scholarly journals Strategic Ambiguity of Party Positions in Multi-Party Competition

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bräuninger ◽  
Nathalie Giger
Keyword(s):  
Formal Model ◽  
Winning Strategy ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Gathering Data

Party competition is largely about making policy promises to voters. We argue that the clarity of the expressed policy position may be equally important. If blurred messages toward different audiences and therefore ambiguous positions can attract votes from different groups, parties have incentives to present ambiguous rather than clear-cut policy platforms. We present a formal model of multi-party competition with stochastic voting where party leaders make strategic choices on both the position and the level of ambiguity of their platforms. Leaders respond to the demands of two principals, the general public and party core constituencies. We derive two hypothesis on the location and ambiguity of party platforms and provide initial tests of these hypotheses in a comparative setting in 14 Western European democracies gathering data on voter and party left-right positions from Eurobarometer surveys and electoral manifestos. Ambiguity of party profiles is estimated using a variant of Wordscores on a newly established data set of electoral manifestos. We find that platforms become more ambiguous as the preferences of the two principals diverge. Our findings imply that ambiguity can be a winning strategy for parties, especially in settings with strong partisan lines.

Centralized or decentralized personalization? Measuring intra-party competition in open and flexible list PR systems

2019 ◽  
pp. 135406881985571
Author(s):  
Jérémy Dodeigne ◽  
Jean-Benoit Pilet
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Over Time

This article offers a comparative analysis of electoral intra-party competition in four countries – Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland and Luxembourg – based on an original data set of 79,621 candidates and 3150 party lists covering the last quarter century (1994–2017). We use two measures to describe the nature of intra-party competition over time, across countries and across party lists: a Gini coefficient and a measure of the effective number of candidates. First, in terms of change over time (personalization) – unlike hypothesized in the presidentialization thesis – there is no concentration of intra-party competition around a few leaders over time. Second, in terms of the dynamics of concentration of votes (personalized politics), the results invite to move beyond the clear-cut divide found in the literature between centralized and decentralized forms of personalized politics. Instead, personalized politics is best described by the concept of ‘elitization’, meaning the concentration of most votes on a medium-sized group of candidates (5–10 per lists). Finally, three sets of factors condition intra-party electoral competition: the electoral rules organizing preference votes, the level of elections (European, national and regional) and the presence on the party lists of incumbent politicians (party leaders, ministers and parliamentarians).

Electoral Demand, Party Competition, and Family Policy: The Politics of a New Policy Field

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Schwander
Keyword(s):  
Family Policy ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Voter Groups ◽  
Southern European Countries

This chapter studies the effect of changing electoral demand and party competition on parties’ family policy orientation in two continental and two southern European countries. Changes in the electoral landscapes represent a necessary but not sufficient condition that provides parties with an incentive to reform their family policy position. As the electoral relevance of the core constituency of both center-right and center-left parties is declining, both center-left and center-right parties are prompted to use progressive family policies to attract new voter groups. Yet, the chapter shows that the strategic configuration of parties influences the extent to which center-right parties modernize their family policy positions. The arguments are tested using data on attitudes toward gender roles and family policy from the European and World Values Survey and a new database on party positions on family policy in two continental and two southern European countries in the last two decades.

scholarly journals The Politics of Fission: An Analysis of Faction Breakaways among Italian Parties (1946–2011)

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Ceron
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
Game Theoretic Model

This article investigates intra-party politics and explores the determinants of factional breakaways, going beyond the unitary actor assumption. It presents a game-theoretic model that focuses on intra-party competition and bargaining dynamics to analyse the interplay between party leaders and minority factions. It tests several hypotheses based on the formal model using a new dataset that contains information about the strength and policy positions of factions inside Italian parties, from 1946 to 2011, measured through quantitative content analysis of motions presented during party congresses. The results show that office, policy and electoral motives influence factions’ decisions to break away. Other elements – such as intra-party democracy, the electoral system and party system competitiveness – also affect leaders’ attitudes toward compromising and alter the likelihood of a split.

Choosing Between Growth and Glory

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 2050-2074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Belenzon ◽  
Aaron K. Chatterji ◽  
Brendan Daley
Keyword(s):  
Business Strategy ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Firm Strategy ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Large Data ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Financing Environment

Prior work has established that the financing environment can impact firm strategy. We argue that this influence can shape the earliest strategic choices of a new venture by creating a potential trade-off between two objectives: rapid growth and reaping the benefits of a positive reputation (glory). We leverage a simple reputation-building strategic choice—naming the firm after the founder (eponymy)—that is associated with superior profitability. Next, we argue via a formal model that the availability of/dependence on external financing can explain why high-growth firms are rarely eponymous. We find empirical support for the model’s predictions using a large data set of 1 million European firms. Eponymous firms grow considerably more slowly than similarly profitable firms. Moreover, eponymy varies in accordance with the firm’s financing environment in a pattern consistent with our model. We discuss implications for the literature on new-venture strategy. This paper was accepted by Bruno Cassiman, business strategy.

Endogenous Parties, Interaction of Different Decision Rules

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Laver ◽  
Ernest Sergenti
Keyword(s):  
Decision Rule ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Competitive Environment ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Robert Axelrod

This chapter attempts to develop more realistic and interesting models in which the set of competing parties is a completely endogenous output of the process of party competition. It also seeks to model party competition when different party leaders use different decision rules in the same setting by building on an approach pioneered in a different context by Robert Axelrod. This involves long-running computer “tournaments” that allow investigation of the performance and “robustness” of decision rules in an environment where any politician using any rule may encounter an opponent using either the same decision rule or some quite different rule. The chapter is most interested in how a decision rule performs against anything the competitive environment might throw against it, including agents using decision rules that are difficult to anticipate and/or comprehend.

The AfD as a ‚Leaderless’ Right-Wing Populist Party. How the Leadership-Structure Dilemma Left an Imprint on the Party’s Leadership

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Gregor Zons ◽  
Anna Halstenbach
Keyword(s):  
Party Competition ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Leadership Structure ◽  
Consolidation Phase ◽  
Leadership Turnover ◽  
Party Institutionalization

AbstractDespite its right-wing populist character, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) shows no signs of a strong party leadership. We ascribe this state of the party leadership to the AfD’s institutionalization as a new party and show how organizational features interact with the skill set and goals of the party leaders. At the party level, we, firstly, outline the organizational change at the top of the party and the party leader selection rules. Secondly, we depict leadership turnover and competitiveness. At the leader level, we investigate the failure of Bernd Lucke, the key founder and one of the initial party leaders, as a manifestation of the leadership-structure dilemma of new parties. Embedded in a leadership team and faced with a growing extra-parliamentary party structure, Lucke tried to secure his initial autonomy and position of power by an attempt to become the sole party leader. His subsequent exit from the AfD laid bare the fact that he was not able to manage the challenges of the organizational consolidation phase, in which a new party needs a coordinator and consensus-builder. The AfD itself has proven its organizational autonomy from its initial leaders and its distaste for a strong and centralized party leadership. The barriers for the latter remain in place while, at the same time, the party institutionalization is still on-going, especially regarding its place in the German party competition.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Study of Visual Gendered Self-Presentation on Twitter

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Andrew J. A. Mattan ◽  
Tamara A. Small
Keyword(s):  
Television Advertising ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Superiority Effect ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Picture Superiority Effect ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Picture Superiority

Abstract The picture superiority effect suggests that a single photograph can communicate a significant amount of political information to voters. Accordingly, politicians must make strategic choices in their self-presentation, particularly when considering how to respond to gender-based stereotypes. Strategic stereotype theory suggests that politicians will either emphasize or rescind gender-based stereotypes depending on whether they believe them to be advantageous to their political image. While the literature on gendered self-presentation is largely confined to television advertising, there is a growing literature focused on the online environment. In this research note, we develop a methodological framework to assess gender-based stereotypes in a purely visual environment. We test the framework using photographs from the Twitter feeds of the main party leaders in the 2018 Ontario election. The note concludes by reflecting on the methodological challenges of examining gender in visual political content online.

scholarly journals Avoidance, ambiguity, alternation: Position blurring strategies in multidimensional party competition

2021 ◽  
pp. 146511652110274
Author(s):  
Jelle Koedam
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Party Strategy ◽  
Political Outcome ◽  
Western European

In a multidimensional environment, parties may have compelling incentives to obscure their preferences on select issues. This study contributes to a growing literature on position blurring by demonstrating how party leaders purposively create uncertainty about where their party stands on the issue of European integration. By doing so, it theoretically and empirically disentangles the cause of position blurring—parties’ strategic behavior—from its intended political outcome. The analysis of survey and manifesto data across 14 Western European countries (1999–2019) confirms that three distinct strategies—avoidance, ambiguity, and alternation—all increase expert uncertainty about a party's position. This finding is then unpacked by examining for whom avoidance is particularly effective. This study has important implications for our understanding of party strategy, democratic representation, and political accountability.

Abstiegserfahrungen in der Kommune und der Aufstieg Unabhängiger Wählergemeinschaften. Neue Befunde aus einem Mehrebenen-Kommunalwahlpanel

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
Christina-Marie Juen ◽  
Markus Tepe ◽  
Michael Jankowski
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Party System ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Fragmentation ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Multi Level

In Germany, Independent Local Lists (UWG) have become an integral part of local politics in recent decades . Despite their growing political importance, the reasons for their electoral rise have hardly been researched . Recent studies argue that Independent Local Lists pursue anti-party positions, which makes them attractive to voters who are dissatisfied with the party system . Assuming that a decline of confidence in established parties corresponds with the experience of local deprivation, this contribution uses a multi-level panel data set to investigate how socio-economic (emigration, aging, declining tax revenue) and political­cultural (turnout, fragmentation) deprivation processes affect the electoral success of Inde­pendent Local Lists . The empirical findings suggest that Independent Local Lists are more successful in municipalities where voter turnout has fallen and political fragmentation has increased .

Should we talk about the weather? How party competition and coalition participation influence parties’ attention to economic issues

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 730-743
Author(s):  
Edward Goldring ◽  
Brandon Beomseob Park ◽  
Laron K Williams
Keyword(s):  
Path Dependence ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Media Narratives

Media narratives of political campaigns paint a complex picture of parties carefully selecting communication strategies in response to the current social and economic climate as well as the strategic choices made by rival parties. Current empirical efforts based on simple ordinary least squares, however, fail to honor those complexities. We argue that ignoring the spatial and temporal dynamics at play produces misleading inferences about parties’ behavior. In an application of German parties’ attention to economic issues in official communications, we demonstrate that once scholars test the theories with a method that honors the inherent complexity of the process, the inferences about parties’ degree of responsiveness change. Indeed, proper specification of the model shows that scholars who ignore spatial dependence tend to overstate the degree to which parties are responsive to changing conditions (such as public opinion or economic indicators) and understate the role of other constraints. Most notably, we find that parties have varying levels of path dependence, parties emulate the strategies used by ideological neighbors, and coalition partners appear to coordinate their strategies. These findings have implications for understanding variation in parties’ messaging strategies and how voters perceive parties’ positions.

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