How Issue Salience Pushes Voters to the Left or to the Right
Recent research demonstrates that political parties in western Europe are generally structured along one dimension – and often take more or less similar ideological positions on the economic and cultural dimension – whereas the policy preferences of voters are structured two dimensionally; a considerable part of the electorate combines left-wing stances on one dimension with right-wing stances on the other. These ideologically ‘unserved’ voters are the main focus of this study. Using data from a large-scale survey in Flanders and Wallonia, we demonstrate how the sali†ence of the two... Mehr ...
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Dokumenttyp: | Artikel |
Erscheinungsdatum: | 2020 |
Verlag/Hrsg.: |
Elsevier
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Schlagwörter: | Issues / voting behaviour / salience / ideological dimensions / elections / Belgium |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Permalink: | https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28537870 |
Datenquelle: | BASE; Originalkatalog |
Powered By: | BASE |
Link(s) : | http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/236675 |
Recent research demonstrates that political parties in western Europe are generally structured along one dimension – and often take more or less similar ideological positions on the economic and cultural dimension – whereas the policy preferences of voters are structured two dimensionally; a considerable part of the electorate combines left-wing stances on one dimension with right-wing stances on the other. These ideologically ‘unserved’ voters are the main focus of this study. Using data from a large-scale survey in Flanders and Wallonia, we demonstrate how the sali†ence of the two dimensions explains whether these unserved voters ultimately end up voting for a right-wing or a left-wing party. Specifically, we show that these vot†ers elect a party that is ideologically closest on the dimension that they deem most important at that time. To summarise, the findings of this study confirm that sali†ence is a key driver of electoral choice, especially for cross-pressured voters.