Ideological voting for radical right parties in Europe

The aim of this research is to examine to what extent the electoral support for radical right parties (RRPs) is driven by ‘policy voting’ and to compare this support with that of centre-right parties. Using the European Election Study 2019, we focus on six party systems: Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom. Our analyses reveal that party preferences for RRPs are better explained by policy considerations than by other alternative explanations (e.g. by ‘globalization losers’ or ‘protest voting’). Additionally, the results show that although preferences for both party families are mainly rooted in ‘policy voting’, notable differences emerge when looking at the role of specific policy dimensions. Overall, these findings suggest that the support for RRPs cannot be understood fundamentally as a mere reaction against economic pauperization or political dissatisfaction but instead as an ideological decision based on rational choice models.

Determinants of Voting Behaviour

This chapter provides an overview of the main correlates of voting behaviour in Spain. Through a review of existing studies we first offer an outline of the most relevant factors associated with Spaniards’ voting choices. Next, we present a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the importance of these correlates of voting behaviour, drawing on the four available pre- post- electoral panel studies from the Spanish Centro de Investigaciones Socioló gicas (CIS). Through this data we analyse the association of these features with individuals’ voting choices in the 2000, 2008, 2011, and 2015 general elections. Findings illustrate the relevance and evolution of key factors related to the sociological, the social-psychological, and the performance-based models of voting behaviour in Spain. Class voting, economic voting, and ideological voting contribute to explaining Spaniards’ behaviour at the polls.

Does It Pay Off for Mayors to Accurately Manage Finance on Municipalities?

Under the premise of rationality, politicians behave to maximize re-election probability. Favorable macroeconomic contexts, alignment with central governance, and balanced public finance will be rewarded leading to re-election. Logit estimations applied to Portuguese municipalities in the period 2002-2017 fail to empirically support these theoretical effects, providing no incentive-controlled policy actions. Local voters do not punish mayors for the adverse economic performance, staying loyal to ideological voting geographically and over time. Only turnout punishes incumbents over the entire period. The introduction of the law of limitation of terms did not change the incentives towards wise governance; therefore, lack of electoral punishments to undesirable policy actions withstands the potential misconduct of incumbents. Existing evidence points to the need of reforms in what concerns electoral participation as when we compel voters to express their democratic rights, they become more critical to undesirable achievements.

Corruption and Ideological Voting

This article examines the effect of corruption on ideological voting. Linking previous studies of political corruption with theories of ideological voting, it argues that when corruption is high, voters place less importance on ideology when voting than they otherwise would. The reason for this effect is related to voters’ reduced ability to accurately perceive parties’ positions and to their low political efficacy in these contexts. Using data from ninety-seven elections from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, the study shows that in countries with high levels of corruption, voters consider ideology less in their voting decisions, partially because they face difficulties identifying parties’ ideological positions and/or they do not believe parties can implement their electoral programmes. These relationships hold even after controlling for socio-economic and political confounders and for voters’ increased likelihood of abstaining when corruption is high.

Ideological Voting in Context

The chapter addresses whether the extent of ideological voting undertaken by German citizens varied in different media contexts in the period 2009 and 2015. Ideological voting is understood here as the choice of a political party on the basis of one’s ideological identity. We argue that in times of low ideological conflict, these identities may or may not become psychologically salient—and thus enter the calculus of voting—depending on the presence of relevant cues in the public discourse. This hypothesis is tested using thirty GLES Online Tracking surveys and the complementary GLES Long-Term Media Agenda Analysis. Our analysis shows considerable variation in the extent of ideological voting, both among the politically involved and among the politically uninvolved. In contrast to theoretical expectations, however, ideological voting did not increase with the salience of retirement and health issues among the issue public of the elderly.

Constitutional Judicial Behavior: Exploring the Determinants of the Decisions of the French Constitutional Council

This article empirically assesses the relevance of three theories of judicial decision-making for the French Constitutional Council. Our empirical analysis follows previous works by integrating more recent observations, and proposes a new methodology by exploiting new data for cases post 1995. After analyzing the 612 cases published between 1974 and 2013, we focus on cases post 1995 for which we know the exact composition of the court. Our results suggest that (1) political/ideological voting occurs, (2) Justices restrain themselves from invalidating laws, and (3) a court’s independence suffers from political power concentration in other institutions. All in all, these results suggest the need for a reform of the Constitutional Council to strengthen its independence.

Cognitive Ability Rivals the Effect of Political Sophistication on Ideological Voting

This article examines the impact of cognitive ability on ideological voting. We find, using a U.S. sample and a Danish sample, that the effect of cognitive ability rivals the effect of the traditionally strongest predictor of ideological voting, political sophistication. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the effect of cognitive ability being partly mediated by political sophistication. Much of the effect of cognitive ability remains, however, and is not explained by differences in education or openness to experience either. The implications of these results for democratic theory are discussed.

Introduction

This chapter introduces a section consisting of four studies of Swedish exceptionalism which focus on aspects of elections and voting behavior. A study of voter turnout shows that Swedes are exceptionally participatory. The second chapter in the section, which presents an analysis of class voting, indicates that Swedes are exceptionally old-fashioned and still vote according to the occupational class they belong to. An examination of ideological voting suggests that Swedes are exceptionally influenced by the classic left–right divide. And the final chapter takes as its subject involvement in election campaigns, and finds that Swedes are in exceptionally little personal contact with parties and candidates.