And Yet It Moves

Abstract

This article analyzes the effect of parties' election statements on voter perceptions of party policy positions. It reveals robust evidence that campaign policy announcements do influence party images: As a result of the campaign, party policy brands shift in the direction of the platform. Hence, it challenges the conclusion in Adams, Ezrow, and Somer-Topcu that voters do not adjust their perception of parties' positions to campaign statements. This article makes a key contribution to our understanding of elections, as it provides empirical evidence that election campaigns are useful for voters to identify changes in parties' policy preferences. It also opens avenues for further research that the results in Adams et al. had discouraged from, such as analyses of the factors that explain variation in the relevance of campaign statements.

On the relationship between party polarization and citizen polarization

“…These findings are important in that they advance the literature on party and citizen polarization that has, to date, largely analyzed one direction of this relationship and did so in a single country. Furthermore, our analyses suggest that citizens, particularly those with higher levels of sophistication, are often responsive to changes in party positions, despite ongoing debates about whether and under what conditions voters accurately perceive changes in party ideological platforms (e.g., Adams et al, 2011; Fernandez-Vazquez, 2014). Perhaps even more importantly, our findings have important implications for the broader topic of democratic responsiveness.…”

Mainstream Sell-Outs? How Collaboration with the Radical Right Changes Perceptions of Party Positions on Immigration

“…It follows that the coalitions that form will often be ideologically connected and that members will be adjacent to each other on the left/right spectrum. An important implication of this model is that the choice of coalition partner is an important signal about a party's policy positions (Fernandez-Vazquez 2014;Fortunato and Stevenson 2013a).…”

Faction Polarization and Ideological Realignment in South Korea

“…As a result, partisan-ideological sorting could be made in the mass public (Abramowitz and Saunders 2008, Bafumi and Shapiro 2009, Mason 2015. In particular, during election times, when the electoral campaign can affect citizens' perception of party positions, the partisan-ideological sorting could be realigned (Fernandez-Vazquez 2014 (Lee 2014, Hellmann 2014). …”