the difference in the cost-benefit ratio that different parties give. For the sociological model we have talked about the index of political predisposition with the variables of socioeconomic, religious and spatial status. the translation of personal preference into a voluntary action designed to influence public policy However, he conceives the origin and function of partisan identification in a different way from what we have seen before. 0000000929 00000 n This model leaves little room for the ideology which is the idea that by putting so much emphasis on the emotional voter and feelings, it leaves little room for the ideology that is central to explaining the economic model of the vote. These theories are called spatial theories of the vote because they are projected. One must take into account the heterogeneity of the electorate and how different voters may have different motivations for choosing which party or candidate to vote for. On the basis of this analysis a behavioral model is constructed, which is then tested on data from a Dutch election survey. Fiorina reverses the question, in fact, partisan identification can result from something else and it also produces electoral choices. An important factor is the role of political campaigns in influencing the vote. These are voters who proceed by systematic voting. We need to find identification measures adapted to the European context, which the researchers have done. McClung Lee, A. The scientific study of voting behavior is marked by three major research schools: the sociological model, often identified as School of Columbia, with the main reference in Applied Bureau of Social Research of Columbia University, whose work begins with the publication of the book The People's Choice (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1944) There has also been the emergence of empirical criticisms which have shown that the role of partisan identification has tended to decrease sharply and therefore an increase in the role of the issues and in particular the role of the cognitive evaluation that the actors make in relation to certain issues. There is also the economic vote, which is the role of the economy. This model explains for Downs why we abstain. Numerous studies have found that voting behavior and political acts can be "contagious . [8][9], The second very important model is the psycho-sociological model, also known as the partisan identification model or Michigan School model, developed by Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes in Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes, among others in The American Voter published in 1960. Voters will vote for a party but that party is not necessarily the one with which they identify. Voting is an act of altruism. Elections and voters: a comparative introduction. But more generally, when there is a campaign, the issues are discussed. The concept and measurement of partisan identification as conceived by these researchers as applying to the bipartite system and therefore needs to be adapted to fit the multiparty and European system. A corollary to this theory is that voters react more to the government than to the opposition because performance is evaluated and a certain state of the economy, for example, can be attributed to the performance of a government. There are other models that try to relate the multiplicity of issues to an underlying ideological space, i.e., instead of looking at specific issues, everything is brought back to a left-right dimension as a shortcut, for example, and there are other theories that consider the degree of ambiguity and clarity of the candidates' positions. The cause-and-effect relationship is reversed, according to some who argue that this is a problem at the empirical level when we want to study the effect of partisan identification on electoral choice because there is a problem of endogeneity; we no longer know what explains what. There has been a lot of criticism that has allowed the idea of issue voting to develop in a rationalist context and models. Rationalist theories and spatial models of the vote have had the very beneficial relationship of putting precisely the free choice of voters at the centre of analyses. xxxiii, 178. Therefore, they cannot really situate where the different parties stand. We want to know how and why a voter will vote for a certain party. There are other cleavages that cut across Republicans and Democrats that should be taken into account to explain the pattern. Hence the creation of the political predisposition index which should measure and capture the role of social insertion or position in explaining electoral choice. He wanted to see the role of the media in particular and also the role of opinion leaders and therefore, the influences that certain people can have in the electoral choice. Voting is an instrument that serves us to achieve an objective. Finally, some studies show that high levels of education lead to weaker attachments to parties. But there are studies that also show that the causal relationship goes in the other direction. Inking and the role of socialization cause individuals to form a certain partisan identification that produces certain types of political attitudes. Political scientists have defined several models of voter behavior in an attempt to explain the different motivations of voters: Rational choice theory describes someone voting in their best interest, supporting the candidate whose platform will give them the most favorable outcomes. This model shows that there is more than political identities, partisan identification and social inking. If certain conditions are present, such as good democratic functioning within the party, activists will have the opportunity to exercise "voice" and influence positions. The further a party moves in the other direction, the less likely the voter will choose it because the utility function gradually decreases. Moreover, there are analogies that are made even explicitly with the idea of the market. Studies have shown that, for example, outside the United States, a much larger proportion of voters who change their vote also change their partisan identification. [15] Then we'll look at the space theories of the vote. If voters, who prefer more extreme options, no longer find these options within the party they voted for, then they will look elsewhere and vote for another party. This jargon comes from this type of explanation. If we take into account Przeworski and Sprague's idea that there can be a mobilization of the electorate in a logic of endogenous preference and non-maximization of the utility of voters. It is by this configuration that May tries to explain this anomaly which is due to the fact that there is a group of voters who become activists within the party and who succeed in shifting the party's positioning towards the extremes. The curve instead of the simple proximity model, or obviously the maximization from the parties' point of view of electoral support, lies in the precise proximity between voters' preferences and the parties' political programs on certain issues, in this case this remains true but with a lag that is determined by discounting from a given status quo. Cross-pressure theory entered political science via the analysis of voting behavior at Columbia University (Lazarsfeld et al. The Logics of Electoral Politics. Curiously, the intensity directional model that adds an element to the simple directional model chronologically precedes the simple directional model. Often, in the literature, the sociological and psycho-sociological model fall into the same category, with a kind of binary distinction between the theories that emphasize social, belonging and identification on the one hand, and then the rationalist and economic theories of the vote, which are the economic theories of the vote that focus instead on the role of political issues, choices and cost-benefit calculations. 0000000866 00000 n On the other hand, ideologically extreme voters try to influence party policies through party activism (voice). This approach would be elitist, this assumption that voters have the ability to know what is going on which is the idea of information and this ability that voters have to look at that information and process it. Voters assess the utility income of parties and candidates. It is a small bridge between different explanations. It also proposes a reconceptualization of the concept of partisanship in order to integrate all relevant contributions of the . Applied to the electorate, this means no longer voting for one party and going to vote for another party. There are also intermediate variables that relate to loyalties to a certain group or sense of belonging. The idea is that it is in circles of interpersonal relations even if more modern theories of opinion leaders look at actors outside the personal circle. The theoretical account of voting behavior drew heavily upon the metaphor of a 'funnel of causality'. Since the idea is to calculate the costs and benefits of voting for one party rather than the other, therefore, each party brings us some utility income. Of course, there have been attempts to assess the explanatory power of directional models, but according to these researchers, these spatial models were designed to be purely theoretical in order to highlight on a purely theoretical level what motivations voters may have for their electoral choice. The second criterion is subjectivity, which is that voters calculate the costs and benefits of voting subjectively, so they make an assessment of the costs and benefits. Today, when we see regression analyses of electoral choice, we will always find among the control variables social status variables, a religion variable and a variable related to place of residence. The scientific study of voting behavior is marked by three major research schools: the sociological model, often identified as School of Columbia, with the main reference in Applied Bureau of Social Research of Columbia University, whose work begins with the publication of the book The Peoples Choice (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1944) and The idea is that the extremist attitudes of those former voters who become party activists push strategic positioning in a direction that takes them away from their constituents. Psychology and Voting Behavior In the same years that behaviorism (of various forms) came to dominate the Thus, the interpretation of differences in voting behaviour from one group to another is to be sought in the position of the group in society and in the way its relations with parties have developed. It is an answer that remains faithful to the postulates of Downs' theory and the proximity model. The idea is that you stay loyal and you do "voice", that is, act to make things change. Several studies have shown that the very fact of voting for a party contributes to the development of a certain identification for that party. Moreover, retrospective voting can also be seen as a shortcut. Voting for a party and continuing to vote for such a party repeatedly makes it possible to develop an identification with that party which, in a way, then reinforces the electoral choice. There is a particular requirement, which is that this way of explaining the voting behaviour of the electoral choice is very demanding in terms of the knowledge that voters may have about different positions, especially in a context where there are several parties and where the context of the political system and in particular the electoral system must be taken into account, because it may be easier for voters to know their positions when there are two parties, two candidates, than when there are, as in the Swiss context, many parties running. This is a fairly reasonable development, as is the discounting model, whose proximity was something reasonable and which makes the model more consistent with reality. In the literature, spatial theories of voting are often seen as one of the main developments of the last thirty years which has been precisely the development of directional models since the proximity model dates back to the 1950s. According to Downs, based on the prospective assessment that voters make of the position that voters have and their position on various issues, voters arrive at and operate this shortcut by situating and bringing parties back to an ideological dimension that may be a left-right dimension but may also be another one. LAZARSFELD, PAUL F., BERNARD BERELSON, and HAZEL GAUDET. JSTOR. Other researchers have tried to propose combined models that combine different explanations. Three elements should be noted. Basic Idea What you are vote choice ; Key foundational studies ; Lazarsfeld, Berelson, Gaudet (1944) The Peoples Choice Berelson, Lazarsfeld, McPhee (1954) Voting What determines direction? party loyalties are freed from their social base and thus these party identifications are formed and crystallized. And going to vote for a party contributes to the European context, the! Data from a Dutch election survey electorate, this means no longer for... 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