Partisan attachments in a multidimensional space

Dassonneville, Ruth; Fournier, Patrick; Somer‐Topcu, Zeynep

doi:10.1080/01402382.2022.2087387

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Consequently, scholars have focused more on party positions in a comparative context rather than on individual legislators' positions on specific policies (Lupu 2015). Secondly, the multidimensionality of the European political space needs to be considered, both in terms of individual preferences and party positions (Dassonneville, Fournier, and Somer-Topcu 2023).…”

Section: Beyond Content: Position Blurring and Nichenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

No Conservative View Left

Cely

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study delves into the ideological alignment of partisans, a phenomenon of some beneficial and multiple troubling consequences within European political landscapes. I hypothesize a substantial asymmetry in ideological alignment between partisans on the left and right ends of the political spectrum, with profound implications for our understanding of political polarization and party strategies across Europe. Utilizing conventional methods and innovative belief network modeling, I analyze data from the fourth and eighth waves of the European Social Survey (2008, 2016), supplemented by the Chapel Hill Expert Survey and Manifesto Project, covering 15 European countries, 131 political parties, and 23,586 partisans, to test this hypothesis. My findings reveal that supporters of new left parties exhibit a more consistent and coherent set of beliefs compared to their right-wing counterparts. However, the study also uncovers the limits of this asymmetry in a significant shift in ideological alignment on sociocultural issues on the right, indicating the emergence of a deeper, broader ideological conflict. Furthermore, my analysis demonstrates the limited impact of strategies like position blurring and programmatic nicheness, showing only a small effect on ideological alignment in economic matters. These insights highlight the propensity of new left supporters for some worrisome consequences of high belief homogeneity, such as echo chambers and lack of cross-cutting ties, and stress the pivotal role of both the new left and the radical right in the ideological conflict across Europe.

show abstract

Section: Beyond Content: Position Blurring and Nichenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

No Conservative View Left

Cely

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To explore the substantive implications of our approach, we analyze the relationship between party polarization and mass partisanship. As discussed, the ideological differentiation between parties can affect voter attitudes and behavior, including their political engagement (e.g., Adams, De Vries and Leiter, 2012;Bischof and Wagner, 2019;Dassonneville, Fournier and Somer-Topcu, 2022;Hobolt and Hoerner, 2020;Levendusky, 2010).…”

Section: Party Polarization and Mass Partisanshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Going back to the Dutch example from Figure 1, for example, the misrepresentation of the cultural differences between parties from a one-dimensional conception may lead us to underestimate their ideological distinctiveness and how it informs voters seeking to identity the party that best represents them. Indeed, that these cultural differences matter is evident from studies by Adams, Ezrow and Leiter (2012) and Dassonneville, Fournier and Somer-Topcu (2022), who show that cultural and multidimensional party positions are key for understanding voters' evolving ideological preferences and partisan attachments. This highlights the importance of employing a measure that is sensitive to this dimension of political conflict.…”

Section: Party Polarization and Mass Partisanshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ideological differences between political parties-what is commonly understood as party polarization (Dalton, 2008;Sartori, 1966)-clarify the supply side of elections and signal to citizens that their vote matters (Downs, 1957;Ezrow and Xezonakis, 2011;Hobolt and Hoerner, 2020). Party polarization has a formative and galvanizing effect on voters, increasing the likelihood that they develop coherent ideological attitudes and partisan attachments (Adams, Ezrow and Leiter, 2012;Dassonneville, Fournier and Somer-Topcu, 2022;Levendusky, 2010;Lupu, 2015). However, too much polarization can deepen political division and impede democratic compromise and stability (e.g., Bischof and Wagner, 2019;Gidron, Adams and Horne, 2020;Hobolt, Leeper and Tilley, 2021;Iyengar and Westwood, 2015;McCoy, Rahman and Somer, 2018;Wagner, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Observers of European politics now by and large agree that both economic and cultural differences shape party competition and support Polk, 2012, 2020;Bornschier, 2010;Dassonneville, Fournier and Somer-Topcu, 2022;Gidron, 2022;Kitschelt, 1994;Kriesi et al, 2006). Analytically, these dimensions should be distinguished.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Multidimensional Party Polarization in Europe: Cross-Cutting Divides and Effective Dimensionality

Koedam¹,

Binding²,

Steenbergen³

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ideological polarization matters. It is a necessary requirement for meaningful electoral competition, but at its extreme can strain democratic functioning. The conceptualization and measurement of contemporary ideological polarization is complicated by the growing complexity of the policy differences between political parties. Yet, existing indicators remain one-dimensional in nature, despite the wide acceptance of the multidimensional structure of European politics. To resolve this tension, we introduce a novel, two-dimensional measure of party polarization. Using the correlation matrix of parties’ ideological positions, we calculate the effective dimensionality of a political space, which accounts for the degree to which the dimensions crosscut each other. We highlight the advantages of this approach with both artificial data and positional estimates derived from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (1999-2019). Then, we explore the empirical implications of our multidimensional measurement strategy, and show that it is better suited to capture the relationship between party polarization and mass partisanship. This study has important theoreti- cal, methodological, and normative implications for our understanding of democratic representation in a changing political landscape.

show abstract

Die Freien Wähler: Eine anständige Alternative für Konservative?

Wurthmann

Angenendt

Thomeczek

2023

Polit Vierteljahresschr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Free Voters (Freie Wähler) party is becoming a more serious competitor in the German party system. It gained parliamentary representation in the Rhineland Palatine in 2021 and has been governing with the Christian Social Union in Bavaria since 2018. In addition, the Free Voters party now holds two of the 96 German parliamentary member positions in the European Parliament and is, at the federal level, the extraparliamentary opposition party with the greatest number of votes. Nevertheless, there has, to date, been no analysis examining people’s motives for voting for the Free Voters or exploring their future openness to voting for the party. This article addresses this oversight by identifying factors, based on population-representative data from the 2021 Bundestag elections, that favour openness and voting for this increasingly influential party. Our analysis shows that a more general dissatisfaction with democratic outputs, a conservative attitude, and low perceptions of spatial distance from the political positions of the Free Voters have significant positive effects.

show abstract

Partisan attachments in a multidimensional space

Cited by 6 publications

References 51 publications

No Conservative View Left

No Conservative View Left

Multidimensional Party Polarization in Europe: Cross-Cutting Divides and Effective Dimensionality

Die Freien Wähler: Eine anständige Alternative für Konservative?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About