Left-right Scale Research Articles

Are ideological and partisan affinities determining voters’ support of arms deliveries? Insights from a large-scale survey experiment in France and Germany

Abstract The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine raised for many parties the question of how to position themselves in view of urgently requested arms deliveries. Since, the topic of arms trade, which has hitherto rarely been addressed, has become a heavily politicized and divisive issue and partly even polarized public opinion. A major prerequisite for parties’ position-taking is to anticipate how voters react to such arms transfers and, more specifically, whether their respective attitudes are structured along the predominant left-right axis. Based on a large-scale survey experiment with French and German voters ( $N = 6617$ ) in the year before the Russian invasion, we are able to focus on the relationship between ideological predispositions, vote intentions, and issue attitudes in a non-politicized period. Using both vignette and conjoint experiments, we demonstrate that voters’ attitudes on military transfers can be subsumed remarkably well under the left-right scale. Differentiating the impact of normative and economic considerations, the former is stronger among the left, while the latter also affects the attitudes of rightist citizens. However, normative considerations are the most important concern along the whole political spectrum. The turn of the German Green Party in 2022 to assist countries that are being aggressively attacked (because of the Responsibility to Protect), was not reflected in our data.

Beyond selfishness: the interaction of income and human values in shaping Europeans’ ideology

ABSTRACT The left-right scale of political orientation plays a pivotal role in shaping individual behaviour and government policies, particularly in Western countries. Although rational choice theory suggests that individuals with lower (higher) incomes lean towards left-wing (right-wing) redistributive policies, empirical evidence has challenged this classical view. Building on social and evolutionary psychology, cognitive dissonance theory, and experimental evidence, I argue that resolving this question requires disentangling the role of different human motivations in individuals with different personal and contextual attributes, specifically economic status. Using the European Social Survey and Schwartz’s scale of human values to estimate models of individuals’ political orientation, this paper estimates the joint and interacting ideological effects of household income and human values after controlling for possible income endogeneity. The results confirm that the classical view of ideology is useful but too simplistic. The ideological bias of human values is persistent, though economic circumstances act as a moderating variable in this relationship: Human values play a weaker role in shaping political orientation for citizens of lower economic status. The article illustrates the power of interactions to define complex profiles of citizens and proposes a research agenda.

Regional coalition heuristics: government participation and party perceptions in multi-level systems

When parties cooperate, they are perceived as closer together in an ideological space than when they compete. This mechanism has only been tested at the national level and researchers have disregarded the complex interaction between parties competing and cooperating at various levels of a polity. This article argues that complex multi-level systems have an influence on the voters’ perceptions, especially for coalition parties. More specifically, the hypothesis is that voters perceive those national parties that are in government in their Bundesland as closer together on a left-right scale, even though they are not members of the same coalition at the national level. The hypothesis is tested by relying on GLES data from 2009–2021. National government participation and political sophistication are also taken into account as moderating variables. The results have important implications for understanding party perceptions and the effect of regional government participation in multi-level systems.

Perceptions of policy responsiveness: the effects of egocentric and sociotropic congruence

While policy responsiveness is a central criterion for successful democratic representation, little is known about citizens’ perceptions of whether governments are responsive to citizens’ preferences. This article asks how citizens’ perceptions of policy responsiveness are affected by egocentric and sociotropic congruence, that is, how distant the government is from their own and the median citizen’s position. Studying this question with cross-national European data, it is found that citizens consistently perceive governments that are close to their own positions as more responsive. In contrast, a significant effect of sociotropic congruence emerges only for the left-right scale but not for specific policy issues. Moreover, citizens react negatively to the government being distant from the median left-right position only when they themselves are also distant from the government. Overall, these findings indicate that citizens’ perceptions of policy responsiveness crucially hinge on whether they are personally well represented by government policy.

How Polarised are Citizens? Measuring Ideology from the Ground up

Abstract We investigate whether the ideological polarisation of citizens has increased in Western democracies. We propose a novel methodology to identify individual ideologies by applying latent Dirichlet allocation to political survey data. This approach indicates that questions related to confidence in institutions play a leading role in defining citizen ideologies, in addition to the questions associated with the traditional left-right scale. We decompose the shift in ideological positions across the population over time and measure polarisation. This reveals evidence of a ‘disappearing centre’ in a sub-group of countries with citizens shifting away from centrist ideologies into anti-establishment ‘anarchist’ ideologies. This trend is especially pronounced for the United States.

United in misperception? How politicians and party electorates assess each other’s policy preferences

For representation to work, voters and politicians need to know each other’s policy preferences. While we know that this may not be the case for voters, a growing body of research shows that politicians also regularly misperceive the position of the public or their party’s electorate. However, the two strands of literature are usually not linked, and there is a lack of studies that analyse the mutual (mis)perceptions of citizens and elites. To fill this gap, this paper uses data from three waves of the German Longitudinal Election Study to compare the mutual perceptions of candidates and their party electorates on the left-right scale and on three policy issues. Three findings are noteworthy: First, candidates are only slightly more accurate than voters. Second, in contrast to previous studies, there is no evidence of a conservative bias among politicians. Third, projection plays an important role in both voters’ and candidates' misperceptions. Where both groups think the others are is strongly influenced by their own preferences.

Responsivität im polarisierten Pluralismus – Teil 2: Die Rolle der Parteien

In empirical research on political representation, the congruence between the attitudes of voters and those elected is considered a good measure of political responsiveness . Using the example of four selected political orientations, this article examines the congruence between the preferences of the candidates nominated by the six parties represented in the Bundestag and the population for the election years 2009 to 2021 . Different findings emerge for the four attitudes . Across all parties, there are large similarities between the political preferences of voters and politicians . The positions of voters and politicians on the left-right scale and their attitudes towards climate protection are rather similar, while a more marked difference characterizes the attitudes towards controlling migration . The preference for higher social spending or tax cuts lies somewhere in between . The differences between the political con- victions of SPD and Linke voters and politicians are more pronounced than those of the other parties . In addition to party preference, the level of education has the strongest influ- ence on the distance between voters and politicians .

Political Beliefs and Political Subjectivity of Grey Voters: The Case of Poland

The study’s main aim is to look for relationships between political beliefs and political subjectivity of grey voters (over 65). Political beliefs contain a motivational element, mainly due to being embedded in the values and needs of the respective individuals. This can affect the consciously created place of the citizen within the political system in different directions. The orientation of the study on the grey voters may be cognitively engaging due to the several sources related to historical events that took place in Poland. Political beliefs were conceptualized through dimensions on a left-right scale, where xenophobia and religious fundamentalism were diagnosed in the area of cultural beliefs. In contrast, acceptance of capitalism and anti-welfare were diagnosed in the area of economic beliefs. Political subjectivity was diagnosed using an original tool, whose preliminary analysis made it possible to distinguish three factors of the construct: political initiative, political sense, and identification with the political system.

Do more inclusive parties change less? Intraparty democracy and programmatic change

The extent to which political parties change their policy positions and the emphasis they give to different topics is crucial for the representativeness and responsiveness of contemporary political systems. This article aims to clarify the role of intraparty democracy in explaining the amount of such change. Previous research has shown that a stronger empowerment of members decreases programmatic change. This hypothesis is tested here more broadly, looking at both position shifts and emphasis change, adopting a more comprehensive definition of intraparty democracy and unpacking the Left-Right scale into an economic and cultural subdimension. It is further argued that the effect of intraparty democracy is moderated by the relative salience of the economic vs. cultural subdimensions of political competition. The empirical analysis of 47 parties in 10 countries between 1995 and 2019 confirms that more internally democratic parties change less, while evidence concerning the moderating effect of relative salience is more mixed.

Anchoring Vignettes as a Diagnostic Tool for Cross-National (in)Comparability of Survey Measures: The Case of Voters’ Left-Right Self-Placement

AbstractThere are potentially multiple sources that make it difficult to compare the typical survey measure of the left-right self-placement cross-nationally. We focus on differential item functioning (DIF) due to the different use of response scales when the left-right is framed as an aggregate dimension of policies. We also examine whether and to what extent ordinary citizens’ use of the scale is cross-nationally comparable. Our goal is twofold. First, we assess the cross-national comparability of the left-right self-placement scale using the anchoring vignette method used in nine European countries. Second, we propose a measure that quantifies the extent of DIF at the country level. Our original survey and other benchmark studies suggest that the size of cross-national DIF (CN-DIF) in citizens' use of a left-right scale is relatively small when the left-right concept is considered in policy terms and when a comparison is made between Western European countries.

Super partes? Ideological leaning of heads of state and their distance from prime ministers

ABSTRACT Presidents in parliamentary democracies are commonly perceived as neutral actors, with limited influence on everyday politics. However, Italian heads of state have the widest set of powers among European parliamentary democracies. Recent episodes occurring during the presidential terms of Giorgio Napolitano and Sergio Mattarella suggest that heads of state can indeed play a political role, influencing cabinet formation and day-to-day political events and processes. This article examines whether Italian heads of state can be considered non-partisan political actors or whether, in contrast, their ideological leanings can be inferred from their public speeches and declarations. By compiling and analysing a new and original dataset based on content analysis of presidents’ investiture speeches and New Year’s Eve messages, we mapped the political positions of Italian heads of state over 76 years (1946–2022). As such, the article investigates the conditions under which the position of the President is closer to that of the Prime Minister on the ideological left-right scale and on foreign policy. The analysis reveals that the ideological distance between them is lower when both belong to the same ideological party family and when the Prime Minister has been appointed to form a president’s cabinet, closer to the preferences of the head of state.

Spatial voting in non-partisan cities: A case study

In spatial voting theory, voters choose the candidate whose policy preferences are most like their own. This requires that (a) voters and candidates have policy preferences that can be meaningfully summarized in terms of low-dimensional “ideal points” on a left-right scale; (b) voters are able to discern, either directly or through relevant cues, the ideal points of the candidates who are running for office; and (c) voters incorporate this information into the choices they make at the ballot box. Perhaps more than in any other elections, it is not clear that any of these requirements are met in non-partisan municipal elections: policy preferences may not be ideologically structured, information may be inadequate, and voters may choose candidates for reasons other than ideology. This makes non-partisan municipal elections an especially hard test for spatial voting theory. Using novel data from both municipal candidates and eligible voters in a major non-partisan municipal election in Canada, we show that municipal policy attitudes are ideologically structured and that these municipal policy ideal points are strongly related to mayoral and council vote choice. Thus, despite the institutional and informational obstacles, spatial voting can play an important role in non-partisan municipal elections.

Actual and Popularly Attributed Placement of Political Attitudes on the Left-Right Scale: Results from a Representative Survey of Turkey

Bireylerin sol-sağ cetveline kendilerini nasıl yerleştirdikleri (sol-sağ özdeğerlendirmeleri) özellikle seçmen davranışına ilişkin çalışmalarda sıklıkla gündeme gelmekte, fakat bu cetvelin anlam içeriği mevcut literatürde sorgulanmadan kalmaktadır. Bu çalışma, Türkiye’yi temsil niteliği taşıyan bir orijinal anketin verilerine dayanarak, sıradan insanlar için sol-sağ ayrımının gerçek ve atfedilen anlamları arasındaki farkı incelemektedir. Örneğin, ekonomik meseleler sübjektif sol-sağ özdeğerlendirmeleri için insanların zannettiği kadar önemli mi? Bu soruyu ampirik olarak yanıtlamak için, sorunun her iki bileşeniyle ilgili ölçüler geliştirilerek, hem belirli ekonomik pozisyonları destekleyen insanların kendilerini sol-sağ cetvelinde nereye yerleştirdikleri, hem de bu pozisyonları desteklediği bildirilen hipotetik bireyi aynı cetvelde nereye yerleştirdiklerine dair veriler elde edildi. Ekonomi dışı alanları da kapsayacak şekilde altı politika meselesine dair sorular soruldu. Özdeğerlendirmelere ilişkin bulguların gösterdiği üzere Türkiye’de sol-sağ cetveli daha çok ekonomi dışı bir mesele olan sekülerizm ile ilgili olup halk arasında da böyle anlaşılmaktadır; bununla birlikte sol-sağ cetveli çevrecilikle zannedilenden daha çok ve ekonomik meselelerle zannedilenden daha az ilgilidir. Ayrıca cinsiyet eşitliği ve düşünce özgürlüğü de cetvelin solunda yerleşim ile yakından ilintili olup bu konuda farkındalık da mevcuttur.

Multi-level legislative representation in an inchoate party system: Mass-elite ideological congruence in Brazil

Research has suggested that fragmented political systems, incohesive parties, and weak programmatic links between voters and legislators can undermine the effectiveness of ideological legislative representation. Using Brazil's national and state assemblies, we examine the potential for voter-elite congruence in a legislative environment considered weak in programmatic representation and highly fragmented by a decentralized political structure. Focusing on 2005–2014, we use mass and elite survey data from the National Congress and 12 state assemblies to estimate deputies' and respondents' ideal points on a common left-right scale. Despite many potential barriers to ideological representation, we find an aggregate pattern of congruence between voters' and politicians' ideological positions during this period, with stronger voter-deputy correspondence for state deputies on average. These patterns are confirmed by a dyadic analysis of deputy and voter characteristics. However, we also find weaknesses in party-level ideological congruence for the major parties—for voters on the left and party supporters on the right. The findings suggest that, while the party system did not prevent overall ideological representation, it may have hindered important aspects of party representation.

Categorical Confusion: Ideological Labels in China

The idea of a left-right ideological dimension helps citizens and parties organize their thinking about politics. While the left-right dimension is traditionally organized around questions of inequality and change in democracies, its meaning under authoritarian rule remains uncertain. This paper uses two national surveys to investigate the policy, partisan, and symbolic content of the left-right dimension in China. The analysis of these surveys reveals that while many Chinese citizens are willing to locate themselves on the left-right scale, their placements are distorted by a variety of perceptual bias known as differential item functioning. The labels of left and right do not carry a consistent programmatic meaning, and the partisan and symbolic content of these ideological labels is limited. One implication of the absence of a shared ideological understanding is that it prevents Chinese citizens from developing the type of vocabulary necessary for exercising political agency.

The Ideological Slant of COVID-19-Related Conspiracies. A New Niche for the Far-Right?

ABSTRACT What makes believers in COVID-19-related conspiratorial stories different from the usual conspiracy theorists? To date, evidence on conspiratorial beliefs about COVID-19 is scant and it focuses on only a few countries. Moreover, it overlooks political and ideological factors, which might well help in the endeavour of halting misperceptions about the pandemic and understanding their political consequences. This research note examines the role of these explanatory factors (placement on the left-right scale, authoritarianism, freedom, and support for the incumbent party) in relation to conspiracy theories in general and COVID-19-related conspiratorial beliefs in particular. To do so, it uses a new case study: Spain. Relying on a large online survey (N = 3760), we find that right-wing individuals are more prone to embrace COVID-19-specific than general conspiracies. We also find that people that value security over freedom are more prone to falling for pandemic misbeliefs. Those holding more general conspiratorial beliefs stand out for their defence of freedom above anything else, as well as for their rebellion against authority, including the ruling party. This suggests that the pandemic has roused a new sort of conspiratorial believer: a conservative niche that might become attractive to emerging far-right parties.

Manifestos and ideology: methodological issues and applications to Latin America

Abstract: In this paper we compare the recent dataset of Latin American country party manifestos as coded by the Manifest Project database to other estimations of position on the left-right scale and to another coding of the same documents, discussing their limits and potentialities. The differences found between results offer an interesting opportunity to discuss the method, its reliability, and the validity of the coding scheme and the scales. Our findings suggest that the fragile reliability of the hand-coded content analysis could be circumvented by employing intercoder reliability tests and that users must be cautious when basing conclusions on this project’s results.

Nakon oluje: stranački sustavi u Južnoj Europi nakon eurokrize

For years, the countries of Southern Europe have struggled with the consequences of the sovereign debt crisis. Under external pressure they enacted harsh austerity measures which resulted in shaken trust in the European Union, new protest movements and the entrance of new political parties in legislatures and governments. A decade later, this paper poses the question whether the storm of the European sovereign debt crisis has left an impact on Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The article focuses on changes on the macro-level and analyzes party system changes with the help of data from the CMP/MARPOR dataset. The paper deals with changes in the attitude towards the European Union, the position on the left-right scale (RILE), as well as economic and welfare policy. The analysis has shown a weak decrease in positive attitudes towards the EU in Italy, a moderate leftward shift of the Spanish party system, as well as a moderate decrease in positive attitudes towards the role of the state in the economy in the Greek case. In conclusion, one can say that ten years after the European sovereign debt crisis it is not possible to speak of drastic party system change in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and that external pressure has not succeeded in having an impact on the fact that Southern European party systems are, in general, titled towards the left.

Tra convergenza e divergenza: orientamento politico e fiducia degli italiani verso le istituzioni

During the last forty years, confidence in several institutions has broadly changed among Italian people. However, patterns of variations are highly dependent on the type of institution. Confidence in political-administrative institutions did not substantially vary; confidence in order institutions has substantially increased; instead, confidence in supernational institutions has dramatically collapsed, especially during the last decade. This work aims at providing an original interpretation of the variation of the three dimensions of confidence in institutions by highlighting the role of the political context in shaping those attitudes. In particular, we argue that variation in parties’ positions toward institutions could lead to a change in confidence in order and supernational institutions. By using longitudinal data coming from the Italian edition of the European Values Study (from 1981 to 2018), we offer indirect evidence to our argumentation by analysing trends of confidence in those institutions by political orientation, measured by the left-right scale.

Economic well-being and self-placements on a Left-Right scale: evidence from undergraduate students in seven countries

ABSTRACT Despite its conceptual and empirical ambiguities, the Left-Right distinction of political preferences is a widely used tool in academic debates on voting and party behaviour, coalition formation and political culture. In a novel contribution to scholarship on the social construction of ideological identities, we investigate the context-dependent nature of the association between different conceptualizations of economic well-being and political orientations along a Left-Right scale. Our theoretical framework distinguishes economic well-being into a materialist and post-materialist dimension, and derives its hypotheses from Social Modernization Theory. Using multivariate analyses with original survey data from 3,449 undergraduate students in Bolivia, Brazil, Italy, Kenya, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, our results show clear patterns and large effect sizes in the association between respondents’ macro-economic context and their micro-level ideological orientations. In non-high-income countries, respondents’ Left-Right self-placements correlate with a materialist conceptualization of economic well-being, which centres on assessments of their family’s real-life economic status. In high-income countries, by contrast, respondents’ Left-Right self-placements are associated with a post-materialist conceptualization of economic well-being that is based on normative judgements about inequality aversion.