparing policy positions extracted from 13 VAAs in seven European countries with established policy measures from expert surveys and party manifestos. Party positions extracted from VAAs show strong convergent validity with left-right and economic positions, but compare less favourably with immigration and environment measures. The voting advice given to users is also inherently limited: VAAs mostly disregard accountability, salience, competence and non-policy factors; they treat policy positions and not outcomes as paramount; and they can be subject to strategic manipulation by political parties. As recommended by their designers, voters should treat these applications as tools and guides rather than as stringent recommendations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Matching voters to parties: Voting advice applications and models of party choice

Wagner

Ruusuvirta

2011

Acta Polit

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“…Dalton, 2006), and valence issues are more prominent than ever (e.g. Clarke, Sanders, Stewart, & Whiteley, 2009), we expect the economy will impact vote.…”

Section: Defining the Mechanisms Of Economic Voting In Ep Electionsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Context Matters: Economic Voting in the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament Elections

Okolikj

Quinlan

2016

PaG

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Using the 2009 and 2014 European Election Studies (EES), we explore the effect of the economy on the vote in the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections. The paper demonstrates that the economy did influence voters in both contests. However, its impact was heterogeneous across the two elections and between countries. While assessments of the economy directly motivated voters in 2009 by 2014 economic appraisals were conditioned by how much responsibility voters felt the national government had for the state of the economy, implying a shift in calculus between the two elections. The analysis suggests that voters in 2009 were simply reacting to the economic tsunami that was the Global Financial Crisis, with motivations primarily driven by the unfavourable economic conditions countries faced. But in 2014, evaluations were conditioned by judgments about responsibility for the economy, suggesting a more conscious holding to account of the government. Our paper also reveals cross-country differences in the influence of the economy on vote. Attribution of responsibility and economic evaluations had a more potent impact on support for the government in bailout countries compared to non-bailout countries in 2014. Our findings demonstrate the importance of economy on vote in EP elections but also highlight how its impact on vote can vary based on context.

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“…In studies of the past few elections, a broad consensus has developed to suggest that election campaigning may be electorally effective in Britain (Clarke et al, 2004(Clarke et al, , 2009Whiteley & Seyd, 1994;Pattie, et al, 1995;Denver et al, 2003). Indeed, there are several contextual effects that heighten the potential for campaign payoffs.…”

Section: Introduction -The Growing Importance and Potential For Campamentioning

confidence: 99%

The electoral effectiveness of constituency campaigning in the 2010 British general election: The ‘triumph’ of Labour?

2011

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This paper establishes a model of likely campaign effectiveness, before examining the intensity of constituency campaigning at the 2010 General Election in Britain and its subsequent impact on electoral outcomes, using both aggregate and individual level data. It shows that constituency campaigning yielded benefits in varying degrees for all three main parties and that Labour's constituency campaign efforts were effective despite the electoral context, and ultimately affected the overall outcome of the election. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of the circumstances under which campaigns are likely to be more or less effective, and provide further evidence that a carefully managed campaign stands the most chance of delivering tangible electoral payoffs.Keywords: Campaigning; Political Parties; 2010 General Election; Britain; Campaign Management; Electoral Impact Introduction -The growing importance and potential for campaign effectsIn studies of the past few elections, a broad consensus has developed to suggest that election campaigning may be electorally effective in Britain (Clarke et al, 2004(Clarke et al, , 2009Whiteley & Seyd, 1994;Pattie, et al., 1995;Denver et al., 2003). Indeed, there are several contextual effects that heighten the potential for campaign payoffs. First, the strength of partisan identification in Britain has declined in intensity, and to a lesser extent in overall volume though the core of fairly strong partisans has remained relatively constant (see Figure 1). Secondly, voter hesitancy has increased (see Figure 2). In 2010, fully 37% of respondents to the British Election Study post-election survey indicated that they had made their decision on how to vote during the campaign, with a further 13% indicating that their decision had been taken since the turn of the year. Given that all parties engage in 'longterm' campaigning -especially in target seats (Fisher & Denver, 2008) -there would appear to be significant potential at least for constituency campaigning to be electorally significant. 1.1In this paper we seek to measure the electoral impact of the three main British parties' campaigns at the 2010 election (Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrats).Aggregate data are drawn from a survey of all electoral agents of the five major parties in Great Britain -the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (N=1,993). 2 1,079 valid responses were received -an overall response rate of 54%. Details of responses by party are shown in the Appendix. These illustrate a representative spread of constituencies. In order to confirm this, however, means were compared in respect of candidate spending (percentage of maximum spent) during the regulated long and short campaigns. For all parties, the results indicate that our sample is robust (see Appendix). In addition, in depth interviews were conducted with the parties at national level, as well as with agents in constituencies selected on the basis of their elec...

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Performance Politics and the British Voter

Cited by 296 publications

References 0 publications

Matching voters to parties: Voting advice applications and models of party choice

Matching voters to parties: Voting advice applications and models of party choice

Context Matters: Economic Voting in the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament Elections

The electoral effectiveness of constituency campaigning in the 2010 British general election: The ‘triumph’ of Labour?

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