The Hungarian Voter: Left–Right Dimension as a Clue to Policy Preferences

Abstract

The left–right (L–R) ideological dimension has been regarded as a useful cognitive device for orientation in the political realm. Thanks to its absorptive nature it is able to represent a party’s stands on various issues simultaneously. This article specifies a number of conditions that its use ought to satisfy in order to function as a “rational” clue for parties’ positions on issues. The perceived position of parties on the L–R dimension should correspond to the parties’ actual issue positions, and the public should be aware of which policies are represented by particular positions on the L–R dimension. The present article addresses this problem, and provides an empirical test on the basis of survey data on political preferences of a random sample of Hungarian voters ( N = 1453) and of members of the Hungarian national Parliament. The evidence generally supports the plausibility of the examined model, and shows that members of the Hungarian public are reasonably successful in matching their and their representatives’ issue preferences via the familiar left–right ideological code.