Voter polarisation and party responsiveness: Why parties emphasise divided issues, but remain silent on unified issues

• Published in: European journal of political research Vol. 54; no. 2; pp. 343 - 362
• Main Authors: Spoon, Jae-Jae, Klüver, Heike
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2015; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Citizens; Competition; Elections; Electorate; Europe; European Union; Hypothesis; issue attention; manifestos; party responsiveness; polarisation; Policy Analysis; Political behavior; Political Factors; Political Parties; Political Representation; Voter behavior; Voters
• ISSN: 0304-4130; 1475-6765
• DOI: 10.1111/1475-6765.12087

How does voter polarisation affect party responsiveness? Previous research has shown that political parties emphasise political issues that are important to their voters. However, it is posited in this article that political parties are not equally responsive to citizen demands across all issue areas. The hypothesis is that party responsiveness varies considerably with the preference configuration of the electorate. More specifically, it is argued that party responsiveness increases with the polarisation of issues among voters. To test these theoretical expectations, party responsiveness is analysed across nine West European countries from 1982 until 2013. Data on voter attention and voter preferences with regard to specific policy issues from a variety of national election studies is combined with Comparative Manifestos Project data on parties' emphasis of these issues in their election manifestos. The findings have major implications for understanding party competition and political representation in Europe.