Economic decline and voter discontent

Abstract

Standard economic voting research is too narrowly focused on how economic changes affect the popularity of the governing incumbents, especially with respect to the mainstream opposition party. This approach cannot easily interpret voting behavior as an expression of system wide support. The article seeks to fill this void by using the case of Canada to analyze how long-term economic decline affects election behavior. In particular, the relative success of non-mainstream parties in recent Canadian elections is shown to be connected, at least in part, to long-term economic decline. This is particularly true of those who have borne the brunt of the economic restructuring that has taken place since the 1970s, namely, working-class individuals who lack post-secondary education. Although economic conditions of this group have always been precarious, it has suffered greater economic decline compared to others. This widening gap has led to more negative attitudes towards the political system, which in turn has increasingly led voters from this group to abandon Canada's two mainstream parties, the Liberal and Progressive Conservative, in favor of non-mainstream parties. Analysis is based on a pooled dataset that integrates economic and election survey data from the 1970s to the 1990s.