Do party positions affect the public's policy preferences? Experimental evidence on support for family policies

Abstract

Abstract The standard assumption of exogenous policy preferences implies that parties set their positions according to their voters’ preferences. Focusing on family policies, we investigate the reverse effect: Are the electorates’ policy preferences responsive to party positions? In a representative German survey, we inform randomized treatment groups about the positions of political parties on two disputed family policies, child care subsidy and universal student aid. In both experiments, the information treatment aligns policy preferences of specific partisan groups with their preferred party's position, implying endogenous policy preferences. The treatment also affects non-partisan swing voters, suggesting that party positioning can affect the public's preferences beyond their partisans.