Journal article
Punishing local incumbents for the local economy: economic voting in the 2012 Belgian municipal elections
Rivista italiana di scienza politica, Vol.46(1), pp.3-22
03/2016
DOI: 10.1017/ipo.2015.26
Abstract
After decennia of research on economic voting, it is now established that the state of the economy affects voting behaviour. Nevertheless, this conclusion is the result of a focus on predominantly national-level economies and national-level elections. In this paper, we show that at a local level as well, mechanisms of accountability linked to the economy are at work. The local economic context affected voting behaviour in the 2012 Belgian municipal elections, with a stronger increase of unemployment rates in their municipality significantly decreasing the probability that voters choose an incumbent party. Additionally, we observe that voters are not opportunistically voting for incumbents who lower tax rates. Instead, voters seem to be holding local incumbents accountable for local economic conditions. We hence conclude that voters care about economic outcomes, not about what specific policies are implemented to reach these outcomes.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Punishing local incumbents for the local economy: economic voting in the 2012 Belgian municipal elections
- Creators
- Ruth Dassonneville - Centre for Political Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumEllen Claes - Centre for Political Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumMichael S Lewis-Beck - Department of Political Science, University of Iowa, Iowa city, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Rivista italiana di scienza politica, Vol.46(1), pp.3-22
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK
- DOI
- 10.1017/ipo.2015.26
- ISSN
- 0048-8402
- eISSN
- 2057-4908
- Number of pages
- 20
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/2016
- Academic Unit
- Political Science
- Record Identifier
- 9984025656402771
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