columbia model of voting behavior

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. 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. The aspect is based on the idea that there is an information problem that represents a difficulty and costs that voters must pay to gather information and to become informed about an election. In Personality traits and party identification over time published in 2014 by Bakker, Hopmann and Persson, the authors attempt to explain partisan identification. There are other models and economic theories of the vote, including directional theories that have a different perspective but remain within the framework of economic theories of the vote. Since the idea is to calculate the costs and benefits of voting for one party rather than the other, therefore, each party brings us some utility income. 0000007057 00000 n 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. When you vote, you are taking your personal time and effort to advance the collective good, without any guarantee of personal rewardthe very heart of what it means to be altruistic. The cause-and-effect relationship is reversed, according to some who argue that this is a problem at the empirical level when we want to study the effect of partisan identification on electoral choice because there is a problem of endogeneity; we no longer know what explains what. 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. Finally, the results of this test are discussed and conclusions drawn. In the Downs-Hirschman model, the vote is spatial in the sense of proximity and preferences are exogenous; on the other hand, in the directional theories of Rabinovirz and Macdonal in particular, we remain in the idea of the exogeneity of preferences but the vote is not spatial in the sense of proximity. The psycho-sociological model says that it is because this inking allows identification with a party which in turn influences political attitudes and therefore predispositions with regard to a given object, with regard to the candidate or the party, and this is what ultimately influences the vote. Nevertheless, some of these spatial theories depart from this initial formulation. 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 of the directional model, and this applies to both the simple directional model and the intensity directional model, is that voters basically cannot clearly perceive the different positions of political parties or candidates on a specific issue. (1949). carried out by scholars at Columbia. There are other theories that highlight the impact of economic conditions and how voters compare different election results in their electoral choices, which refers to economic voting in the strict sense of the term. Voting is an instrument that serves us to achieve an objective. 5. LAZARSFELD, PAUL F., BERNARD BERELSON, and HAZEL GAUDET. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Hirschman contrasts the "exit" strategy with the "voice" strategy, which is based on what he calls "loyalty", which is that one can choose not to leave but to make the organization change, to restore the balance between one's own aspirations and what the organization can offer. The third criterion is rationality, which is that based on the theory of rational choice, voters mobilize the limited means at their disposal to achieve their goals, so they will choose the alternative among the political offer that costs them the least and brings them the greatest possible benefit. The utility function of the simple proximity model appears, i.e. If we take into account Przeworski and Sprague's idea that preferences are exogenous and not endogenous, it is possible to create a typology as Iversen did. However, he conceives the origin and function of partisan identification in a different way from what we have seen before. 0000000636 00000 n According to Merril and Grofman, one cannot determine whether one pure model is superior to another because there are methodological and data limitations. However, we see that this is not always true and that there are parties that propose more extreme policies that receive considerable electoral support. We often talk about economic theory of the vote in the broadest sense in order to designate a rationalist theory based on rational choice theory and spatial theories of the vote. The heterogeneity of the electorate and voters must be taken into account. 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. as a party's position moves away from our political preferences. In Person: 971 W Duval St. Ste. 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. When the voter is in the same position, i.e. This study presents an automated and accurate . If someone positions himself as a left-wing or right-wing voter, the parties are positioned on an ideological level. $2.75. 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. Discounting is saying that the voter does not fully believe what the parties say. Another model is called the funnel model of causality which has been proposed by these authors working on the psycho-sociological model. The political consciousness of individuals is based on social experiences and has little weight outside these experiences. Although the models rely on the same data they make radically different predictions about the political future. Voters who vote against the party with which they identify keep their partisan identification. What we see here in relation to the sociological model and that these variables highlighted by the sociological model such as socialization, inking or social position play a role but only indirectly. Psychology and Voting Behavior In the same years that behaviorism (of various forms) came to dominate the Voters try to maximize the usefulness of the vote, that is, they try to vote for the party that makes them more satisfied. IVERSEN, T. (1994). This model of voting behavior sees the voter as thinking individual who is able to take a view on political issues and votes accordingly. A third criticism of the simple proximity model is the idea of the median voter, which is the idea that all voters group around the centre, so parties, based on this observation, will maximize their electoral support at the centre, and therefore if they are rational, parties will tend to be located more at the centre. From that point on, there has been the development of a whole body of literature on political psychology. 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 simple proximity model is that the voter will vote for the party or parties that are in the same direction. The strategic choices made by parties can also be explained by this model since, since this model postulates an interdependence between supply and demand, we address the demand but we can also address the supply. 0000002253 00000 n 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. it is an element of direction and not an element of distance or proximity that counts. For example, there is Lazarsfeld's theory with the idea that opinion leaders can be seen as people to whom we attribute a strong trust and maybe even an esteem in relation to the political judgment they may have and therefore, by discussing with these people, it is possible to form an electoral choice and therefore there is no need to go and pay these costs of gathering information. In Switzerland, the idea of an issue is particularly important because there is direct democracy, which is something that by definition is based on issues. The psycho-sociological model has its roots in Campell's work entitled The American Voter publi en 1960. The intensity directional model adds an element that is related to the intensity with which candidates and political parties defend certain positions. Lazarsfeld was the first to study voting behaviour empirically with survey data, based on individual data, thus differentiating himself from early studies at the aggregate level of electoral geography. <]>> At the basis of the reflection of directional models, and in particular of directional models with intensity, there is what is called symbolic politics. It is also possible to add that the weight of partisan identification varies from one voter to another. It is quite interesting to see the bridges that can be built between theories that may seem different. The economic model of the vote puts the notion of electoral choice back at the centre. This approach would be elitist, this assumption that voters have the ability to know what is going on which is the idea of information and this ability that voters have to look at that information and process it. These authors have tried to say that the different explanatory theories of the vote can be more or less explanatory in the sense of having more or less importance of explanatory power depending on the phases in which one is in a process of alignment and misalignment. In other words, there is the idea of utility maximization which is a key concept in rational choice theory, so the voter wants to maximize his utility and his utility is calculated according to the ratio between the cost and the benefit that can be obtained from the action, in this case going to vote (1) and going to vote for that party rather than this one (2). Three notions must be distinguished: a phase of political alignment (1), which is when there is a strengthening of partisan loyalties, i.e. 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 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. 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. offers a behavior analysis of voting behavior. 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. Professor Political Science Buena Vista University Two basic concerns: Turnout ("Who votes?") Key questions: What are the characteristics and attitudes of voters vs. nonvoters? The Columbia County Supervisor of Elections strives to provide reasonable accomodations to help people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate on our website. 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. 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. A first criticism that has been made is that the simple proximity model gives us a misrepresentation of the psychology of voting. One possible strategy to reduce costs is to base oneself on ideology. It is a theory that makes it possible to explain both the voting behaviour of voters and the organisational behaviour of political parties. It is possible to attribute some merits and some criticisms to this model at least in its initial formulation. What is interesting is that they try to relate this to personality traits such as being open, conscientious, extroverted, pleasant and neurotic. The idea is that you stay loyal and you do "voice", that is, act to make things change. 0000009473 00000 n This identification is seen as contributing to an individual's self-image. That is why there are many empirical analyses that are based on this model. There are also intermediate variables that relate to loyalties to a certain group or sense of belonging. But more generally, when there is a campaign, the issues are discussed. It is possible to create a typology that distinguishes between four approaches crossing two important and crucial elements: "is voting spatial? It is a third explanation given by Przeworski and Sprague in their theory of partisan competition, also known as the theory of mobilization of the electorate. 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. Political scientists have defined several models of voter behavior in an attempt to explain the different motivations of voters: Rational choice theory describes someone voting in their best interest, supporting the candidate whose platform will give them the most favorable outcomes. 1948, Berelson et . There are other variants or models that try to accommodate this complexity. So there are four main ways. 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. We see the kinship of this model with the sociological model explaining that often they are put together. Most voters have a sense of allegiance to a party that is inherited through the family. We are going to talk about the economic model. There are other models that try to relate the multiplicity of issues to an underlying ideological space, i.e., instead of looking at specific issues, everything is brought back to a left-right dimension as a shortcut, for example, and there are other theories that consider the degree of ambiguity and clarity of the candidates' positions. The presupposition is that voter preferences are not exogenous but are endogenous - they change within the framework of an electoral process. We end up with a configuration where there is an electorate that is at the centre, there are party activists who are exercising the "voice" and who have access to the extreme, and there are party leaderships that are in between. The idea is that it is in circles of interpersonal relations even if more modern theories of opinion leaders look at actors outside the personal circle. All of these factors and their relationships have to be taken into account, but at the centre is always the partisan attachment. Prospective voting says that voters will listen to what candidates and parties have to say. The Logics of Electoral Politics. There is the idea of the interaction between a political demand and a political offer proposed by the different candidates during an election or a vote. His conclusion is that the vote is explained both by elements of leadership, partly by an element of proximity and distance, but also, for some parties, it must also be taken into account that there are parties that act according to a mobilization of the electorate according to the approach of Przeworski and Sprague. A particular configuration is the fact that there are dissatisfied party activists who are extremist compared to voters and elected party leaders. The theories that are supposed to explain the electoral choice also explain at the same time the electoral participation in particular with the sociological model. Position moves away from our political preferences are in the same direction authors working on the model. `` voice '', that is related to the intensity with which candidates and political defend... Political future BERELSON, and HAZEL GAUDET costs is to base oneself on ideology two important and crucial:! 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