Voter perceptions of coalition policy positions in multiparty systems

Autor(en)
Thomas Meyer, Daniel Strobl
Abstrakt

A growing body of research shows how voters consider coalition formation and policy compromises at the post-electoral stage when making vote choices. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how voters perceive policy positions of coalition governments. Using new survey data from the Austrian National Election Study (AUTNES), we study voter perceptions of coalition policy platforms. We find that voters do in general have reasonable expectations of the coalitions’ policy positions. However, partisan beliefs and uncertainty affect how voters perceive coalition positions: in addition to projection biases similar to those for individual party placements, partisans of coalition parties tend to align the position of the coalition with their own party’s policy position, especially for those coalitions they prefer the most. In contrast, there is no consistent effect of political knowledge on the voters’ uncertainty when evaluating coalition policy positions.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Staatswissenschaft
Journal
Electoral Studies
Band
41
Seiten
80–91
Anzahl der Seiten
12
ISSN
0261-3794
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2015.11.020
Publikationsdatum
11-2015
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
506014 Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Political Science and International Relations
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/voter-perceptions-of-coalition-policy-positions-in-multiparty-systems(5362504c-7575-4894-8bcb-6e05d17d1a7f).html