Party Choice Research Articles

Dynasties and brand names in the political sphere of the post-industrial society

During the formation of contemporary democracy, its ideologists strived to create a management mechanism that did not resemble monarchy at all, so that to emphasize the radical nature of social-political changes in the transition from pre-industrial to industrial society. The dynastic transfer of power in all its manifestations and at all levels of governance was denounced as outdated, ineffective, and violating the very foundations of the peoples will. The article shows that, despite the initial criticism, dynasties are widespread in contemporary politics. The family is a part of politics and systems of public administration in a truly post-industrial form - as a brand, image, and symbol. The transition to the post-industrial society predetermines a change in the attitude to dynasties and their role not only in politics but also in systems of interaction with the population (electorate). Based on the analysis of other research and authors data on political dynasties at different levels of government in 17 countries, the article proves the changing attitude to political dynasties even within democratic systems. Political dynasties increasingly often contribute to the creation and expansion of social networks, establishing sustainable political ties, ensuring gender presentation in government, etc. There are numerous manifestations of dynasties in countries with different levels of social-economic development (developed and developing) and different types of government (authoritarian and democratic) due to the application of marketing thinking and technologies in politics. Dynasties allow to effectively use the family potential to create and promote political brands, to ensure sustainable social choices of political candidates and parties, to facilitate political socialization of new generations and relative predictability of politicians behavior, who would follow a family line in making important decisions.

Partisan dealignment and the personalisation of politics in West European parliamentary democracies, 1961–2018

Partisan dealignment is recurrently presented in the literature as one of the main drivers of the ‘personalisation of politics’. Yet, on the one hand, the claim that leader effects on voting behaviour are increasing across time is short on comparative evidence. On the other hand, there is limited empirical evidence that such an increase is due to dealignment. This article explores the longitudinal relationship between partisan dealignment, leader effects and party choice, through a novel dataset pooling 109 national election surveys collected in 14 Western European parliamentary democracies across the last six decades. The results show that leader effects increased over time as a function of the decline of party identification. Additional panel evidence from selected countries shows that partisan dealignment is responsible for increasing leader effects on party choice at the individual level. The longitudinal dimension of this study contributes to the most contested aspect of the personalisation of politics debate.

A Tale of Two Professions in Elections: Party Choice Among Diaconal and Social Workers

A Tale of Two Professions in Elections: Party Choice Among Diaconal and Social Workers

What drives process preferences? The role of perceived qualities of policymakers and party preferences

This article analyzes factors which explain support for the representative model and its two main alternatives: direct democracy and technocracy. It discusses the role played by two understudied explanatory factors: perceptions relating to the personal qualities of the different actors involved in decision-making (i.e. representatives, citizens and experts) and electoral support for mainstream parties (PSOE and PP) and new parties (Ciudadanos and Podemos). We rely on two Spanish surveys from 2011 and 2015. The results show that both perceived qualities and party preferences are linked to support for the three decision-making models. The emergence of new parties in 2015 has reshaped the connection between party choice and process preferences and has made this relationship stronger.

An analysis of the link between individual identity traits and radical party choice

ABSTRACT While recent trends in the study of radical party voting have tended to focus on egalitarian attitudes and individual personality traits in their endeavour to explain radical party choice, the present study pits individual identity traits in the spotlight of ballot box behaviour, using data from the World Values Survey and European Values Survey. We analyse the link between exclusive and inclusive identity (identifying with a more restricted ‘in-group’ versus identifying with a larger community) and the propensity to vote for radical right and radical left parties, using differences in individual identification with respondents’ home nation and as European citizens. The results show that exclusive individual identity is a good predictor of radical right party choice, even in the presence of redistributive and egalitarian values usually associated with left-wing voting. The results also speak to the literature on welfare chauvinism. While the presence of strong egalitarian and redistributive attitudes does indeed normally predict radical left party preference in line with previous findings, this relationship is complicated by the presence of exclusive individual identity, which moderates the former’s effect and can induce egalitarian voters to prefer radical right parties. In conclusion, the paper explores the interaction of identity and social class.

A Critical Evaluation of Appropriateness of Duress and Undue Influence as Legal Safeguards Against Unconscionable Contracts

Duress and undue influence as equitable concepts in the Law of Contract permit an innocent party to withdraw from a subsisting contractual relationship on grounds that the innocent party was induced to accede to such contractual relationship, by reprehensible pressure on the part of the other party; in other words, that as a result of some unconscionable conduct of the part of the other party to the contract, the agreement that gave rise to the contract could not be said to have proceeded from the voluntary choice of the innocent party and as such ought to be annulled. Although the major issue where both or either of duress or undue influence is relied upon to seek to invalidate a contract, is whether the aggrieved party has acted freely, yet duress must be distinguished from undue influence in that the former is usually pleaded as a causative factor to undue influence whereas the latter is relied upon to establish that as a result of duress or other causes, the aggrieved person was deprived of the requisite mental capacity to legitimately and freely make a choice. While it is obvious that presence of such pressure should may constitute a good-enough reason to overturn an otherwise good agreement, it is important to scrutinize belief(s) that inspire resolutions permitting a repudiation of contracts on the basis of either of these concepts with a view to delimiting the exact range of application or effect of each or both of them. This paper examines the question whether duress and undue influence as vitiating factors constitute sufficient legal safeguards against unconscionable contractual transactions. Beginning with a brief look at meaning, types, scope and application of duress and undue influence, the paper proceeds to a consideration of relevant case law and statutory provisions on application of these concepts to unconscionable contracts, and then concludes with a general discussion of the adequacy or otherwise of the law on the subject.

Electoral Competition with Costly Policy Changes: A Dynamic Perspective

We analyze dynamic electoral competition policy changes. The costs of changing a policy increase with the extent of the shift and generate an incumbency advantage. We characterize the dynamics of Markov equilibria in terms of history and party polarization, and analyze how policies are influenced by the amplitude and convexity of costs of change, as well as by the degree of party and voter farsightedness. Regardless of the initial policy, party choices converge in the long run to a stochastic alternation between two (regions of) policies, with transitions occurring when office-holders suffer a shock to their capacity or valence. Although costs of change have a moderating effect on policies, full convergence to the median voter position does not take place.

Dealignment, realignment and generational differences in The Netherlands

A central question in Western European electoral research is whether electoral changes over the past decades should be interpreted in terms of dealignment or realignment. Although many scholars study this question, they have not paid much attention to the role of generational replacement. This ‘age-period-cohort’ (APC) study fills this void by examining the last 10 national elections in the Netherlands (1986–2017). The hypothesis is tested that the determinants of party choice differ systematically across generations. With regard to period effects, it is found that the association between party preference and its predictors has mainly weakened. Over generations, contrarily no decreasing associations are found. The effects of religion, social class, partisanship, left–right and redistribution have not structurally decreased with each successive generation, whereas the effects of education, immigration and European unification are stronger for younger generations. Taken together, these findings reveal how dealignment over time can co-exist with realignment over generations.

Zuma versus Ramaphosa: Factors Influencing Party Choice of South Africans in the Run-up to the 2019 Elections

The outcome of the 2016 local government elections in which the ANC lost substantial support, fuelled early speculation on not only the outcome of the 2019 general elections, but also on the factors which were likely to determine party support. Added to this was the deteriorating political and socio-economic situation in South Africa. Against this background, two national surveys were undertaken in October/November 2017 and October/ November 2018 to establish the factors at these particular times that were likely to influence the vote choice of South Africans. From both surveys it was found that South African voters increasingly base their choice of a party on rational considerations. Trust in the president was a particularly important predictor of voter choice. In the first survey, loss of trust in the president (Zuma) resulted in a loss of faith in the ANC and in support of the party; while in the second survey, the converse was true: an increase in trust in the president (Ramaphosa) reflected an increased trust in and support for the party. Other predictors of vote choice in both surveys include a desire for socio-economic well-being and hope for a better future; the fear of losing a social grant; age; and racialised party images.

Germany Going Postal? Comparing Postal and Election Day Voters in the 2017 German Federal Election

The proportion of voters casting their votes by mail days or even weeks before election day has risen from initially five per cent to nearly thirty per cent in the 2017 German federal election. At the same time, the differences in election results between postal and election day voters are increasing, reaching a record at the Bundestag election in 2017. Against this background, it seems particularly surprising that there are only a small number of empirical studies on postal voting in Germany. For an evaluation (of the development) of postal voting, it is crucial to investigate the factors responsible for the different election results between the two voter groups. This requires more precise knowledge of postal voters and how they differ from voters who cast their ballots on election day. Using data from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), we investigate in how far composition effects – differences between the voter types in the composition of factors potentially relevant for party choice – and association effects – differences regarding their vote functions or criteria applied for vote choice – can help to explain the different electoral outcomes. We conclude that the voter types do not differ substantially from each other with regards to their decision criteria but that their composition differs with regards to certain characteristics relevant for party choice.

How Parties React to Voter Transitions

This letter investigates how voter transitions between parties affect parties’ policy positioning. While a growing literature investigates the role of election results as signals for parties’ policy adaption, it has mostly focused on vote changes of individual parties. However, parties do not know only whether they have won or lost in an election; they also have detailed information on which parties they won votes from and which parties they lost votes to. We make two arguments about how voter transitions should affect the strategic policy choices of political parties. First, when a party has lost votes to another party it will adapt its policy positions toward that party. Second, parties that have overall lost more votes become more likely to adapt their positions. Making use of a data set on individual voter transitions and party positions we can demonstrate that voter transitions indeed affect parties’ competitive behavior.

Renegotiation Strategy of Public-Private Partnership Projects with Asymmetric Information—An Evolutionary Game Approach

The characteristics of public-private partnerships (PPPs) determine that renegotiation is inevitable. Moreover, the strategic choice of the government and investors during renegotiation is critical for the project to continue. Previous studies suggested that the government’s decision-making mistakes and investors’ opportunism during renegotiation are the significant reasons for project failures. However, most of the research focused on the behavioral decision of one party while few have applied evolutionary game theory to study the mutual influence of the strategy choices of both parties involved. To address this issue, this paper established an evolutionary game model of the government’s and investors’ renegotiation strategies, and analyzed the evolutionary stability strategy and related parameters. The results showed that the government’s selection of strategy is based on two values, i.e., the buyback cost and the difference between subsidy cost and the expected social benefit of the project in the future. The higher the expected social benefit, the higher the probability that the government chooses to maintain the project. Besides, investors’ strategy is mainly determined by speculative net benefit and financial status. The probability of investors’ opportunism is positively correlated with the speculative net benefit and negatively correlated with the project benefit of non-opportunism. In addition, cooperative benefits created by reasonable participation in the project will effectively restrict opportunistic behaviors, and the interactive behavior of both game players will move toward the optimal portfolio strategy. This study can provide relevant management suggestions for avoiding excessive subsidies and restraining opportunistic behaviors, which are conducive to the sustainable development of PPP projects.

Party leaders and voter responses to political terrorism

In this article, we study the political implications of terrorism rooted in extremist political ideologies. Our data uniquely allow studying the potential role of party leader evaluations on political outcomes, including voter turnout and vote choice. To strengthen causal identification, we combine an event-study framework with the fact that Norwegians were affected personally to differing degrees by the 22 July 2011 terror attack because of variation in the victims’ municipalities of residence. Our main findings suggest that extreme right-wing terrorism influences party vote intentions and evaluations of political leaders strongly in the short run, as well as party choice in actual elections in the longer run. We document shifts within Norway’s left-right political blocs rather than shifts between those blocs frequently observed following religious/separatist violence.

The more the better? Cumulative issue ownership and intra-campaign party switching

We contribute to the literature on short term changes in voters' party preferences (or intra-campaign party switching), by advancing a factor that has been neglected so far: Voters' perceptions about parties' issue competence. We develop a model of party switching that includes both classic predictors and issue ownership considerations. Moreover, in contrast to the usual single issue ownership conception focusing on the party deemed most competent to solve the most important problem, we argue that voters base their party choice on their perceptions of parties' competence on a variety of issues, i.e. on cumulative issue ownership. We test our model on panel data from the 2015 Swiss election study. The change in competence perceptions appears as a strong predictor of party switching: The higher the increase in the number of issues on which voters see a party as most competent during the campaign, the higher their likelihood to switch to that party.

Peninjauan Partisipasi Politik Bagi Perempuan Pada Pemilu 2019 di Kecamatan Meureubo

This article wants to see how the participation of women in Meureubo sub-district in welcoming the democratic party during the election of legislative candidates in April 2019. As is known, the involvement of women in politics is still very low. The method used is the Lecture method and then discusses with women representatives from several villages in the Meureubo sub-district. The results show that some of them chose women legislative candidates due to various reasons, namely only women who understood about women so that there was a need for women's representation in parliament, women rarely tripped over corruption cases, women were not equal to men. But for those who do not vote for women legislative candidates due to reasons, namely women are not fit to be leaders, the election of women candidates is only for fulfillment of the quota so that party choices are less than optimal, women are less capable of politics. However, in the end they only hoped that the representation of women or men in the legislature could help empower other women, especially from Meurebo sub-district.

System Dynamics Simulation Research on Ship Emission Control Area Policy

The ship emission control area policy involves multiple stakeholders. This paper studies the behavior selection and its influencing factors of the maritime administrative department and shipping enterprises in the policy implementation, and constructs the system dynamics model of the evolutionary game of the ship emission control area policy. The model is used to analyze the dynamic impact of different fuel costs on the strategic choices of both parties in policy implementation. The results show that the cost of low-sulfur oil has a significant impact on the behavior of shipping companies. The government management department should reasonably formulate relevant incentive policies and fuel oil supply guarantee mechanisms to ensure the smooth implementation of the ship emission control area policy.

Arbitration with Government

Arbitration is today increasingly dominant in the affairs of government. As a principal means of alternative dispute resolution, the utility of arbitration has brought it far beyond the confines of private law. The expanding role of arbitration is now broadly evident in agreements with governments and governmental entities at state and federal levels, and in international agreements involving governments. The question this poses for the lawyer working for government, or private parties contractually bound to arbitrate with government, is whether the adoption of arbitration for disputes involving government constitutes a fundamental shift of dynamics requiring a strategic shift in perspective and approach. What is the significance of the transformation of arbitration from the regime of private law party choice, to law purposed to serve public policy? This article examines that question.

당사자자치의 원칙과 불통일법국법의 지정 -유럽국제사법상의 논의와 우리나라 국제사법에의 시사점-

당사자자치의 원칙과 불통일법국법의 지정 -유럽국제사법상의 논의와 우리나라 국제사법에의 시사점-

Media Bias Effects on Voters in Pakistan

The news media play a significant role in shaping political opinions and party choices of voters as most of the people learn about politics through media. The study investigated the influence of television news channels' biases over the voting behavior of the electorates. The survey method was used as a tool for data collection to determine the relationship between media bias and its influence on voting behavior. Partisan views are exposed when news channels give one side of the political spectrum a distinct advantage through subjective reporting. News channels include cable television news stations operating in Pakistan. The study findings suggest that voters do rely on television news channels for information during election campaigns. The study found that television news bias has a strong influence on people's voting behaviors and election outcomes.

Is populism the third dimension? The quest for political alliances in post-crisis Spain

In this article, we defend the ideational approach to populism by arguing that populist discourses have consequences for government formation and the coalition choices of political parties. Using two attempts of government formation in Spain during 2016 as an example, we show that incorporating a populist dimension of competition alongside the two traditional relevant cleavages in Spain (left-right and center-periphery) can successfully explain agreements where approaches restricted to the two traditional dimensions fail. Essentially, populism forms a third, ideational dimension with its own content, one that can be considered alongside thick ideological dimensions in formal spatial analysis, shaping alliances among political parties.