The Role of Party Policy Positions in the Operation of Democracy

Best, Robin E.; McDonald, Michael D.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599233.003.0004

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The original formulation of the median mandate had us thinking that “majority endorsed preferences tend towards the median voter preference” and “public policy tends towards the policy [preference] of the parliamentary median” (McDonald and Budge , 26). A series of further analysis made us reconsider (Best and McDonald ; Sieberg and McDonald ), so we did. Electoral majority endorsement usually goes to the plurality party; it is the would‐be Condorcet choice in most countries where we could marshal evidence on full‐scale majority preferences (McDonald, Budge, and Best ).…”

Section: Responsiveness and Measurement Artifactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jettisoning Illusions About the Median Mandate

Best

Budge

McDonald

2017

Legislative Studies Qtrly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We endorse G. Bingham Powell's cautionary corrective to challenge Paul Warwick's conclusions that the median mandate thesis needs to be jettisoned because there is not a close match between median voter and government left‐right positions. More to the point, however, we go beyond Powell's mild caution to challenge Warwick's rejection more assertively and thoroughly. We show his rejection mistakes responsiveness for congruence, misapprehends how and why the median mandate thesis distinguishes between those two concepts, and fails to take account of a measurement artifact associated with his survey data.

show abstract

Section: Responsiveness and Measurement Artifactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jettisoning Illusions About the Median Mandate

Best

Budge

McDonald

2017

Legislative Studies Qtrly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Knowing one is responsible for making a choice that might result in unwanted outcomes should lead individuals to be less likely to make that choice in the first place. Given a finite policy space, I expect that as the number of parties increases, the more their policy positions should overlap with one another (Best and McDonald, 2009). As such, ambivalent individuals in districts with 'crowded' electoral arenas should feel less regret about advocating for their preferred party or candidate because this party should naturally have some degree of overlap with another party.…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambivalence, Political Engagement and Context

Johnson

2013

Political Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholars of American politics have generally found a negative relationship between ambivalence and political engagement. This study explores such conclusions and argues that the effect of ambivalence on engagement varies according to electoral context. Using a multi‐level modeling strategy, I find that ambivalence has a significant overall effect on political engagement for citizens in the United States but a lesser overall impact for citizens in Great Britain. Yet by allowing the slope and the intercept of ambivalence to vary across parliamentary districts, I find that ambivalence has asymmetrical effects on political engagement within Britain. I conclude by arguing that ambivalence essentially operates in a differential manner across electoral contexts and provide preliminary evidence as to why this is.

show abstract

“…Best and McDonald use the CSES to ask whether congruent representation outcomes are available if voters cast ballots in line with their survey‐revealed left–right positions (cf. Best and McDonald 2011: 93–95).…”

Section: Conceptual Distinguishing Features Of Bilateralism and The Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two‐thirds of voters choose to vote for a party other than the one standing closest to them on a left–right spectrum (Warwick 2010: 18). Voters could realise more congruent collective representation by casting ballots for the available party standing closest (Best & McDonald 2011: 93–95). Thus, on these two pieces of evidence, it is difficult to point to unavailable party offerings as a major obstacle to congruent collective representation.…”

Section: Conceptual Distinguishing Features Of Bilateralism and The Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representation as a median mandate: Taking cross‐national differences seriously

Best

Budge

McDonald

2011

European J Political Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The extent and ways in which popular preferences influence government policy are absolutely central to our understanding of modern democracy. Paul Warwick's discussion of these in the European Journal of Political Research in 2010 puts itself at the heart of the debate with its critique of the median mandate theory of McDonald and Budge, proposing an alternative ‘bilateralist’ concept of representation. This article questions whether this concept has much to add to our theoretical understanding of representational processes. However, Warwick's further conceptual points deserve serious consideration. These concern the time horizons within which representative processes work, and the status of the median position given multi‐motivated voting. At the evidential level, Warwick argues that survey‐based measures of voter and party left–right positions fail to produce the correspondence between median and government policy positions that median mandate theory would have us expect. However, survey‐based measures of median voter and party placements obscure important cross‐national variation. Using the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES 2007), as Warwick does, this article shows that survey respondents norm their own and their country's party positions to their national context. The consequence is to make the political centre in all nations appear similar. Allowing for the relevant cross‐national differences brings the relationship between the median voter and government position back in line with expectations.

show abstract

The Role of Party Policy Positions in the Operation of Democracy

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Jettisoning Illusions About the Median Mandate

Jettisoning Illusions About the Median Mandate

Ambivalence, Political Engagement and Context

Representation as a median mandate: Taking cross‐national differences seriously

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About