Explaining Elections in Singapore: Party Credibility & Valence Politics

Author(s):  
Steven Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Harold D. Clarke ◽  
David Sanders ◽  
Marianne C. Stewart ◽  
Paul F. Whiteley
Keyword(s):  

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Whiteley ◽  
Harold Clarke ◽  
David Sanders ◽  
Marianne Stuart

This paper responds to Evans and Kat’s critique of the valence politics model of electoral choice. Their critique is deficient in several respects. First, the authors do not test the valence politics model, which is motivated by a theory of voting rather than a claim about the relationship between generalized measures of “party preference” and “party performance.” Second, Evans and Kat do not provide theoretical grounding for partisanship, which they claim is strongly exogenous to other variables of interest. Third, there are several specification and testing problems with their structural equation model. We study the properties of the valence model using a vector error correction model of aggregate monthly survey data gathered throughout the New Labour Era. Consistent with theoretical expectations, key valence politics variables constitute a powerful cointegrated system in which the dynamics of partisanship are endogenous to other variables in the system.


2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Clarke ◽  
David Sanders ◽  
Marianne Stewart ◽  
Paul Whiteley

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Oliver ◽  
Kai Ostwald

AbstractThe People's Action Party (PAP) of Singapore is one of the world's longest ruling dominant parties, having won every general election since the country's independence in 1965. Why do Singaporeans consistently vote for the PAP, contrary to the expectations of democratization theories? We argue that valence considerations—specifically, perceptions of party credibility—are the main factor in the voting behavior of Singapore's electorate, and are critical to explaining the PAP's resilience. Furthermore, we argue that the primacy of valence politics arose in part by design, as the PAP has used its control of Singapore's high-capacity state to reshape society and thereby reshape voter preferences towards its comparative advantages. We use a multi-methods approach to substantiate this argument, including a comprehensive quantitative analysis of recent elections. Ultimately, our findings suggest that a focus on valence politics can increase the resilience of dominant parties, but that such a strategy also faces natural limits.


2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold D. Clarke ◽  
Allan Kornberg ◽  
Thomas J. Scotto ◽  
Jason Reifler ◽  
David Sanders ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 438-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold D. Clarke ◽  
Thomas J. Scotto ◽  
Allan Kornberg

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