Elections as Beauty Contests

Abstract

This chapter examines claims that parliamentary elections have become ‘presidentialized’. It argues that there is no evidence to support the claim that parliamentary elections now resemble presidential contests. Leader evaluations clearly have far less influence on the way people vote in parliamentary elections than they do in presidential contests. Although leader evaluations are relatively more important in a two-party system and/or in a majoritarian electoral system, they still do not approach the level of importance they typically have in presidential elections. Only when a parliamentary election takes place alongside a presidential contest does it approach the characteristics of the latter.