Multidimensional incongruence and vote switching in Europe

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

  • Ryan Bakker
  • Seth Jolly
  • Jonathan Polk

Does ideological incongruence hurt parties in elections? Research on the representational relationship between parties and voters suggests that ideological congruence can boost a party’s electoral prospects. However, while the mechanism is at the individual-level, most of the literature focuses on the party-level. In this article, we develop a set of hypotheses based on a multi-issue conception of party-voter congruence at the individual-level, and examine the electoral consequences of these varying congruence levels in the 2014 European Parliament elections. Consistent with our expectations, comparative analysis finds that ideological and issue-specific incongruence is a significant factor in voting behavior in the European Parliament elections. Although the substantive effects of incongruence are understandably small compared to partisanship, government, or EU performance evaluations, party-voter disagreement consistently matters, and voters’ issue salience is an important moderator of the impact of incongruence on vote choice.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftPublic Choice
Vol/bind176
Udgave nummer1-2
Sider (fra-til)267-296
Antal sider30
ISSN0048-5829
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 1 jul. 2018

ID: 235408913