Do parties perceive their voter potentials correctly? Reconsidering the spatial logic of electoral competition
Abstract: Political parties strive for maximizing their vote shares. One way to achieve this goal is to attract voters from competitors. A precondition for strategies aiming at attracting these voters is that parties perceive their voter potentials among their rivals' electorates correctly. Yet, hardly anything is known about such perceptions. To fill this gap, we develop analogue measures of a party's perceived and its actual voter potential for each competitor in a party system. Combining elite and mass surveys conducted in Germany, we show that perceived and actual voter potentials depend on spatial considerations but also that not all parties are able to correctly evaluate their potentials. These deviations can be traced back to differences in the perceived placement of political actors between elites and citizens. This supports the spatial logic of party competition but it also points to potential pitfalls for strategic behavior of political parties
- Location
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Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
- Extent
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Online-Ressource
- Language
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Englisch
- Notes
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Postprint
begutachtet (peer reviewed)
In: Electoral Studies ; 65 (2020)
- Classification
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Politik
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (where)
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Mannheim
- (who)
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SSOAR, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften e.V.
- (when)
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2020
- Creator
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Lichteblau, Josephine
Giebler, Heiko
Wagner, Aiko
- DOI
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10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102126
- URN
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urn:nbn:de:101:1-2021101109010687841378
- Rights
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Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
- Last update
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25.03.2025, 1:45 PM CET
Data provider
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Associated
- Lichteblau, Josephine
- Giebler, Heiko
- Wagner, Aiko
- SSOAR, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften e.V.
Time of origin
- 2020
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