Today, this may be less true, but until a certain point, there were relatively few empirical analyses based on the economic model of the vote. Grofman's idea is to say that the voter discounts what the candidates say (discounting) based on the difference between current policy and what the party says it will do or promise. We are not ignoring the psychological model, which focuses on the identification people have with parties without looking at the parties. The government is blamed for the poor state of the economy. The scientific study of voting behavior is marked by three major research schools: the sociological model, often identified as School of Columbia, with the main reference in Applied Bureau of Social Research of Columbia University, whose work begins with the publication of the book The People's Choice (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1944) The book's focus was sociological, mainly considering socio-demographic predictors, interpersonal influence, cross-pressures, and the effects of social groups, as well as analyzing voter activation, reinforcement, and conversion across the election year. The Peoples Choice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign. Voters vote for the candidate or party closest to their own position which is the proximity model. Voters try to maximize the usefulness of the vote, that is, they try to vote for the party that makes them more satisfied. This article reviews the main theoretical models that explain the electoral behavior sociological model of voting behavior, psychosocial model of voting behavior and rational. There was a whole series of critics who said that if it's something rational, there's a problem with the way democracy works. While in the United States, several studies have shown that partisan identification is an important explanatory power on electoral choice, in other contexts this is less true. For example, a strongly conservative voter who votes Democratic may vote Republican because he or she feels more in tune with the party. p. 31). These authors find with panel data that among their confirmed hypotheses that extroverted people tend to have a strong and stable partisan identification. For the sociological model we have talked about the index of political predisposition with the variables of socioeconomic, religious and spatial status. emotional ties between voters and parties; a phase of political misalignment (2), which may be the one we are currently in in Europe since the economic crisis, which is a weakening of partisan loyalties resulting in increased electoral volatility, i.e. On the other hand, preferences for candidates in power are best explained by the proximity model and the simple directional model. 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. There is no real electoral choice in this type of explanation, but it is based on our insertion in a social context. The idea of intensity can also be seen as the idea that there are certain issues, that there are certain political positions that put forward symbols and some of these symbols evoke making these two issues more visible to voters but in the sense of making voters say that this particular party is going in that direction and with a high intensity. In summary, it can be said that in the economic model of voting, the political preferences of voters on different issues, are clearly perceived by the voters themselves which is the idea that the voter must assess his own interest, he must clearly perceive what are the political preferences of voters. Voters try to maximize their individual utility. 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. Positioning on a left-right scale is related to this type of theory. The basic idea is the representation of a point that is an ideal point for each voter in a hypothetical space. %PDF-1.3 % 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. The scientific study of voting behavior is marked by three major research schools: the sociological model, often identified as School of Columbia, with the main reference in Applied Bureau of Social Research of Columbia University, whose work begins with the publication of the book The Peoples Choice (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1944) and It is a variant of the simple proximity model which remains in the idea of proximity but which adds an element which makes it possible to explain certain voting behaviours which would not be explainable by other models. 0000000636 00000 n In this representation, there are factors related to the cleavages, but also other factors that relate to the economic, political or social structure of a country being factors that are far removed from the electoral choice but that still exert an important effect in an indirect way the effect they have on other variables afterwards. 1.2 Psychology and behavior 9 1.3 Voting behavior and action 13 1.4 Strategies of explanation 14 1.5 Research questions and outline 16 2 The empirical analysis of voting action 19 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 The Wrzburg school 21 2.3 Lazarsfeld and the empirical analysis of action 23 2.4 The Columbia approach to voting action 26 This is especially important when applying this type of reasoning empirically. Three notions must be distinguished: a phase of political alignment (1), which is when there is a strengthening of partisan loyalties, i.e. The influence of friends refers to opinion leaders and circles of friends. All parties that are in the same direction of the voter maximize the individual utility of that voter. For some, this model overestimates the capabilities that voters have. There are different types of costs that this model considers and that need to be taken into account and in particular two types of costs which are the costs of going to vote (1) but above all, there are the costs of information (2) which are the costs of obtaining this information since in this model which postulates to choose a party on the basis of an evaluation of the different propositions of information which is available, given these basic postulates, the transparency of information and therefore the costs of information are crucial. There are also external factors that also need to be considered, such as the actions of the government, for example, voters are influenced by what the government has done. The starting point is that there is a congruence of attitudes between party leaders and voters due to the possibility of exit for voters when the party no longer represents them (exit). It is a theory that is made in the interaction between supply and demand, that is, between parties offering something and voters asking for something. Basically, Downs was wrong to talk about proximity logic and to explain some of the exceptions to the proximity model. In the sociological and psycho-sociological model, there was no place for ideology, that's another thing that counts, on the other hand, in economic theories, spatial theories and Downs' theory of the economic vote, ideology is important. in what is commonly known as the Columbia school of thought, posited that contextual factors influence the development . Within the ambit of such a more realistic, limited-rational model of human behavior, mitigation outcomes from . There may be one that is at the centre, but there are also others that are discussed. "i.e., if it is proximity, it is 'yes', otherwise it is 'no' and therefore directional; 'are the preferences of the actors exogenous? it is easier to change parties from one election to the next; a phase of realignment (3), which consists of creating new partisan loyalties. (June 2012) Networks 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 elections. preferences and positions. The basic assumption is that voters decide primarily on the basis of ideologies and not on the basis of specific positions on issues. This model of directional proximity with intensity illustrates what is called symbolic politics which is related to the problem of information. A particular configuration is the fact that there are dissatisfied party activists who are extremist compared to voters and elected party leaders. 0000011193 00000 n Another model is called the funnel model of causality which has been proposed by these authors working on the psycho-sociological model. At the basis of the reflection of directional models, and in particular of directional models with intensity, there is what is called symbolic politics. According to Downs, based on the prospective assessment that voters make of the position that voters have and their position on various issues, voters arrive at and operate this shortcut by situating and bringing parties back to an ideological dimension that may be a left-right dimension but may also be another one. The psycho-sociological model, also known as the Michigan model, can be represented graphically or schematically. They are voters who make the effort to inform themselves, to look at the proposals of the different parties and try to evaluate the different political offers. From this point of view, parties adopt political positions that maximize their electoral support, what Downs calls the median voters and the idea that parties would maximize their electoral support around the center of the political spectrum. La dernire modification de cette page a t faite le 11 novembre 2020 00:26. Print. On the other hand, this is true for the directional model; they manage to perceive a policy direction. Fiorina proposed the question of how to evaluate the position of different parties and candidates: how can voters know what the position of different parties is during an election campaign? This identification is seen as contributing to an individual's self-image. One possible strategy to reduce costs is to base oneself on ideology. One of the merits, which can be found in Lazarsfeld's book entitled The People's Choice published in 1944 is that this model marks a turning point in the study of political behaviour. They find that partisan identification becomes more stable with age, so the older you get, the more partisan identification you have, so it's much easier to change when you're young. how does partisan identification develop? In directional models with intensity, there are models that try to show how the salience of different issues changes from one group to another, from one social group to another, or from one candidate and one party to another. The presupposition is that voter preferences are not exogenous but are endogenous - they change within the framework of an electoral process. There is a kind of heterogeneity of voters. The initial research saw three major factors to voting behaviour: Personal identification with one of the political parties, concern with issues of national government policy and personal attraction to the presidential candidates. is premised on the assumption that elections connect the will of the people to the actions of government. In other words, in this retrospective assessment, the economic situation of the country plays a crucial role. As far as the psycho-sociological model is concerned, it has the merit of challenging the classical theory of democracy which puts the role on the rational actor. There are also studies that show that the more educated change less often from one party to another. The law of curvilinear disparity takes up this distinction. This economic theory of the vote, this rationalist theory, has a great advantage over the other models, which is that it does not only focus on voters, that is to say, it does not only focus on political demand, but it also looks at supply and especially at the interaction between supply and demand. The role of the centrality of partisan identification has been criticized, especially today, because partisan identification plays a role that is still important but much less important than it used to be and may be much less important than some researchers within this paradigm have postulated. Nowadays, the internet is the most used communication environment, and therefore it becomes very important to try to determine the behavior of users regarding internet use. Voters are more interested in political results than in political programmes, and the choice is also made from this perspective. In Personality traits and party identification over time published in 2014 by Bakker, Hopmann and Persson, the authors attempt to explain partisan identification. New York: Columbia University Press, 1948. Theoretically, it is possible to have as many dimensions as there are issues being discussed in an election campaign. On the other hand, to explain the electoral choice, we must take into account factors that are very far from the vote theoretically, but we must also take into account the fact that there are factors that are no longer close to the electoral choice during a vote or an election. Proximity means the closeness of the voter's interests to the political proposals that are made with the parties. There has also been the emergence of empirical criticisms which have shown that the role of partisan identification has tended to decrease sharply and therefore an increase in the role of the issues and in particular the role of the cognitive evaluation that the actors make in relation to certain issues. The second criticism is the lack of an adequate theory of preference formation. There are different types of individuals who take different kinds of shortcuts or not, who vote systematically or not, and so on. Pages pour les contributeurs dconnects en savoir plus. This model explains for Downs why we abstain. On the other hand, the focus is on the political goals of the voters, whereas the psychological model puts a little more emphasis on the social use of the vote. It is an answer that remains faithful to the postulates of Downs' theory and the proximity model. There may be a vote that is different from partisan identification, but in the medium to long term, partisan identification should strengthen. Today, there is an attempt to combine the different explanations trying to take into account, both sociological determinants but also the emotional and affective component as well as the component related to choice and calculation. This paper examines two models used in survey research to explain voting behavior and finds that both models may be more or less correct. There are two slightly different connotations. The original measurement was very simple being based on two questions which are a scale with a question about leadership. In a phase of alignment, this would be the psycho-sociological model, i.e. These two proximity models are opposed to two other models that are called directional models with Matthews' simple directional model but especially Rabinowitz's directional model with intensity. The basic assumptions of the economic model of the vote are threefold: selfishness, which is the fact that voters act according to their individual interests and not according to their sense of belonging to a group or their attachment to a party. For Iversen, distance is also important. models of voting behavior -the columbia school (1940s) -the Michigan school (1950s) the columbia school -1940s -social determinism -voter brand loyalty (party id) -selective perception/projection -minimal campaign effect -cross-pressures -high interest+low partisanship are rare minimal campaign effect . The Michigan model was based on the idea of socialization and partisan identification as a long-term attachment to a party that is the result of primary socialization in particular, and therefore as insertion into a given social context. However, he conceives the origin and function of partisan identification in a different way from what we have seen before. The initial formulation of the model is based on the Downs theory in An Economic Theory of Democracy publi en 1957. 1948, Berelson et . That discounting depends on where the policy is right now in relation to what the party is promising, and that is the directional element. 43 17 When the voter is in the same position, i.e. We have seen that at Downs, the role of ideology is fundamental and that ideology could function as a kind of shortcut. For Lazarsfeld, "a person thinks politically as he or she is socially". those who inquire: they are willing to pay these costs. 0000001124 00000 n As the authors of The American Voter put Political parties can make choices that are not choices to maximize the electorate, unlike spatial theories, where parties seek to maximize their short-term electoral support in an election. Other researchers have tried to propose combined models that combine different explanations. In other words, if we know the partisan identification of voters, we can make a prediction about what the normal vote will be, which is a vote that is not or should not be influenced by other situational factors in a given electorate. That is why there are many empirical analyses that are based on this model. This model emphasizes the role of integration into social groups. Apart from the combined models, it can be thought that different models may explain differently according to historical moments and phases of a process of political alignment and misalignment just as models may better explain certain types of candidates or according to the profile and type of voters. xref Prospective voting says that the evaluation is based on what the parties and candidates are going to say. Psychological Models of American Voting Behavior* DAVID KNOKE, Indiana University ABSTRACT A path model of the presidential vote involving social variables, party identification, issue orientations, . Three Models of Voting Behavior. 0000003292 00000 n Radical approach regards class-based (structural) model as outdated and insufficient to explain . There is a whole literature on opinion formation, quite consensually, that says that citizens have a limited capacity to process information. 0000008661 00000 n The psycho-sociological model initiated the national election studies and created a research paradigm that remains one of the two dominant research paradigms today and ultimately contributed to the creation of electoral psychology. In essence, those studies provided the core concepts and models used in contemporary voting research. A distinction is often made between two types of voters and votes between the: There are these two types and a whole literature on the different types of euristics that can be set up. Voting is an act of altruism. The psycho-sociological model has its roots in Campell's work entitled The American Voter publi en 1960. The concept and this theory was developed in the United States by political scientists and sociologists and initially applied to the American political system with an attachment to the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party. One of the answers within spatial theories is based on this criticism that voters are not these cognitively strong beings as the original Downs theory presupposes. This theory is not about the formation of political preferences, they start from the idea that there are voters with certain political preferences and then these voters will look at what the offer is and will choose according to that offer. The idea is to create a party that forges ideologies and partisan identities. - What we're going to do in this video is start to think about voting behavior, and in particular, we're going to start classifying motivations for why someone votes for a particular candidate, and I'm going to introduce some terms that will impress your political science friends, but you'll see that they map two things that . If certain conditions are present, such as good democratic functioning within the party, activists will have the opportunity to exercise "voice" and influence positions. We must also, and above all, look at the links between types of factors. Simply, the voter is going to evaluate his own interest, his utility income from the different parties and will vote for the party that is closest to his interests. Voters calculate the cost of voting. In this theory, we vote for specific issues that may be more or less concrete, more or less general, and which form the basis for explaining electoral behaviour. The ideological space can be defined as a left-right ideological space but can also be defined more precisely in relation to certain issues. It is no longer a question of explaining "why" people participate but "how", that is, in terms of voter turnout, what choice is made and what can explain an electoral choice. The sociological model at the theoretical level emphasizes something important that rationalist and economic theories have largely overlooked, namely, the importance of the role of social context, i.e., voters are all in social contexts and therefore not only family context but also a whole host of other social contexts. The capabilities that voters decide primarily on the Downs theory in an economic theory of preference formation literature opinion! 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Talk about proximity logic and to explain voting behavior and finds that both may! Or schematically be a vote that is why there are also studies that show that the evaluation is based the. That says that citizens have a strong and stable partisan identification, but in the same position, i.e that! Representation of a point that is at the parties and candidates are going say... Have seen that at Downs, the economic situation of the people to proximity. The influence of friends refers to opinion leaders and circles of friends the country plays crucial... More precisely in relation to certain issues but it is an ideal for. Logic and to explain some of the economy, partisan identification ideological space but can also be more... Publi en 1957 models that combine different explanations voters and elected party leaders it is an answer that remains to... State of the voter maximize the individual utility of that voter are willing to pay these.. 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