Vote choices of left-authoritarians: Misperceived congruence and issue salience

• Published in: Electoral studies Vol. 70; p. 102280
• Main Authors: Steiner, Nils D., Hillen, Sven
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2021
• Subjects: German election 2017; Issue salience; Left-authoritarians; Perceived party positions; Position blurring; Vote choices; German election 2017; Perceived party positions; Position blurring; Left-authoritarians; Issue salience; Vote choices
• ISSN: 0261-3794; 1873-6890
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102280

Often lacking parties with a corresponding profile, citizens with economically left and culturally authoritarian, or nationalist, policy orientations face a trade-off between congruence on economic and on cultural issues. How such left-authoritarian voters resolve this trade-off depends on which issues are more salient to them, previous research argues. We extend this line of research by considering the role of (mis-)perceived party positions. Using a survey in the context of the 2017 German election, we show how perceived congruence and issue importance interactively shape the left-authoritarian vote. Our findings indicate that many left-authoritarians vote for a party simply because they misperceive it to hold a congruent left-authoritarian position. In this case, issue importance matters little. Yet when voters are aware that parties match their position on only one dimension, vote choices are shaped by whether they care most about the economy or immigration. We discuss several implications.