Position Effects with Party Column Ballots

Darcy, R.

doi:10.2307/448268

Cited by 38 publications

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“…Given the potential impact on the outcome of elections, it is not surprising that the potential effects of the candidates' position on the ballot paper have attracted considerable scholarly attention. The topic is almost as old as the political science discipline itself (Bagley 1966;Brooks 1921;Dana 1912;Gold 1952;Mackerras 1968;Mueller 1969;White 1950;Wilson 1912), but scientific interest only really took hold in the last quarter of the twentieth century (Bakker & Lijphart 1980;Bowler et al 1992;Brook & Upton 1974;Byrne & Pueschel 1974;Darcy 1986;Darcy & McAllister 1990;Hughes 1970;Kelley & McAllister 1984;Lijphart & Pintor 1988;Miller & Krosnick 1998;Robson & Walsh 1974;Scott 1977;Taebel 1975;Volcansek 1981) and it has not lost momentum after the turn of the millennium The more recent literature recognizes the problem and turns to experimental methods to deal with it. In the following we focus on such studies -which also include some early contributions -in order to assess the current knowledge of name order effects, to identify lacunae in the literature and to argue for the added value of our study.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…However, the discipline of experimental investigation of ballot position effects is still in its infancy and overwhelmingly based on natural experiments in the USA where random rotation of candidate names is used in a number of states (e.g. Darcy 1986;Chen et al 2014;Krosnick et al 2004). Very little experimental evidence exists on ballot position effects -not to speak of ballot layout effectsin other systems.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

et al. 2016

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Abstract:Candidates listed first on the ballot paper regularly receive more votes than other candidates, but what role does ballot layout play in this connection? Experimental studies from first-pastthe-post systems show that the ballot position effect is causal as the order of names functions as a cue to voters. Does this also hold for PR systems where voters may vote for a party instead of a specific candidate? We identify a natural experiment in Danish local and regional elections involving more than 10,000 candidates on 103 different ballot papers using ballot layout to study ballot position effects. We find indeed, the ballot position/layout has a causal effect on election results in PR systems. Our findings indicate that the empirical domain of ballot position and layout effects is much wider than suggested by previous research. 2The question of whether a top position on the ballot paper affords a candidate an advantage over other candidates in an election has a long history, both in political science and in practical politics. Woodrow Wilson made the following observation in the beginning of the twentieth century, and it remains valid to this day:I have seen a ballot … which contained seven hundred names. It was bigger than the page of a newspaper and was printed in close columns as a newspaper would be. Of course no voter who is not a trained politician, who has not watched the whole process of nomination carefully, who does not know a great deal about the derivation and character and association of every nominee it contains, can vote a ticket like that with intelligence. In nine cases out of ten, as it has turned out, he will simply mark the first name under each office (Wilson 1912: 593).Since then, a considerable body of political science research has been devoted to identifying more exactly the effect of being listed first on the ballot. Many studies find positive effects, but many studies also find that the contingent effects suggested by Wilson -publicity, It is especially unfortunate that there is so little evidence from proportional representation (PR) systems, which is the most common type of electoral system worldwide (Reynolds et al. 2005: 31). We are primarily interested in list PR systems where voters may vote for a specific candidate or simply vote for a party and thus avoid the challenge of having to select a specific candidate. It is therefore far from clear that ballot position effects will be found in these systems. 4The purpose of this paper is to study list PR systems to determine the degree to which they belong to the empirical domain of ballot position effects. Danish local and regional elections offer a unique opportunity to do this. The paper is structured as follows: We begin by reviewing the existing empirical literature in order to evaluate the present knowledge of ballot position effects, to identify lacunae in the literature, and to argue for the value added by our study. Second, we introduce the Danish local and regional electoral system and its merits as a natural experimen...

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

et al. 2016

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“…The topic is almost as old as the political science discipline itself (Bagley 1966;Brooks 1921;Dana 1912;Gold 1952;Mackerras 1968;Mueller 1969;White 1950;Wilson 1912). But scientific interest really took hold in the last quarter of the twentieth century (Bakker & Lijphart 1980;Bowler et al 1992;Brook & Upton 1974;Byrne & Pueschel 1974;Darcy 1986;Darcy & McAllister 1990;Hughes 1970;Kelley & McAllister 1984;Lijphart & Pintor 1988;Miller & Krosnick 1998;Robson & Walsh 1974;Scott 1977;Taebel 1975;Volcansek 1981) The more recent literature recognizes the problem and turns to experimental methods to deal with it. In the following we focus on such studies -which also include some early contributions -in order to assess the current knowledge of name order effects, to identify lacunae in the literature and to argue for the added value of our study.…”

Section: What We Already Know About Ballot Position Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Positive effect of being listed first Chen et al (2014) Positive effect of being listed first Darcy (1986) No position effect Ho & Imai (2008) Positive effect of being listed first Koppel & Steen (2004) Positive effect of being listed first Krosnick et al (2004) Positive effect of being listed first Meredith & Salant (2013) Positive effect of being listed first Miller & Krosnick (1998) Positive effect of being listed first …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the discipline of experimental investigation of ballot position effects is still in its infancy and overwhelmingly based on natural experiments in the US where random rotation of candidate names is used in a number of states (e.g. Darcy 1986;Chen et al 2014;Krosnick et al 2004). However, very little experimental evidence exists on ballot position effects in other systems.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Факторы Голосования: Вопросы Классификации И Анализа

Трегубов¹

2017

Полис

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Abstract:Candidates listed first on the ballot paper regularly receive more votes than other candidates. Experimental studies from first-past-the-post systems show that this ballot position effect is causal, not just a result of parties affording top positions to popular candidates, and stems from the physical ordering of candidate names functioning as a cue to voters. Does this also hold for PR systems where voters may avoid the challenge of choosing a specific individual candidate and instead simply vote for a party? We identify a natural experiment in the Danish simultaneous local and regional elections -pure list PR systems -where the ballot design make the allocation of some top positions as-if random. Based on election results for more than 10,000 candidates, listed on 103 different ballot papers, we find that ballot position, indeed, also has a causal effect on election results in PR systems. Our findings indicate that the empirical domain of ballot position effects is much wider than suggested by previous research. ____________________ * The first draft of this paper was presented at NOPSA 2014 in Gothenburg, Sweden.. We very much appreciate the constructive comments by participants in the workshop on Causal Effects in Political Science. We also appreciate the very competent and helpful research assistance from Lea Lauridsen, Katrine Wied Thomsen, and Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen. 2The question of whether a top position on the ballot paper affords a candidate an advantage over his or her fellow candidates in an election has a long history, both in political science and in practical politics. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Woodrow Wilson made an observation that summed up speculations that were to last until the present days:I have seen a ballot of this kind which contained seven hundred names. It was bigger than the page of a newspaper and was printed in close columns as a newspaper would be. Of course no voter who is not a trained politician, who has not watched the whole process of nomination carefully, who does not know a great deal about the derivation and character and association of every nominee it contains, can vote a ticket like that with intelligence. In nine cases out of ten, as it has turned out, he will simply mark the first name under each office (Wilson 1912: 593).Since then, a considerable body of political science research has been devoted to identifying more exactly the effect of being listed first on the ballot. Many studies find positive effects but many studies also find, that the contingent effects suggested by Wilson -publicity, engagement, educated voters and many other factors -may modify or even nullify ballot position effects (e.g. Chen et al. However, identifying ballot position effects with some accuracy is challenging. The reason is that political parties and candidates are likely to anticipate them and act strategically to harvest them. If being listed first really brings electoral advantages, parties and candidates are likely to actively seek this position on th...

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Wahlsystemforschung

Schoen

2014

Handbuch Wahlforschung

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Position Effects with Party Column Ballots

Cited by 38 publications

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Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment

Факторы Голосования: Вопросы Классификации И Анализа

Wahlsystemforschung

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