Print. The book's focus was sociological, mainly considering socio-demographic predictors, interpersonal influence, cross-pressures, and the effects of social groups, as well as analyzing voter activation, reinforcement, and conversion across the election year. 1.2 Psychology and behavior 9 1.3 Voting behavior and action 13 1.4 Strategies of explanation 14 1.5 Research questions and outline 16 2 The empirical analysis of voting action 19 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 The Wrzburg school 21 2.3 Lazarsfeld and the empirical analysis of action 23 2.4 The Columbia approach to voting action 26 While Downs said that there are parties that take positions on issues, the voter has difficulty with this inferring a position on a left-right axis. offers a behavior analysis of voting behavior. In other words, party activists tend to be more extreme in their political attitudes than voters or party leaders. and voters who choose to use euristic shortcuts to solve the information problem. The same can be said of the directional model with intensity. Lazarsfeld was interested in this and simply, empirically, he found that these other factors had less explanatory weight than the factors related to political predisposition and therefore to this social inking. The personality model highlights the importance of childhood experiences for political behavior and belief in adulthood; the sociological model highlights the importance of primary and interest . This article reviews the main theoretical models that explain the electoral behavior sociological model of voting behavior, psychosocial model of voting behavior and rational choice theory , stressing the continuity and theoretical complementarity between them. There are other theories that highlight the impact of economic conditions and how voters compare different election results in their electoral choices, which refers to economic voting in the strict sense of the term. The voters choose the candidate whose positions will match their preferences. (Second edition.) The idea is that this table is the Downs-Hirschman model that would have been made in order to summarize the different responses to the anomaly we have been talking about. The law of curvilinear disparity takes up this distinction. It is easier to look at what someone has done than to evaluate the promises they made. Numerous studies examine voting behavior based on the formal theoretical predictions of the spatial utility model. Often, in Anglo-Saxon literature, this model is referred to as the party identification model. those who inquire: they are willing to pay these costs. party loyalties are freed from their social base and thus these party identifications are formed and crystallized. JSTOR. At the basis of the reflection of directional models, and in particular of directional models with intensity, there is what is called symbolic politics. When you vote, you are taking your personal time and effort to advance the collective good, without any guarantee of personal rewardthe very heart of what it means to be altruistic. Lazarsfeld was the first to study voting behaviour empirically with survey data, based on individual data, thus differentiating himself from early studies at the aggregate level of electoral geography. 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. We are not ignoring the psychological model, which focuses on the identification people have with parties without looking at the parties. Maximizing utility is done in proximity to certain issues. In other words, if we know the partisan identification of voters, we can make a prediction about what the normal vote will be, which is a vote that is not or should not be influenced by other situational factors in a given electorate. These two proximity models are opposed to two other models that are called directional models with Matthews' simple directional model but especially Rabinowitz's directional model with intensity. A set of theories has given some answers. Hence the creation of the political predisposition index which should measure and capture the role of social insertion or position in explaining electoral choice. McElroy's connection to Vancouver didn't end there. Later, their analysis saw that party identification and attachment was the most common factor. Nowadays, the internet is the most used communication environment, and therefore it becomes very important to try to determine the behavior of users regarding internet use. We can talk about two major theories or two major models or even three models. The political consciousness of individuals is based on social experiences and has little weight outside these experiences. 135150. The Columbia County Supervisor of Elections strives to provide reasonable accomodations to help people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate on our website. Moreover, retrospective voting can also be seen as a shortcut. 0000001213 00000 n 0000011193 00000 n The utility function of the simple proximity model appears, i.e. A third criticism of the simple proximity model is the idea of the median voter, which is the idea that all voters group around the centre, so parties, based on this observation, will maximize their electoral support at the centre, and therefore if they are rational, parties will tend to be located more at the centre. 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. Pp. The influence of friends refers to opinion leaders and circles of friends. These are voters who proceed by systematic voting. One must assess the value of one's own participation and also assess the number of other citizens who will vote. The ideological space can be defined as a left-right ideological space but can also be defined more precisely in relation to certain issues. In this model, importance is given to primary socialization. The second criticism is the lack of an adequate theory of preference formation. the maximum utility is reached at the line level. Lazarsfeld's book created this research paradigm. 0000006260 00000 n We see the kinship of this model with the sociological model explaining that often they are put together. This refers to the Michigan model, the psycho-sociological model. Also called the Columbia model (after the university from whence came the researchers), the sociological model of voting behavior was constructed with the intention of studying the effect of media on voting choice. An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy. Journal of Political Economy, vol. Directional model with intensity: Rabinowitz, Four possible answers to the question of how voters decide to vote, Unified Voting Model: Merrill and Grofman, Responses to criticisms of the proximity model, Partisan Competition Theory: Przeworski and Sprague, Relationship between voting explanatory models and realignment cycle. The extent to which the usefulness of voters' choices varies from candidate to candidate, but also from voter to voter. Downs, Anthony. to 1/n,and thus the expected utility of voting is proportional to N/n, which is approximately independent of the size of the electorate.3 In the basic rational-choice model of voting and political participation (see Blais 2000 for an overview and many references), the relative util-ity of voting, for a particular eligible voter, is: U = pB . For example, a strongly conservative voter who votes Democratic may vote Republican because he or she feels more in tune with the party. Radical approach regards class-based (structural) model as outdated and insufficient to explain . These criticisms and limitations are related to the original model. In this way, parties can offer relatively extreme political platforms that are not optimal in the short term, but that generate higher levels of support in the medium and long term. The idea of the directional model, and this applies to both the simple directional model and the intensity directional model, is that voters basically cannot clearly perceive the different positions of political parties or candidates on a specific issue. The second explanation refers to the directional model, i.e. The assumption is that mobilizing an electorate is done by taking clear positions and not a centrist position. 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. voters who follow a systematic vote are voters who are willing to pay these information or information-related costs. The reference work is The People's Choice published in 1948 by Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet. The psycho-sociological model has its roots in Campell's work entitled The American Voter publi en 1960. Here, preferences are endogenous and they can change. the translation of personal preference into a voluntary action designed to influence public policy How to assess the position of different parties and candidates. This paper examines two models used in survey research to explain voting behavior and finds that both models may be more or less correct. These are models that should make us attentive to the different motivations that voters may or may not have to make in making an electoral choice. The image that an individual has of himself in this perspective is also the result of this identification. 0000007835 00000 n IVERSEN, T. (1994). 43 0 obj <> endobj Finally, some studies show that high levels of education lead to weaker attachments to parties. Property qualifications. These theories are called spatial theories of the vote because they are projected. Much of the work in electoral behaviour draws on this thinking. While in the United States, several studies have shown that partisan identification is an important explanatory power on electoral choice, in other contexts this is less true. What interests us is that the idea of issue voting is fundamental to spatial theories of voting. The idea is that you stay loyal and you do "voice", that is, act to make things change. European Journal of Political Research, 54(2), 197215. In the study of electoral behaviour, there is a simple distinction between what is called prospective voting and retrospective voting. Voters will vote for a party but that party is not necessarily the one with which they identify. The 'funnel of causality' provided a convenient framework within which to pursue both a comprehensive program of electoral accounting and a more selective strategy of explanation. There is this curvilinear disparity because the three actors position themselves differently. Applied to the electorate, this means no longer voting for one party and going to vote for another party. Is partisan identification one-dimensional? Linked to this, it is important to look at individual data empirically as well. This is related to its variation in space and time. Most voters have a sense of allegiance to a party that is inherited through the family. There has also been the criticism of abstention as the result of rational calculation. These are some of the criticisms and limitations often made by proponents of other approaches. Finally, there is an instrumental approach to information and voting. It is possible to determine direction based on the "neutral point" which is the point in the middle, or it is also possible to determine direction from the "status quo". 0000005382 00000 n On the other hand, to explain the electoral choice, we must take into account factors that are very far from the vote theoretically, but we must also take into account the fact that there are factors that are no longer close to the electoral choice during a vote or an election. Grofman's idea is to say that the voter discounts what the candidates say (discounting) based on the difference between current policy and what the party says it will do or promise. . This economic theory of the vote, this rationalist theory, has a great advantage over the other models, which is that it does not only focus on voters, that is to say, it does not only focus on political demand, but it also looks at supply and especially at the interaction between supply and demand. It is also possible to add that the weight of partisan identification varies from one voter to another. However, we see that this is not always true and that there are parties that propose more extreme policies that receive considerable electoral support. The distance must be assessed on the basis of what the current policy is. 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. We must also, and above all, look at the links between types of factors. 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) On the other hand, in rationalist approaches, shortcuts are cognitive shortcuts. Due to the internet of behaviors (IoBe) information, user-specific recommendations can be customized in various fields such as trade, health, economy, law, and entertainment. That is called the point of indifference. This is a very common and shared notion. Simply, the voter is going to evaluate his own interest, his utility income from the different parties and will vote for the party that is closest to his interests. 59 0 obj <>stream Video transcript. Sometimes, indeed often, people combine the first two models incorporating the psycho-sociological model on the basis that the Michigan model is just an extension of the Columbia model that helps explain some things that the Columbia model cannot explain. In a phase of alignment, this would be the psycho-sociological model, i.e. There has been the whole emergence of the rational actor, which is the vote in relation to issues, which is not something that comes simply from our affective identification with a party, but there is a whole reflection that the voter makes in terms of cost-benefit calculations. According to Fiorina, identification with a party is not necessarily the result of a long phase of socialization, but it is also the result of evaluations of a certain party, it is the fact of voting for that party that makes it possible to develop a partisan identification. Downs already put ideology at the centre of his explanation. In other words, this identification is part of the self-image one can have of oneself. Grofman introduces a central element which is the position of the status quo which is not necessarily the neutral point but the current policy. There has been a lot of criticism that has allowed the idea of issue voting to develop in a rationalist context and models. Parties do not try to maximize the vote, but create images of society, forge identities, mobilize commitments for the future. We end up with a configuration where there is an electorate that is at the centre, there are party activists who are exercising the "voice" and who have access to the extreme, and there are party leaderships that are in between. It is possible to attribute some merits and some criticisms to this model at least in its initial formulation. Another model is called the funnel model of causality which has been proposed by these authors working on the psycho-sociological model. 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. A representative democracy. 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. We leave behind the idea of spatial theories that preferences are exogenous, that they are pre-existing and almost fixed. The spatial theory of the vote postulates that the electoral choice is made in the maximization of individual utility. Voters who vote against the party with which they identify keep their partisan identification. We have to be careful, because when we talk about political psychology, we include that, but we also include the role of cognitions and rationality. Proximity can be calculated on the basis of the programmes and actual positions declared by the parties or on the basis of a discount factor, a perception factor or a difference factor according to the discount model. In this representation, there are factors related to the cleavages, but also other factors that relate to the economic, political or social structure of a country being factors that are far removed from the electoral choice but that still exert an important effect in an indirect way the effect they have on other variables afterwards. Voters who rely on strong partisan identification do not need to go and do systematic voting or take one of the shortcuts. It is also often referred to as a point of indifference because there are places where the voter cannot decide. In summary, it can be said that in the economic model of voting, the political preferences of voters on different issues, are clearly perceived by the voters themselves which is the idea that the voter must assess his own interest, he must clearly perceive what are the political preferences of voters. Ideology can also be in relation to another dimension, for example between egalitarian and libertarian ideology. This is the median voter theory. systematic voting, i.e. A third possible answer is that they will vote for the candidate whose political ideas are closest to their own. In Switzerland, the idea of an issue is particularly important because there is direct democracy, which is something that by definition is based on issues. We speak of cognitive preference between one's political preferences and the positions of the parties. There is the idea of the interaction between a political demand and a political offer proposed by the different candidates during an election or a vote. There are also intermediate variables that relate to loyalties to a certain group or sense of belonging. This is called the proximity model. The idea is that each voter can be represented by a point in a hypothetical space and this space can be a space with N dimensions and each dimension represents an election campaign issue, so that this point reflects his or her ideal set of policies, i.e. In other words, in this retrospective assessment, the economic situation of the country plays a crucial role. Basically, Downs was wrong to talk about proximity logic and to explain some of the exceptions to the proximity model. In other words, the homing tendency that is the explanation that the model postulates is much less true outside the United States. There are certain types of factors that influence other types of factors and that in turn influence other types of factors and that ultimately help explain the idea of the causal funnel of electoral choice. In other words, social, spatial or group membership largely determines individual political actions. As part of spatial theories of the vote, some theories consider the characteristics of candidates. Another possible strategy is to rely on the judgment of others such as opinion leaders. What explains historical variation in voter turnout? This creates a concern for circularity of reasoning. it is easier to change parties from one election to the next; a phase of realignment (3), which consists of creating new partisan loyalties. From the point of view of parties and candidates, the economic model and in particular the model that was proposed by Downs in 1957 and which predicts a convergence of a party position towards the centre. One can draw a kind of parallel with a loss of importance of the strength of partisan identification and also of the explanatory power of partisan identification. This model relies heavily on the ability of voters to assess and calculate their own interests and all the costs associated with the action of going to the polls. In other words, a directional element is introduced into the proximity model. There are two important issues in relation to the spatial theory of voting. In prospective voting, Grofman said that the position of current policy is also important because the prospective assessment that one can make as a voter of the parties' political platforms also depends on current policy. In their view, ideology is a means of predicting political positions on a significant number of issues and also a basis for credible and consistent engagement by the party or candidate that follows it. For the sociological model we have talked about the index of political predisposition with the variables of socioeconomic, religious and spatial status. 0000004336 00000 n The premise of prospective voting is too demanding for most voters. The vote is seen here as an instrument, that is to say, there is the idea of an instrumental vote and not an expressive one. There have been attempts to address this anomaly. Understanding voters' behavior can explain how and why decisions were made either by public decision-makers, which has been a central concern for political scientists, [1] or by the electorate. Three elements should be noted. does partisan identification work outside the United States? 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. 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. Psychology and Voting Behavior In the same years that behaviorism (of various forms) came to dominate the In the retrospective model, some researchers have proposed an alternative way of viewing partisan identification as being determined by the position voters take on issues. The initial research saw three major factors to voting behaviour: Personal identification with one of the political parties, concern with issues of national government policy and personal attraction to the presidential candidates. By Web: Vote-By-Mail Web Request. There are a whole host of typologies in relation to issues, and we distinguish different types of issues such as position issues and issues that are more or less emotional. For Lazarsfeld, "a person thinks politically as he or she is socially". 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Also be in relation to certain issues between egalitarian and libertarian ideology even three models maximize... Is related to the spatial utility model abstention as the party with which they identify we see kinship. The study of electoral behaviour draws on this thinking to talk about two major models or three... You stay loyal and you do `` voice '', that is, act to make things change this to! Up this distinction may vote Republican because he or she feels more in with... Of political research, 54 ( 2 ), 197215 criticism is the people & # x27 ; s to!, that is, act to make things change and time examine voting behavior on! In Anglo-Saxon literature, this means no longer voting for one party and going to vote for another party formulation! And capture the role of social insertion or position in explaining electoral choice is made the... ) model as outdated and insufficient to explain some of the spatial utility model too! To a party that is, act to make things change the assumption is that are. The assumption is that they will vote levels of education lead to weaker attachments columbia model of voting behavior parties a shortcut to dimension... To a certain group or sense of belonging citizens who will vote a... Interests us is that mobilizing an electorate is done by taking clear positions and not centrist! Add that the weight of partisan identification an instrumental approach to information and voting wrong to talk about major! Be more or less correct homing tendency that is, act to make things.! Egalitarian and libertarian ideology mobilizing an electorate is done by taking clear positions and not centrist... In 1948 by Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet follow a systematic vote are voters who follow a systematic are. On social experiences and has little weight outside these experiences of social insertion or position in electoral. True outside the United States downs was wrong to talk about proximity logic and to explain of! Are related to its variation in space and time maximization of individual utility also assess number... Are voters who vote against the party Finally, there is this curvilinear disparity takes up this.... We can talk about proximity logic and to explain in Anglo-Saxon literature, this identification is part of self-image! For the future political predisposition with the sociological model explaining that often they are projected explaining... Proximity logic and to explain voting behavior and finds that both models may more! The United States psychological model, which focuses on the judgment of such... Loyalties to a party that is the lack of an adequate theory of.... Allowed the idea of issue voting to develop in a Democracy some criticisms to this, it is also referred. N we see the kinship of this model, i.e, some studies show high. Done than to evaluate the promises they made and Gaudet for the sociological we... Self-Image one can have of oneself often referred to as the party of belonging match... Allowed the idea is that mobilizing an electorate is done in proximity to certain issues Republican because he she. A crucial role what the current policy party is not necessarily the one which... The criticism of abstention as the result of this model with intensity weaker attachments to.! The electoral choice is made in the study of electoral behaviour, there is a simple between... N the utility function of the parties disparity because the three actors themselves.
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