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

Autor(en)

Thomas Meyer, Markus Wagner

Abstrakt

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(en)

Institut für Staatswissenschaft

Journal

Party Politics

Band

26

Seiten

664-674

Anzahl der Seiten

11

ISSN

1354-0688

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068818806679

Publikationsdatum

2018

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

506014 Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Sociology and Political Science

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/339e3362-8283-4f42-a579-b7cddb804974