Lektion 12: Voting Flashcards
What does socio-structural voting model contain?
(samfundet skal være differentiet, der skal være en strukturel forskel, socioøkonomiske forskelle før denne model duer)
- Class, religion, values
- Affect political attitudes
- Selective exposure to information
- Long-standing ties between groups and parties (Denne model inddeler folket i grupper og derefter er der nogle der stemmer på specifikke partier)
What does Class voting cotain?
- Occupational position determines vote
- Underlying economic conflict
- Strong organisational base
- Implies very stable voting behaviour
- Dominant view in 1950s and 1960s
Forklaringer på at class voting ikke findes?
- Weaker class identity
Individualism
Changing class structure
Convergence of living conditions
Social mobility
- Weaker class-party links
Broader party strategies
How does religion effect voting behaviour?
(Religion vigtigt for voting fordi det skaber en homogen gruppe og identitet)
- Goes back to state-church cleavage
- Creates groups with strong identity
- Organisational reinforcement through churches
- Direct effect on political attitudes
- Persistent effect of church attendance
How does values effect voting behaviour?
- Post-material values of increasing importance
- Problem: is it really case of social group voting?
- No fixed ties between group and one party
- Diffuse group
- No organisational core
- Does not provide stability of class or religions
What does the funnel of causality show?
Hele ideen med party identification går tilbage til the funnel causality og michigan schools model
den viser processen til stemmeafgivelsen. Fra det basale til det konkrete (når man stemmer)
Which dealignment trends are there?
Near-universal trend Far-reaching consequences - Issue voting - Volatility - Participation
Reasons:
- Social modernisation
- Citizens less reliant on party heuristics
- Growing availability of ‘neutral’ information (media)
What is issue voting?
- Voting based on issue opinions
- Generally seen as increasing in importance
- Three types of issues
- Position issues (spatial model)
- Performance issues (valence model)
- Attributes (attribute voting)
What is possition voting?
Første form af issue
- Require pro/con or more/less decision
- Voters compare with parties’ position
- Demanding decisions making
- Many voters able to form opinions on some issues
- Which issue is decisive?
- Salience necessary condition for impact of issue on voting
What is performance voting?
(De finder en case og straffer regering. Hvis arbejdesløsheden er høj –> straffe regeringen.
Det er meget svært for regering at vinde valg hvis de har kriser
You can calcute the government by looking at the unemployment rate foreksempel)
- How successful is government (expected to be)?
- Valence model
- Widespread form: economic voting
- Economy strong predictor of incumbency vote
Unemployment rate (macro)
Economic perceptions (micro)
Typically socio-tropic - Problem: endogenous to party identification?
Why are attributes in voting behavouir important?
(Vi kigger meget mere på kandidaterne i politik det er ikke ligemeget hvordan de fremstår eller ser ud. De skal være præsentable og ligne nogle der kan håndtere sagerne. De må ikke være rodet)-
- Decision based on candidate images
- Growing importance in most elections
- Potentially superficial choice
- Some attributes convey information about expected performance
Why is voting important for politica scientists?
Because voting is a political act that provide a window into the minds of citizens AND it reflects the changing patterns of citizen politics
What role does social group play in voting?
Social groups represent the distinct social interests – such as between different class or groups, and elections are a way to resolve these different interests.
In what ways can social characteristics such as class/religion influence a voter’s electoral choice?
- first one’s social position - often indicates his values and political beliefs. (ALTSÅ: om man er høj eller lav klasse)
- Second a person’s social characteristics reflect some of the political cues to which he or she is exposed. (ALTSÅ: ens karakteristika kan have en betydning for politisk ståsted)
- Third, social groups can be important in orienting voters to political issues and providing information about politics. - GRUPPER: INFORMATIONSKILDE og fokus på politiske problemstillinger
How does class groups vote in elections today?
- Theres a change shape in the labour force.
- Today the middle class is the biggest group of voters
And typically located between left and right. They prefer parties that represent a new politics ideology such as Green or New Left parties. - Class voting is only modestly related to vote choice.
- The greatest class polarization exists in Scandinavian countries.
