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Catch-All or Catch and Release? : The Electoral Consequences of Social Democratic Parties’ March to the Middle in Western Europe

Karreth, Johannes ; Polk, Jonathan LU orcid and Allen, Christopher (2013) In Comparative Political Studies 46(7). p.791-822
Abstract
Although the move to the center of many European Social Democratic par- ties in the 1990s was first rewarded with victories, these parties have since faced a remarkable electoral drought.What explains the seeming inability of these catchall parties to cast a wider but sustainable net for voters? Incorpo- rating a temporal dimension helps explain when and why the broadening of party platforms fails and produces counterintuitive electoral outcomes. Our empirical study analyzes the votes of individuals in three European countries in the past three decades.The individual level allows us to track changes in parties’ voter structures, which are necessarily omitted from studies using aggregate vote shares. Our findings indicate that current... (More)
Although the move to the center of many European Social Democratic par- ties in the 1990s was first rewarded with victories, these parties have since faced a remarkable electoral drought.What explains the seeming inability of these catchall parties to cast a wider but sustainable net for voters? Incorpo- rating a temporal dimension helps explain when and why the broadening of party platforms fails and produces counterintuitive electoral outcomes. Our empirical study analyzes the votes of individuals in three European countries in the past three decades.The individual level allows us to track changes in parties’ voter structures, which are necessarily omitted from studies using aggregate vote shares. Our findings indicate that current analyses of the elec- toral effects of strategy shifts are misleading inasmuch as they fail to account for individual-level motivations for vote switching.
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author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
political parties, party positions, public opinion, neoliberal convergence, social democracy, institutions, historical institutionalism
in
Comparative Political Studies
volume
46
issue
7
pages
791 - 822
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • scopus:84878848062
ISSN
1552-3829
DOI
10.1177/0010414012463885
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
c648929c-76e9-4dfd-b458-38837d7149f5
date added to LUP
2021-09-08 12:00:40
date last changed
2023-02-02 05:03:04
@article{c648929c-76e9-4dfd-b458-38837d7149f5,
  abstract     = {{Although the move to the center of many European Social Democratic par- ties in the 1990s was first rewarded with victories, these parties have since faced a remarkable electoral drought.What explains the seeming inability of these catchall parties to cast a wider but sustainable net for voters? Incorpo- rating a temporal dimension helps explain when and why the broadening of party platforms fails and produces counterintuitive electoral outcomes. Our empirical study analyzes the votes of individuals in three European countries in the past three decades.The individual level allows us to track changes in parties’ voter structures, which are necessarily omitted from studies using aggregate vote shares. Our findings indicate that current analyses of the elec- toral effects of strategy shifts are misleading inasmuch as they fail to account for individual-level motivations for vote switching.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Karreth, Johannes and Polk, Jonathan and Allen, Christopher}},
  issn         = {{1552-3829}},
  keywords     = {{political parties; party positions; public opinion; neoliberal convergence; social democracy; institutions; historical institutionalism}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{7}},
  pages        = {{791--822}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Comparative Political Studies}},
  title        = {{Catch-All or Catch and Release? : The Electoral Consequences of Social Democratic Parties’ March to the Middle in Western Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010414012463885}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/0010414012463885}},
  volume       = {{46}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}