Under Which Conditions Do Parties Attract Voters’ Reactions to Issues? Party-Varying Issue Voting in German Elections 1987–2009

Abstract

In Appendix A we provide the tabled results of the (Nested) Conditional Logit Models 1 presenting all variables and parameter estimates. These models are the basis for all calculations and visual presentations in the paper. In Appendix B we offer three robustness-checks of the main results in the paper. Robustness-Check I shows that the paper's main conclusions persist when applying quadratic utility losses instead of the used simple linear utility losses. In addition, it provides empirical evidence in favour of the simple linear loss function (Section B.1). Robustness-Check II demonstrates that the main results hold when omitting party identification (PI) and candidate evaluations and considering instead socio-demographic controls and the Left-Right meta issue (Section B.2). For both Robustness-Checks we first provide a summary comparing the identified party-specific issue effects based on these alternative specifications.Second, we offer a comparison of the corresponding linear regression models testing our hypotheses.Third, each Robustness-Check closes with a tabled presentation of the (Nested) Conditional Logit Models based on differing model specifications and control variables, respectively. Finally, Robustness-Check III provides information on the robustness of the paper's findings on the occurrence of party-specific issue voting by excluding the party-specific issue effects with regard to the Greens (Section B.3).

Moderate as Necessary: The Role of Electoral Competitiveness and Party Size in Explaining Parties’ Policy Shifts

“…There is also considerable variation between countries and over time. The fact that other studies investigating the effect of issue distances on vote choice in a variety of countries and contexts find significant effects even when controlling for party identification (see for example Adams, Merrill, and Grofman, 2005;Mauerer, Thurner, and Debus, 2015) further speaks against the idea that party identification is a deterministic predictor of vote choice.…”

Variable selection in general multinomial logit models

“…This simplification results in a so-called generic or global effect, which does not depend on the alternatives. See Mauerer, Thurner, and Debus (2015); Mauerer (2016); Thurner (2000) for relaxation of the assumption in the study of spatial voting in multiparty elections, and see for specific variables z T ij = (z ij1 , . .…”

Nash Optimal Party Positions: The nopp R Package

“…By estimating parties' equilibrium policy positions, it becomes possible, for example, to contrast the actual positions of the parties with a theoretical benchmark. The aim of such comparison is to understand the nature of the electoral incentives facing parties under different scenarios and to derive intuitions on real party system competition based on this understanding (see for example Curini 2015;Guarnieri 2014;Mauerer, Thurner, and Debus 2015).…”