Party Responsiveness to Public Opinion in Young Democracies
Ibenskas, Raimondas and Polk, Jonathan LU
(2022)
In Political Studies
70(4).
p.919-938
- Abstract
- Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on... (More)
- Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on a comprehensive dataset that uses expert surveys, parties’ manifestoes and election surveys to measure parties’ positions, and several cross-national and national surveys to measure voters’ preferences provide strong support for this argument. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4f26f0e4-ec76-4ab5-9828-c411da9315fc
- author
- Ibenskas, Raimondas
and Polk, Jonathan
LU
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- political parties, Central and Eastern Europe, party policy change, ideological congruence
- in
- Political Studies
- volume
- 70
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 919 - 938
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85102115793
- ISSN
- 0032-3217
- DOI
- 10.1177/0032321721993635
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 4f26f0e4-ec76-4ab5-9828-c411da9315fc
- date added to LUP
- 2021-09-13 12:35:43
- date last changed
- 2023-08-15 14:15:15
@article{4f26f0e4-ec76-4ab5-9828-c411da9315fc,
abstract = {{Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on a comprehensive dataset that uses expert surveys, parties’ manifestoes and election surveys to measure parties’ positions, and several cross-national and national surveys to measure voters’ preferences provide strong support for this argument.}},
author = {{Ibenskas, Raimondas and Polk, Jonathan}},
issn = {{0032-3217}},
keywords = {{political parties; Central and Eastern Europe; party policy change; ideological congruence}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{919--938}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Political Studies}},
title = {{Party Responsiveness to Public Opinion in Young Democracies}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0032321721993635}},
doi = {{10.1177/0032321721993635}},
volume = {{70}},
year = {{2022}},
}