DOCSLIB.ORG

The Many Faces of Strategic Voting

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Many Faces of Strategic Voting Revised Pages The Many Faces of Strategic Voting Strategic voting is classically defined as voting for one’s second pre- ferred option to prevent one’s least preferred option from winning when one’s first preference has no chance. Voters want their votes to be effective, and casting a ballot that will have no influence on an election is undesirable. Thus, some voters cast strategic ballots when they decide that doing so is useful. This edited volume includes case studies of strategic voting behavior in Israel, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, and the United Kingdom, providing a conceptual framework for understanding strategic voting behavior in all types of electoral systems. The classic definition explicitly considers strategic voting in a single race with at least three candidates and a single winner. This situation is more com- mon in electoral systems that have single- member districts that employ plurality or majoritarian electoral rules and have multiparty systems. Indeed, much of the literature on strategic voting to date has considered elections in Canada and the United Kingdom. This book contributes to a more general understanding of strategic voting behavior by tak- ing into account a wide variety of institutional contexts, such as single transferable vote rules, proportional representation, two- round elec- tions, and mixed electoral systems. Laura B. Stephenson is Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. John Aldrich is Pfizer- Pratt University Professor of Political Science at Duke University. André Blais is Professor of Political Science at the Université de Montréal. Revised Pages Revised Pages THE MANY FACES OF STRATEGIC VOTING Tactical Behavior in Electoral Systems Around the World Edited by Laura B. Stephenson, John H. Aldrich, and André Blais University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Revised Pages Copyright © 2018 by Laura B. Stephenson, John H. Aldrich, and André Blais All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by the University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid- free paper First published November 2018 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication data has been applied for. ISBN 978-0- 472- 13102- 0 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978- 0-472-12430- 5 (e- book) Cover illustration courtesy of Pexels. Revised Pages Acknowledgments Many components of this volume emerged from the Making Electoral Democracy Work project, which was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. SSHRC’s generous support brought together a diverse group of researchers interested in the intersections of voting behavior, party strategy, and electoral systems and made it possible to gather considerable data that have contributed to an improved understanding of electoral democracy around the world. This volume is dedicated to the special people in our lives who support us in all we do and to the voters around the world who keep us guessing about their motivations. Revised Pages Revised Pages Contents ONE Strategic Voting and Political Institutions 1 John H. Aldrich, André Blais, and Laura B. Stephenson TWO The Effect of National and Constituency Expectations on Tactical Voting in the British General Election of 2010 28 Paul R. Abramson, John H. Aldrich, Abraham Diskin, Aaron M. Houck, Renan Levine, Thomas J. Scotto, and David B. Sparks THREE Strategic Voting in Changing Times: The 2016 Election in Spain 61 Ignacio Lago FOUR Support for Minority Government and Strategic Voting 75 Jean- François Daoust FIVE Information on Party Strength and Strategic Voting: Evidence of Non- Effects from a Randomized Experiment 89 André Blais, Peter Loewen, Daniel Rubenson, Laura B. Stephenson, and Elisabeth Gidengil SIX Expected Electoral Performance, Candidate Quality, and Voter Strategic Coordination: The Case of Japan 104 Carolina Plescia SEVEN Strategic Coalition Voting in Belgium: The 2014 Federal and Regional Elections 127 Tom Verthé and Stefanie Beyens Revised Pages viii Contents EIGHT Voting Strategically in Two- Vote Elections 150 Philipp Harfst, André Blais, and Damien Bol NINE Strategic Voting in Multiwinner Elections with Approval Balloting: An Application to the 2011 Regional Government Election in Zurich 178 Karine Van der Straeten, Romain Lachat, and Jean- François Laslier TEN Sincere Voting, Strategic Voting: A Laboratory Experiment Using Alternative Proportional Systems 203 Isabelle Lebon, Antoinette Baujard, Frédéric Gavrel, Herrade Igersheim, and Jean- François Laslier Contributors 233 Index 239 Revised Pages ONE Strategic Voting and Political Institutions John H. Aldrich, André Blais, and Laura B. Stephenson In 1999, Israel held an early election. For only the second (and last) time, citizens cast two votes.1 One was the usual vote for party representation in the Knesset, which allocated seats to the parties in near proportion to the percentage of votes they received. The other was a separate vote for candidates, with the candidate receiving the most votes directly elected as prime minister. Several early candidates for prime minister dropped out, leaving three who ran throughout the campaign. The leaders of the two dominant parties, Ehud Barak and incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, received the most votes, with Barak winning.2 A third candidate, Yitzhak Mordechai, ran as the head of the newly formed Center Party, which had broken away from Likud and PM Netanyahu. Mordechai was running rea- sonably strongly in third place, but with Barak rising in the polls and his fortunes declining, Mordechai withdrew his candidacy the day before the election.3 Subsequent studies showed that one important factor in citizens’ decisions was their perception that Mordechai was increasingly likely to lose and that their votes were better spent in support of Barak, whom they preferred to Netanyahu and who, unlike Mordechai, could win (Abramson et al. 2004). Such decisions by voters are referred to as “strategic” voting, because the choices they make reflect the strategic setting of the campaign. Typi- cally, the idea is to avoid “wasting” a vote on a candidate or party whom the voter likes but who cannot win by giving it instead to a candidate or party whom the voter finds less attractive but who may well win, thereby defeat- Revised Pages 2 The Many Faces of Strategic Voting ing an option the voter likes even less. Thus, some voters who disliked Netanyahu considered voting for Mordechai, their most preferred choice, or Barak, their second choice. In this instance, Mordechai lost support right at the end of the campaign as the strategic setting evolved such that those who especially disliked Netanyahu settled on Barak. As it became clear that Mordechai could not win but that Barak might, even more vot- ers changed from Mordechai to Barak to avoid wasting votes. Those who reasoned in this fashion are said to have voted strategically. Had Mordechai stayed in the running, many others would undoubtedly have continued to vote for him in spite of the strategic setting.4 Such voters are referred to as sincere voters, voting for whom they prefer regardless of the strategic context. Sincere and strategic voting have similarities (they are both based on preferences, or utilities) but they also differ (since only strategic voters form expectations about likely outcomes and act upon those expectations). Those expectations combine with their preferences regarding the various outcomes to form expected utilities— to determine for which party these voters cast their ballots. Sincere voters, by contrast, act on their preferences but do not consider expectations in determining their actions. The chapters in this book study the question of the existence, extent, and conditions under which voters reason strategically and thus engage in strategic voting in a wide variety of institutional settings and in elections in different strategic contexts. This variation provides the opportunity to test several theoretical propositions about voters and their inclination to engage in strategic reasoning. By examining voters in these different insti- tutional and electoral contexts, we not only learn about how voters reason and thus about their role in democratic politics but also explain more fully voting decisions and outcomes in many different elections. Each of the chapters involves original data, often survey-based but including laboratory and survey-embedded experiments. While sources vary, more than half the chapters draw their data from the Making Elec- toral Democracy Work (MEDW) project led by André Blais (2010). This project includes detailed analyses of party strategies, voting behavior, and laboratory experiments. According to the project’s website (www.chairelec toral.com/medw.html), The goal of the MEDW project is to examine how the rules of the game (especially the electoral system) and the electoral context (especially the competitiveness and salience of the election) influ- ence the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between voters and parties. Revised Pages Strategic Voting and Political Institutions 3 The nations studied (Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland) were chosen
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Low-Magnitude Proportional Electoral Systems
    The Electoral Sweet Spot: Low-Magnitude Proportional Electoral Systems John M. Carey Dartmouth College Simon Hix London School of Economics and Political Science Can electoral rules be designed to achieve political ideals such as accurate representation of voter preferences and accountable governments? The academic literature commonly divides electoral systems into two types, majoritarian and proportional, and implies a straightforward trade-off by which having more of an ideal that a majoritarian system provides means giving up an equal measure of what proportional representation (PR) delivers. We posit that these trade-offs are better characterized as nonlinear and that one can gain most of the advantages attributed to PR, while sacrificing less of those attributed to majoritarian elections, by maintaining district magnitudes in the low to moderate range. We test this intuition against data from 609 elections in 81 countries between 1945 and 2006. Electoral systems that use low-magnitude multimember districts produce disproportionality indices almost on par with those of pure PR systems while limiting party system fragmentation and producing simpler government coalitions. An Ideal Electoral System? seek to soften the representation-accountability trade-off and achieve both objectives. For example, some electoral t is widely argued by social scientists of electoral sys- systems have small multimember districts, others have tems that there is no such thing as the ideal electoral high legal thresholds below which parties cannot win system. Although many scholars harbor strong pref- seats, while others have “parallel” mixed-member sys- I tems, where the PR seats do not compensate for dispro- erences for one type of system over another, in published work and in the teaching of electoral systems it is standard portional outcomes in the single-member seats.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case for Electoral Reform: a Mixed Member Proportional System
    1 The Case for Electoral Reform: A Mixed Member Proportional System for Canada Brief by Stephen Phillips, Ph.D. Instructor, Department of Political Science, Langara College Vancouver, BC 6 October 2016 2 Summary: In this brief, I urge Parliament to replace our current Single-Member Plurality (SMP) system chiefly because of its tendency to distort the voting intentions of citizens in federal elections and, in particular, to magnify regional differences in the country. I recommend that SMP be replaced by a system of proportional representation, preferably a Mixed Member Proportional system (MMP) similar to that used in New Zealand and the Federal Republic of Germany. I contend that Parliament has the constitutional authority to enact an MMP system under Section 44 of the Constitution Act 1982; as such, it does not require the formal approval of the provinces. Finally, I argue that a national referendum on replacing the current SMP voting system is neither necessary nor desirable. However, to lend it political legitimacy, the adoption of a new electoral system should only be undertaken with the support of MPs from two or more parties that together won over 50% of the votes cast in the last federal election. Introduction Canada’s single-member plurality (SMP) electoral system is fatally flawed. It distorts the true will of Canadian voters, it magnifies regional differences in the country, and it vests excessive political power in the hands of manufactured majority governments, typically elected on a plurality of 40% or less of the popular vote. The adoption of a voting system based on proportional representation would not only address these problems but also improve the quality of democratic government and politics in general.
    [Show full text]
  • Lost in Re-Election: a Tale of Two Spanish Online Campaigns
    Lost in Re-Election: A Tale of Two Spanish Online Campaigns B Helena Gallego1,2( ), David Laniado2, Andreas Kaltenbrunner1,2, B Vicen¸cG´omez1( ), and Pablo Arag´on1,2 1 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain [email protected], [email protected] 2 Eurecat - Technology Center of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain Abstract. In the 2010 decade, Spanish politics have transitioned from bipartidism to multipartidism. This change led to an unstable situation which eventually led to the rare scenario of two general elections within six months. The two elections had a mayor difference: two important left-wing parties formed a coalition in the second election while they had run separately in the first one. In the second election and after merging, the coalition lost around 1M votes, contradicting opinion polls. In this study, we perform community analysis of the retweet networks of the online campaigns to assess whether activity in Twitter reflects the outcome of both elections. The results show that the left-wing parties lost more online supporters than the other parties. Furthermore, we find that Twitter activity of the supporters unveils a decrease in engagement especially marked for the smaller party in the coalition, in line with post-electoral traditional polls. Keywords: Twitter · Politics · Political parties · Spanish elections · Online campaigning · Political coalition · Engagement · Political participation 1 Introduction Social media are playing a key role in shaping public debate in political con- texts, forming a new public sphere [6]; it is therefore increasingly important to understand their usage during political campaigns. Social media’s function as a potential mirror of societal trends [5] and their strong impact on voters’ percep- tions and decision making make it important to understand their dynamics and influence [17], and their usage by politicians [1,22].
    [Show full text]
  • Are Condorcet and Minimax Voting Systems the Best?1
    1 Are Condorcet and Minimax Voting Systems the Best?1 Richard B. Darlington Cornell University Abstract For decades, the minimax voting system was well known to experts on voting systems, but was not widely considered to be one of the best systems. But in recent years, two important experts, Nicolaus Tideman and Andrew Myers, have both recognized minimax as one of the best systems. I agree with that. This paper presents my own reasons for preferring minimax. The paper explicitly discusses about 20 systems. Comments invited. [email protected] Copyright Richard B. Darlington May be distributed free for non-commercial purposes Keywords Voting system Condorcet Minimax 1. Many thanks to Nicolaus Tideman, Andrew Myers, Sharon Weinberg, Eduardo Marchena, my wife Betsy Darlington, and my daughter Lois Darlington, all of whom contributed many valuable suggestions. 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction and summary 3 2. The variety of voting systems 4 3. Some electoral criteria violated by minimax’s competitors 6 Monotonicity 7 Strategic voting 7 Completeness 7 Simplicity 8 Ease of voting 8 Resistance to vote-splitting and spoiling 8 Straddling 8 Condorcet consistency (CC) 8 4. Dismissing eight criteria violated by minimax 9 4.1 The absolute loser, Condorcet loser, and preference inversion criteria 9 4.2 Three anti-manipulation criteria 10 4.3 SCC/IIA 11 4.4 Multiple districts 12 5. Simulation studies on voting systems 13 5.1. Why our computer simulations use spatial models of voter behavior 13 5.2 Four computer simulations 15 5.2.1 Features and purposes of the studies 15 5.2.2 Further description of the studies 16 5.2.3 Results and discussion 18 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Informe De Balance Sobre Los Objetivos De 2019
    INFORME DE BALANCE SOBRE LOS OBJETIVOS DE 2019 1. INTRODUCCIÓN 1 2. EVALUACIÓN POR RESPONSABILIDADES 3 DE LA DIRECCIÓN DE IU ANDALUCÍA 2.1 Coordinación de la Comisión Colegiada 3 2.2 Área de Organización 9 2.3 Área de Institucional 12 2.4 Área de Comunicación 14 2.5 Área de Acción Política 20 2.6 Área de Finanzas 25 2.7 Área de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación T. 29 2.8 Área Agroalimentaria 31 2.9 Área de Educación 32 2.10 Área de Servicios Sociales 34 1.- INTRODUCCIÓN Consolidamos la práctica de rendición de cuentas con esta Asamblea de Balance Anual. De nuestros acuerdos estratégicos, el proceso de rendi- ción de cuentas de las diferentes estructuras es uno de los pilares sobre los que se edifica un movimiento político y social. Esto es así por varias razones. En primer lugar, porque se pone en ejercicio la soberanía de las bases sobre la gestión de la organización. Este documento de balan- ce es debatido y enmendado en todas y cada una de las asambleas de base, las cuales, a su vez, eligen personas para participar directamente en la última fase del proceso. “Empoderar” a las bases pasa por dotarlas de capacidad fiscalizadora. En segundo término, la rendición de cuentas evita arbitrariedades de las direcciones o de personas con responsabi- lidades. Lo hecho debe estar justificado y ser coherente con los acuer- dos estratégicos que a todas y todos nos comprometen. En tercer lugar, se aporta transparencia mediante la socialización de la información re- lativa al trabajo diario de la dirección en todas sus esferas (institucional, social, organizativa, financiera, etc.).
    [Show full text]
  • BACKBENCHERS So in Election Here’S to You, Mr
    Twitter matters American political satirist Stephen Colbert, host of his and even more SPEAKER smash show The Colbert Report, BACKBENCHERS so in Election Here’s to you, Mr. Milliken. poked fun at Canadian House Speaker Peter politics last week. p. 2 Former NDP MP Wendy Lill Campaign 2011. p. 2 Milliken left the House of is the writer behind CBC Commons with a little Radio’s Backbenchers. more dignity. p. 8 COLBERT Heard on the Hill p. 2 TWITTER TWENTY-SECOND YEAR, NO. 1082 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSWEEKLY MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2011 $4.00 Tories running ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2011 Lobbyists ‘pissed’ leaner war room, Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the hustings they can’t work on focused on election campaign, winning majority This campaign’s say it’s against their This election campaign’s war room Charter rights has 75 to 90 staffers, with the vast majority handling logistics of about one man Lobbying Commissioner Karen the Prime Minister’s tour. Shepherd tells lobbyists that working on a political By KRISTEN SHANE and how he’s run campaign advances private The Conservatives are running interests of public office holder. a leaner war room and a national campaign made up mostly of cam- the government By BEA VONGDOUANGCHANH paign veterans, some in new roles, whose goal is to persuade Canadi- Lobbyists are “frustrated” they ans to re-elect a “solid, stable Con- can’t work on the federal elec- servative government” to continue It’s a Harperendum, a tion campaign but vow to speak Canada’s economic recovery or risk out against a regulation that they a coalition government headed by national verdict on this think could be an unconstitutional Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
    [Show full text]
  • Alternative North Americas: What Canada and The
    ALTERNATIVE NORTH AMERICAS What Canada and the United States Can Learn from Each Other David T. Jones ALTERNATIVE NORTH AMERICAS Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20004 Copyright © 2014 by David T. Jones All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s rights. Published online. ISBN: 978-1-938027-36-9 DEDICATION Once more for Teresa The be and end of it all A Journey of Ten Thousand Years Begins with a Single Day (Forever Tandem) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Borders—Open Borders and Closing Threats .......................................... 12 Chapter 2 Unsettled Boundaries—That Not Yet Settled Border ................................ 24 Chapter 3 Arctic Sovereignty—Arctic Antics ............................................................. 45 Chapter 4 Immigrants and Refugees .........................................................................54 Chapter 5 Crime and (Lack of) Punishment .............................................................. 78 Chapter 6 Human Rights and Wrongs .................................................................... 102 Chapter 7 Language and Discord ..........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Who Gains from Apparentments Under D'hondt?
    CIS Working Paper No 48, 2009 Published by the Center for Comparative and International Studies (ETH Zurich and University of Zurich) Who gains from apparentments under D’Hondt? Dr. Daniel Bochsler University of Zurich Universität Zürich Who gains from apparentments under D’Hondt? Daniel Bochsler post-doctoral research fellow Center for Comparative and International Studies Universität Zürich Seilergraben 53 CH-8001 Zürich Switzerland Centre for the Study of Imperfections in Democracies Central European University Nador utca 9 H-1051 Budapest Hungary [email protected] phone: +41 44 634 50 28 http://www.bochsler.eu Acknowledgements I am in dept to Sebastian Maier, Friedrich Pukelsheim, Peter Leutgäb, Hanspeter Kriesi, and Alex Fischer, who provided very insightful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Manuscript Who gains from apparentments under D’Hondt? Apparentments – or coalitions of several electoral lists – are a widely neglected aspect of the study of proportional electoral systems. This paper proposes a formal model that explains the benefits political parties derive from apparentments, based on their alliance strategies and relative size. In doing so, it reveals that apparentments are most beneficial for highly fractionalised political blocs. However, it also emerges that large parties stand to gain much more from apparentments than small parties do. Because of this, small parties are likely to join in apparentments with other small parties, excluding large parties where possible. These arguments are tested empirically, using a new dataset from the Swiss national parliamentary elections covering a period from 1995 to 2007. Keywords: Electoral systems; apparentments; mechanical effect; PR; D’Hondt. Apparentments, a neglected feature of electoral systems Seat allocation rules in proportional representation (PR) systems have been subject to widespread political debate, and one particularly under-analysed subject in this area is list apparentments.
    [Show full text]
  • GREEN YOUTH for a GLOBAL GREEN CHANGE Documentation
    GREEN YOUTH FOR A GLOBAL GREEN CHANGE Documentation of the 2nd Global Young Greens Congress Berlin, 8th to 14th of August 2010 Dear readers! 3 A short history of the Global Young Greens 4 HISTORY 2nd Congress 8 programmE 9 Regional Meetings 10 Workshops 12 the perspectives of small content scale farming and the agricultural issues 16 Green New Deal – A Concept for a Global Economic Change? 17 Impressions 18 General Assembly of GYG Congress Berlin 2010 20 Summary of our Structure Reform 21 GYG in Action 22 Passed Proposals 23 Statements 25 Participants 26 Introduction of the new Steering Committee 28 Plans 32 THANK-YOU‘S 30 IMPRINT 31 2 global young greens—Congress 2010 Dear readers! We proudly present to you the documentation of the 2nd Global Young Greens Congress held in Berlin from 8th to 14th of August 2010! More than 100 participants from over 50 countries spent five days of discussing as well as exchanging opinions and experiences from their homecountries in order to get closer together and fight with “Youth Power for a Global Green Change“. Workshops, fishbowl discussions and a world café were organised as parts of the congress. The debated topics were endless – reaching from economics and gender issues to social justice, peace and conflicts and - of course - climate change. After three days of debating, two days of General Assem- bly followed. In this, new structures were adopted as well as several topical proposals to form a wider political platform. With this documentation, we are trying to show what the congress was about and what was behind.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Box Voting Ballot Tampering in the 21St Century
    This free internet version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org Black Box Voting — © 2004 Bev Harris Rights reserved to Talion Publishing/ Black Box Voting ISBN 1-890916-90-0. You can purchase copies of this book at www.Amazon.com. Black Box Voting Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century By Bev Harris Talion Publishing / Black Box Voting This free internet version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org Contents © 2004 by Bev Harris ISBN 1-890916-90-0 Jan. 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever except as provided for by U.S. copyright law. For information on this book and the investigation into the voting machine industry, please go to: www.blackboxvoting.org Black Box Voting 330 SW 43rd St PMB K-547 • Renton, WA • 98055 Fax: 425-228-3965 • [email protected] • Tel. 425-228-7131 This free internet version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org Black Box Voting © 2004 Bev Harris • ISBN 1-890916-90-0 Dedication First of all, thank you Lord. I dedicate this work to my husband, Sonny, my rock and my mentor, who tolerated being ignored and bored and galled by this thing every day for a year, and without fail, stood fast with affection and support and encouragement. He must be nuts. And to my father, who fought and took a hit in Germany, who lived through Hitler and saw first-hand what can happen when a country gets suckered out of democracy. And to my sweet mother, whose an- cestors hosted a stop on the Underground Railroad, who gets that disapproving look on her face when people don’t do the right thing.
    [Show full text]
  • A Monthly E-Newsletter for the Latest in Cultural Management and Policy ISSUE N° 114
    news A monthly e-newsletter for the latest in cultural management and policy ISSUE N° 114 DIGEST VERSION FOR OUR FOLLOWERS Issue N°104 / news from encatc / Page 1 CONTENTS NOTE FROM THE Issue N°114 NOTE FROM THE EDITOR EDITOR 2 Dear colleagues, Welcome to the new re-vamped online ENCATC resources to make it ENCATC NEWS 3 version of our monthly ENCATC easier to access direct sources and newsletter! material for your work! Finally, for those who liked the PDF just as it was, These last two months we took the UPCOMING you can still find all the information time to have a critical look at this very 10 you trust from ENCATC and can print EVENTS product we have been producing for this publication to take with you! you for over 20 years as well as to CALLS & ask the opinions of members, key The new format of the ENCATC stakeholders, and loyal readers in newsletter will also offer more space OPPORTUNITIES 13 order to find the new way to adapt this for contributions from our members information tool to reading practices and stakeholders. In this issue you will EUROPEAN YEAR and the digital environment. enjoy articles written by our members Lidia Varbanova, Claire Giraud-Labalte OF CULTURAL 14 So what is the next stage for ENCATC and Savina Tarsitano and from the HERITAGE 2018 News? Many said they were plagued network Future for Religious Heritage. by information overload and felt pressure to have updates quickly and Finally, to mark the European Year of ENCATC IN only a click away.
    [Show full text]
  • A Decline in Ticket Splitting and the Increasing Salience of Party Labels
    A Decline in Ticket Splitting and The Increasing Salience of Party Labels David C. Kimball University of Missouri-St. Louis Department of Political Science St. Louis, MO 63121-4499 [email protected] forthcoming in Models of Voting in Presidential Elections: The 2000 Elections, Herbert F. Weisberg and Clyde Wilcox, eds. Stanford University Press. Thanks to Laura Arnold, Brady Baybeck, Barry Burden, Paul Goren, Tim Johnson, Bryan Marshall, Rich Pacelle, Rich Timpone, Herb Weisberg and Clyde Wilcox for comments. The voice of the people is but an echo chamber. The output of an echo chamber bears an inevitable and invariable relation to the input. As candidates and parties clamor for attention and vie for popular support, the people's verdict can be no more than a selective reflection from among the alternatives and outlooks presented to them. (Key 1966, p. 2) Split party control of the executive and legislative branches has been a defining feature of American national politics for more than thirty years, the longest period of frequent divided government in American history. Even when voters failed to produce a divided national government in the 2000 elections, the party defection of a lone U.S. senator (former Republican James Jeffords of Vermont) created yet another divided national government. In addition, the extremely close competitive balance between the two major parties means that ticket splitters often determine which party controls each branch of government. These features of American politics have stimulated a lot of theorizing about the causes of split-ticket voting. In recent years, the presence of divided government and relatively high levels of split ticket voting are commonly cited as evidence of an electorate that has moved beyond party labels (Wattenberg 1998).
    [Show full text]