WebThis voting theory suggests that models of the vote choices of rational individuals should work with social rather than selfish utility functions. 0000001213 00000 n For Iversen, distance is also important. In the spatial theories of the vote, we see the strategic link between a party's supply and a demand from voters or electors. The relationship between partisan identification and voting is that the model postulates that partisan identification is the explanatory variable and that voting for the electoral choice is the explained variable. For some, this model overestimates the capabilities that voters have. The psycho-sociological model can be seen in the light of an explanatory contribution to the idea that social inking is a determining factor in explaining the vote, or at least on a theoretical level. Four questions around partisan identification. This is central to spatial theories of voting, that is, voters vote or will vote for the candidate or party that is closest to their own positions. The theory of the economic model of the vote is also a model that allows predictions to be made about party behaviour. There are certain types of factors that influence other types of factors and that in turn influence other types of factors and that ultimately help explain the idea of the causal funnel of electoral choice. The image that an individual has of himself in this perspective is also the result of this identification. Those with a lower sense of These are models that should make us attentive to the different motivations that voters may or may not have to make in making an electoral choice. All of these factors and their relationships have to be taken into account, but at the centre is always the partisan attachment. We speak of cognitive preference between one's political preferences and the positions of the parties. There may be one that is at the centre, but there are also others that are discussed. What is partisan identification? These theories are the retrospective voting theories and the theories of ideological space. JSTOR. There is a small bridge that is made between these two theories with Fiorina on the one hand and the Michigan model of another party that puts the concept of partisan identification at the centre and that conceives of this concept in a very different way, especially with regard to its origin. These are voters who proceed by systematic voting. What we are interested in is on the demand side, how can we explain voters' electoral choice. In the Michigan model, the idea of stakes was already present but was somewhat underdeveloped, and this perspective on the role of stakes in the psychosocial model lent itself to both theoretical and empirical criticism from proponents of rationalist models. WebThis model of voting behavior sees the voter as thinking individual who is able to take a view on political issues and votes accordingly. The basic assumption is that voters decide primarily on the basis of ideologies and not on the basis of specific positions on issues. So there is this empirical anomaly where there is a theory that presupposes and tries to explain the electoral choices but also the positions of the parties in a logic of proximity to the centre of the political spectrum, but on the other hand there is the empirical observation that is the opposite and that sees parties and voters located elsewhere. Spatial theories of voting are nothing other than what we have seen so far with regard to the economic model of voting. This model shows that there is more than political identities, partisan identification and social inking. The system in the United States is bipartisan and the question asked was "Do you consider yourself a Republican, Democrat or otherwise? However, this is empirically incorrect. WebPsychological Models of American Voting Behavior* DAVID KNOKE, Indiana University ABSTRACT A path model of the presidential vote involving social variables, party It is an answer that remains faithful to the postulates of Downs' theory and the proximity model. From the point of view of parties and candidates, the economic model and in particular the model that was proposed by Downs in 1957 and which predicts a convergence of a party position towards the centre. This approach emphasizes a central variable which is that of partisan identification, which is a particular political attitude towards a party. When we talk about the Downs model, we also talk about the proximity model, which is the idea of a rational economic mode based on utility maximization. Today, in the literature, we talk about the economic vote in a narrower and slightly different sense, namely that the electoral choice is strongly determined by the economic situation and by the policies that the government puts in place in particular to deal with situations of economic difficulty. 43 17 The extent to which the usefulness of voters' choices varies from candidate to candidate, but also from voter to voter. WebThe three widely accepted behavioral models of voter choice are: the sociological model, the social-psychological model, and the rational choice model. In this approach, it is possible to say that the voter accepts the arguments of a certain party because he or she feels close to a party and not the opposite which would be what the economic model of the vote postulates, that is to say that we listen to what the party has to say and we will choose that party because we are convinced by what that party says. Voters try to maximize their individual utility. 0000006260 00000 n It is also often referred to as a point of indifference because there are places where the voter cannot decide. It is possible to attribute some merits and some criticisms to this model at least in its initial formulation. It is easier to look at what someone has done than to evaluate the promises they made. This is the idea that gave rise to the development of directional models, which is that, according to Downs and those who have followed him, because there is transparency of information, voters can very well see what the political platforms of the parties or candidates are. The idea is that voters are not really able to really evaluate in a forward-looking way the different positions of the parties. One must assess the value of one's own participation and also assess the number of other citizens who will vote. Another possible strategy is to rely on the judgment of others such as opinion leaders. This identification with a party is inherited from the family emphasizing the role of primary socialization, it is reinforced over time including a reinforcement that is given by the very fact of voting for that party. The economic model has put the rational and free citizen back at the centre of attention and reflection, whereas if we push the sociological model a bit to the extreme, it puts in second place this freedom and this free will that voters can make since the psycho-sociological model tells us that voting is determined by social position, it is not really an electoral choice that we make in the end but it is simply the result of our social insertion or our attachment to a party. Hinich and Munger say the opposite, saying that on the basis of their idea of the left-right positioning of the parties, they somehow deduce what will be or what is the position of these parties on the different issues. Voters assess the utility income of parties and candidates. Distance must be taken into account and the idea of mobilizing the electorate must be taken into account. The first question is how to assess the position of the different parties and candidates, since we start from the idea of projecting voters' political preferences and party projections onto a map. The choice can be made according to different criteria, but they start from the assumption that there are these voters who arrive in an electoral process that refers to the idea of the hexogeneity of voters' preferences. The sociological model is somewhat the model that wants to emphasize this aspect. Print. It is by this configuration that May tries to explain this anomaly which is due to the fact that there is a group of voters who become activists within the party and who succeed in shifting the party's positioning towards the extremes. in what is commonly known as the Columbia school of thought, posited that contextual factors influence the development of political attitudes and p. 31). 0000005382 00000 n Here we see the key factors, namely electoral choice and, at the centre, the identification variable for a party, which depends on two types of factors, namely primary socialization and group membership. Among these bridges, one of the first bridges between the psycho-sociological voting theory and the rationalist theories was made by Fiorina because he considers partisan identification to be an important element in explaining electoral choice. The study of voting behavior is a sub-field of Political Science. The second explanation refers to the directional model, i.e. 5. It has often been emphasized that this model and approach raises more questions than answers. There is the important opposition between an economic vote based on a choice, which is the idea that the voter makes a real choice based on a cost-benefit calculation, a choice that is rational in the end according to Weber's typology, while the psycho-sociological vote is rather based on a concept of loyalty that often makes the opposition between choice and loyalty. It is a moment when social cleavages directly influence the vote in this approach and therefore the sociological model, perhaps, at that moment, better explains the vote. The second question is according to which criteria to determine the individual utility of voters. It is an explanation that is completely outside the logic of proximity and the spatial logic of voting. Voting represents an important aspect of public participation in a democratic system. In a phase of alignment, this would be the psycho-sociological model, i.e. The voters have to make that assessment and then decide which one brings more income and which one we will vote for. What determines direction? The concept of electoral choice does not belong to the sociological model but rather to rationalist theories. Another strategy is the so-called "shortcut" that voters take within the rationalist framework of voting, since they are confronted with the problem of information and have to choose on the basis of this information. This has created a research paradigm which is perhaps the dominant paradigm today. Political conditions as well as the influence of the media play an important role, all the more so nowadays as more and more political campaigns and the role of the media overlap. The reference work is The Peoples Choice published in 1948 by Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet. This voting theory suggests that models of the vote choices of rational individuals should work with social rather than selsh utility functions. What voters perceive are directional signals, that is, voters perceive that some parties are going in one direction and other parties are going in another direction on certain issues. Inking and the role of socialization cause individuals to form a certain partisan identification that produces certain types of political attitudes. In this approach, these voters keep their partisan identification and again in the medium or long term, they will go back on the electoral choice that is identified with the partisan identification, also called the homing tendency, which is a tendency to go back on the party with which one identifies. Webbehavior covers a large range of possible subjects of research, from the behaviors of bureaucrats and interest groups to the dealings of political terrorists. "i.e., if it is proximity, it is 'yes', otherwise it is 'no' and therefore directional; 'are the preferences of the actors exogenous? To study the expansion of due process rights. Prospective voting says that voters will listen to what candidates and parties have to say. The importance of symbols lies in what arouses emotions. This table shows that for quite some time now there has been a strong decline in partisan identification. Christopher Rice Follow Strategic Foresight Consultant, Facilitator, Public Speaker, Provocateur, Fox in a world of Hedgehogs - Less thunder in the mouth, more lightning in the hand Recommended Voting Behaviour Peped 4.6k views 22 slides Political Parties Chris Thomas 5.8k views 32 slides Introduction to Elections Peped 5.6k views The Psychology of Voting Research suggests that instilling emotions like gratitude and civic pride may help increase voter turnout. It can be defined as lasting feelings of attachment that individuals develop towards a certain party. First, they summarize the literature that has been interested in explaining why voters vary or differ in the stability or strength of their partisan identification. 65, no. Directional model with intensity: Rabinowitz, Four possible answers to the question of how voters decide to vote, Unified Voting Model: Merrill and Grofman, Responses to criticisms of the proximity model, Partisan Competition Theory: Przeworski and Sprague, Relationship between voting explanatory models and realignment cycle. We are not ignoring the psychological model, which focuses on the identification people have with parties without looking at the parties. What interests us is that the idea of issue voting is fundamental to spatial theories of voting. WebNetworks in electoral behavior, as a part of political science, refers to the relevance of networks in forming citizens voting behavior at parliamentary, presidential or local For some, these are theories that offer reflections on the proper functioning of democracy, on presuppositions, the role of information or the role of citizens for the proper functioning of democracy and the role of parties. Some have another way of talking about convergences and showing how the theories explaining the vote can be reconciled with the process of political misalignment. We want to know how and why a voter will vote for a certain party. Ideology is to be understood as a way of simplifying our world in relation to the problem of information. Here, preferences are endogenous and they can change. Gelman, A, Hill, J (2007) Data Analysis using Regression and Multilevel Hierarchical Models. There are different strategies that are studied in the literature. Others have criticized this analogy between the economic market and the political market as being a bit simplistic, saying that, basically, the consequences of buying a consumer product have a certain number of consequences, but they are much more limited compared to what buying a vote can have in terms of choosing a party. endstream endobj 44 0 obj <> endobj 45 0 obj <> endobj 46 0 obj <>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]>> endobj 47 0 obj <> endobj 48 0 obj <> endobj 49 0 obj <> endobj 50 0 obj <> endobj 51 0 obj <>stream WebThe model of demographics that predicts how an individual will cast their vote. Misalignment creates greater electoral volatility that creates a change in the party system that can have a feedback on the process of alignment, misalignment or realignment. There is a whole literature on opinion formation, quite consensually, that says that citizens have a limited capacity to process information. 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