Week 24 Flashcards
Valence Model of Voting
What is a valence issue?
An issue that is uniformly liked or disliked among the electorate, as opposed to a position issue on which opinion is divided
Examples of valence issues
- improve economy
- lower crime
- environment
How do parties market themselves and people vote over valence issues?
- Differences over execution and competence to deliver promises
- Parties claim competence to deliver
- Voters assess competence across parties differently
What model rivals the valence model?
The Downsian model
What is making valance issues increasingly important?
Ideological convergence
How can we distinguish parties if they are ideologically similar?
Competence
Who coined the term “valence issues”?
Stokes (1963)
Performance politics
How well a party is perceived at solving an issue
What is “narrow” valence-issue voting?
“Who deals best with…?”
What is “broader” valence-issue voting?
- Perception of competence
- Integrity
- Credibility
- Command of a valence issue
Examples of broader valence concerns:
- Perceived economic competence
- Evaluations of party leaders
- Party images
How do voters benefit from valence issue voting?
They save time and effort by relying on perceptions of competence
They “economise” information
What is economic voting?
Voting based on economic performance
What are two perceptions of the economy?
- Egocentric and sociotropic (personal situation vs ability to manage the economy)
- Retrospective and prospective economic voting
Feel-good factor 🥼🩺
(% of people who think that the economic situation will improve 📈 in the next year) - (% of people who think it will get worse 📉) = feel-good factor
