Logo image
Inequality and party support: positional economic voting or a new dimension of valence?
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Inequality and party support: positional economic voting or a new dimension of valence?

Ruth Dassonneville and Michael S Lewis-Beck
Regional studies, Vol.54(7), pp.897-906
07/02/2020
DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2019.1634802
url
https://figshare.com/articles/Inequality_and_party_support_positional_economic_voting_or_a_new_dimension_of_valence_/9034112View
Open Access

Abstract

Economic growth helps governments get re-elected. But does growth, as a valence issue, exhaust the possibilities for the economic vote? This paper shows, via an examination of 318 elections in established democracies, across time and space, that growth and inequality both matter for incumbent government support. Somewhat surprisingly, it is found that both left- and right-wing incumbents are held accountable for changes in inequality, suggesting that inequality, even if a positional economic policy issue, can affect the vote in a valence way, at least at the macro-level. Further, these effects appear unaltered by structural factors such as federalism or the electoral system.
inequality growth valence economic voting positional economic voting

Details

Metrics

Logo image