Perceptions of parties' left-right positions: The impact of salience strategies

Author(s)
Thomas Meyer, Markus Wagner
Abstract

The left-right dimension is widely used by voters and parties as a 'super-issue' with flexible, varying meaning. Hence, it is important to know how voters place parties on the left-right dimension. We argue that voters infer left-right party positions from their positions on two key ideological subdimensions: economic and cultural issues. However, a subdimension should influence party placements on the left-right dimension more if the subdimension is important (1) to the party and (2) in the party system as a whole. In aggregate-level models using voter data from the 2014 European Election Study and party data from the 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey, we show that perceived left-right position of a party reflects in particular party positions on issue dimensions that are (1) more important to the party and (2) more salient in the party system. This finding provides insight into the sources of voter perceptions and has wider implications for our understanding of party competition, as we show how parties' salience strategies can have consequences for position-based ideological perceptions and voting decisions.

Organisation(s)
Department of Government
Journal
Party Politics
Volume
26
Pages
664-674
No. of pages
11
ISSN
1354-0688
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068818806679
Publication date
2018
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
506014 Comparative politics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Sociology and Political Science
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/perceptions-of-parties-leftright-positions-the-impact-of-salience-strategies(339e3362-8283-4f42-a579-b7cddb804974).html