Is party type relevant to an explanation of policy congruence? Catchall versus ideological parties in the Portuguese case

Abstract

Most research on political congruence has failed to address a fundamental aspect: the explanation of its causality. Party characteristics are acknowledged to be relevant, but there is no consensus as to their effective importance. Nor has there thus far been an analysis of the implications for results of using different methods to assess congruence.The present article seeks to respond to these goals by testing the importance of party type (catch-all versus ideological) to an explanation of levels of intra-party congruence, comparing the main methods of assessing congruence. The study focuses on the Portuguese party system and makes use of a set of 14 policy issues across two dimensions: socioeconomic left-right and libertarian-authoritarian (plus left-right selfplacement).Findings support the notion that Portuguese catch-all parties tend to display slightly higher levels of MP-voter congruence than more ideological parties, although that is essentially dependent on the issue in question. These results were supported by the different methods used (albeit to a lesser extent by centrism).

Representation in Wales: An empirical analysis of policy divisions between voters and candidates

“…xiii These patterns of congruence in policy positions are common in Western democracies. It has been frequently shown that voter-elite congruence in Europe is high in terms of the left-right dimension and specific economic policies, but elites tend to hold more liberal views than voters (e.g., Belchior and Freire 2012;Costello et al 2012;Dolný and Baboš 2015;Vasilopoulou and Gattermann 2013).…”

Eleições autárquicas 2.0: análise das estratégias de comunicação online de candidatos, partidos e movimentos independentes

“…Devido à "erosão das tradicionais clivagens socias e lealdades partidárias" (Norris, 2004: 6), os eleitores passam a apoiar os partidos numa base mais contingente, dependente das suas "performances", e desenvolvem-se assim os catch-all parties (Kirchheimer, 1990). Geralmente colocados no centro do espetro ideológico, estes partidos investem em estratégias comunicacionais que consigam atrair o maior número possível de eleitores, acabando por conseguir um apoio abrangente mas mais volátil (Belchior e Freire, 2013) do que os partidos na era das campanhas pré-modernas.…”

Representation and Austerity Politics: Attitudes of Greek Voters and Elites Compared

“…The left-right scale 'captures the comparative ideological positions of citizens and parliamentarians reasonably well' (Belchior 2010, pέ 12ζ) and offers a 'progressive and redistributive view of the role of the state against a more conservative and market-oriented state outlook ' (de Vries, Hakhverdian & Lancee 2013, p. 223). For these reasons, left-right scales have been used widely as survey instruments in the study of representational congruence (Huber & Powell 1994;Schmitt & Thomassen 1999, Golder & Stramski 2010Belchior 2010;Freire & Belchior 2013). …”

“…A further challenge is that the majority of prior studies have used either issue preferences or left-right self-placement, or deployed the latter as a proxy of the former. Rarely have the two measures been used together, other than in the works of Belchior (2010Belchior ( , 2014, Freire & Belchior (2013) and Costello, Thomassen & Rosema (2012). Our study of representation in Greece in the context of economic crisis builds on these attempts to incorporate different dimensions of congruence in a single framework.…”

“…For many, the degree of left-right congruence between electors and those elected is 'crucial' to the understanding of the quality of political representation (eέgέ Huber & Powell 1994, p. 295;Freire & Belchior 2013). For others, an almost exclusive focus on the ideological dimension leads to a 'blind corner' of political representation research to the extent that it might 'conceal voters' unequal representation across issue dimensions' (Thomassen 2012, pp.…”