Why Do Political Parties Change their Policy Positions? A Review

Fagerholm, Andreas

doi:10.1111/1478-9302.12078

Cited by 54 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Here, parties change their platform to align more closely to the electorate in anticipation of poor future electoral performance (Erikson, Mackuen, and Stimson 2002;Geer 1996;Laver 2005;Laver and Sergenti 2012). While there is a burgeoning literature testing, and regularly finding support for, the first mechanism (for overviews see Adams 2012;Fagerholm 2015), the second mechanism -rational anticipation -has been more or less ignored by this literature.…”

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confidence: 99%

Living in the Past or Living in the Future? Analyzing Parties’ Platform Change In Between Elections,The Netherlands 1997–2014

Velden

Schumacher

Vis³

2017

Political Communication

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Do parties change their platform in anticipation of electoral losses? Or do parties respond to experienced losses at the previous election? These questions relate to two mechanisms to align public opinion with party platforms: (1) rational anticipation, and (2) electoral performance. While extant work empirically tested, and found support for, the latter mechanism, the effect of rational anticipation has not been put to an empirical test yet. We contribute to the literature on party platform change by theorizing and assessing how party performance motivates parties to change their platform in-between elections. We built a new and unique dataset of >20,000 press releases issued by 15 Dutch national political parties that were in parliament between 1997 and 2014. Utilizing automated text analysis (topic modeling) to measure parties' platform change, we show that electoral defeat motivates party platform change in-between elections. In line with existing findings, we demonstrate that parties are backwardlooking. AbstractDo parties change their platform in anticipation of electoral losses? Or do parties respond to experienced losses at the previous election? These questions relate to two mechanisms to align public opinion with party platforms: (1) rational anticipation, and (2) electoral performance. While extant work empirically tested, and found support for, the latter mechanism, the effect of rational anticipation has not been put to an empirical test yet. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on party platform change by theorizing and assessing how party performance (electoral results, standing in the polls and government participation) motivates parties to change their platform in-between elections. We built a new and unique dataset of >20,000 press releases issued by 15 Dutch national political parties that were in parliament between 1997 and 2014. These data are particularly apt to identify parties' strategies in-between elections and therefore allow us to test both mechanisms; something that is impossible by examining changes in parties' election manifestos -the typical data such studies use. Utilizing automated text analysis (topic modeling) to measure parties' platform change, we show that electoral defeat motivates party platform change in-between elections. In line with existing findings, we demonstrate that parties are backwardlooking. Still, we find this effect only for opposition parties and, interestingly, no indication that this effect weakens over time. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that electoral prospects fail to influence party platform change, disconfirming the rational anticipation mechanism. Additionally, the findings provide important insights on the role of government participation.

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confidence: 99%

Living in the Past or Living in the Future? Analyzing Parties’ Platform Change In Between Elections,The Netherlands 1997–2014

Velden

Schumacher

Vis³

2017

Political Communication

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“…Whilst empirical evidence shows that mainstream parties tend to change their policy positions when public opinion moves away from the party, it does not follow that this creates a more engaging democracy. 12…”

Section: Public Legitimacy As a Goal Of Policy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

People and Power: Democracy after Brexit

Ainsley¹

2019

Political Quarterly

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The result of the 2016 European Union (EU) referendum revealed a disconnect between policy makers and the public, particularly those who could be considered part of Britain’s contemporary working class. Whilst there has been significant attention paid to the parliamentary activity to agree the terms under which Britain will leave the EU, there has been comparatively less attention paid to the causes of the vote, and what can be done to improve public trust in democracy. This article proposes a new public attitudes‐led policy‐making model, using democratic innovations and design thinking, to reconnect policy making to the public and improve political equality.

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“…Through elections political parties are argued to obtain a mandate to represent their voters, which should ensure a connection between public opinion and policy (Mair, 2008). Numerous studies investigate these links between political parties and the public on left-right and other ideological dimensions and generally find a link between party positions and public opinion (for a review, see Fagerholm, 2015). This work argues that parties have strategic reasons to respond to public preferences but that they are constrained by both party characteristics and external conditions.…”

Section: Political Parties and Representation Of The Publicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do political parties listen to the(ir) public? Public opinion–party linkage on specific policy issues

Romeijn

2018

Party Politics

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Political parties are a crucial link between the public and policy outcomes. However, few studies have considered who political parties are responsive to when they take positions on specific policy proposals. This article explores the links between public opinion and the policy positions of political parties on 102 specific policy proposals in Germany using a novel application of multilevel regression with poststratification to estimate the policy preferences of party supporters. While there is a link between general public preferences and the positions of political parties, this connection weakens considerably once political parties are in government. In fact, the study shows that the link between party positions and general public opinion is severed once parties enter government, whereas it is only weakened in the case of party supporters. Finally, the article finds mixed evidence for differences between niche parties and mainstream parties.

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Why Do Political Parties Change their Policy Positions? A Review

Cited by 54 publications

References 45 publications

Living in the Past or Living in the Future? Analyzing Parties’ Platform Change In Between Elections,The Netherlands 1997–2014

Living in the Past or Living in the Future? Analyzing Parties’ Platform Change In Between Elections,The Netherlands 1997–2014

People and Power: Democracy after Brexit

Do political parties listen to the(ir) public? Public opinion–party linkage on specific policy issues

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