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The Empty Center Phenomenon Revisited: Ideology, Valence, and the Electoral Failures of Centrist Parties
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| 자료유형 | 학위논문 |
|---|---|
| 서명/저자사항 | The Empty Center Phenomenon Revisited: Ideology, Valence, and the Electoral Failures of Centrist Parties. |
| 개인저자 | Zur, Roi. |
| 단체저자명 | University of California, Davis. Political Science. |
| 발행사항 | [S.l.]: University of California, Davis., 2019. |
| 발행사항 | Ann Arbor: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2019. |
| 형태사항 | 108 p. |
| 기본자료 저록 | Dissertations Abstracts International 81-06A. Dissertation Abstract International |
| ISBN | 9781392556085 |
| 학위논문주기 | Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Davis, 2019. |
| 일반주기 |
Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-06, Section: A.
Advisor: Adams, James F. |
| 이용제한사항 | This item must not be sold to any third party vendors. |
| 요약 | This project shades new light on an old puzzle in the study of comparative political representation. Since Downs (1957), scholars of both American and comparative politics have been studying the empty center phenomenon. That is, the lack of congruence between voters' preference and the policy positions of large mainstream parties. Scholars have produced ample theoretical explanations and robust empirical implications of the phenomenon. Yet, they mostly overlooked parties that take centrist positions that best represent a large segment of the electorate. By focusing on centrist parties, this project contributes to a more robust understanding of the empty center phenomenon. The main argument of this project is that neither parties' divergence from the center, nor the lack of success of centrist parties is democratically problematic. Centrist parties offer voters a policy alternative to the major-non-centrist parties, but voters consciously reject these centrist alternatives. This positive conclusion about democracy comes from a four-fold argument. First, I present theoretical arguments that with respect to the overreaching Left-Right dimension, centrist parties' policy positions are extremely popular. Therefore, the changes in their electoral outcomes are primarily related to non-positional factors. I show that the deterioration of centrist parties' valence images, conceived in terms of their non-policy attributes, including their images for competence, integrity, and leadership ability, leads to a collapse of their vote-shares. This argument has been supported by empirical examinations of public opinion surveys of both national and European parliament elections.Second, non-centrist parties often offer policy platforms that are distanced from major sections of the electorate and do not serve them well with respect to maximizing their vote-share. Third, centrist parties' strategies to compensate for their valence declines are very limited, due to two strategic disadvantages: (a) when a party is located between two parties, moving in one direction entails losing votes on the other side, and (b) because of the high concentration of voters around the centrist party's position, the vote-share lost to one side is often comparable to the vote-share gained on the other side. Fourth, the findings of this dissertation project have important implications for parties' campaign strategies. There are many examples of parties sharply changing their perceived positions, and while changing positions to compensate for valence declines is a realistic, viable strategy for non-centrist parties, such strategy will not work for centrist parties. Instead, centrist parties should focus on improving their valence images. The theoretical arguments and empirical analyses of this project are not merely about the empty center phenomenon literature. They have important implications for the understanding of political representation and the linkages between voters and elites. From parties' perspectives, better valence image is always desirable, but parties have limited control over their valence image. Recruiting a popular leader or presenting a unified front enhances centrist parties' vote-share more than Green, Communist, or populist-Right parties' vote-shares. This project also contributes another piece of information to the understanding of the linkages between the party elites and the mass public. Voters, the results imply, are not misrepresented by the parties they vote for. Voters prefer losing some policy utility, but gaining much higher valence utility. These results reassure the democratic ideal. |
| 일반주제명 | Political science. |
| 언어 | 영어 |
| 바로가기 | 
: 이 자료의 원문은 한국교육학술정보원에서 제공합니다. |
