The contingency of voter learning: how election debates influence voters’ ability and accuracy to position parties in the 2010 Dutch election campaign

Van der Meer, Tom W.G., Walter, Annemarie and Van Aelst, Peter (2015) The contingency of voter learning: how election debates influence voters’ ability and accuracy to position parties in the 2010 Dutch election campaign. Political Communication, 33 (1). pp. 136-157. ISSN 1091-7675

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Election campaigns are expected to inform voters about parties’ issue positions, thereby increasing voters’ ability to influence future policy and thus enhancing the practice of democratic government. We argue that campaign learning is not only contingent on voters’ characteristics and different sources of information, but also on how parties communicate their issue positions in election debates. We combine a two-wave panel survey with content analysis data of three televised election debates. In cross-classified multilevel auto-regression models we examine the influence of these debates in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary election campaign on voters’ knowledge of the positions of eight parties on three issues. The Dutch multiparty system allows us to separate voters’ ability to position parties from their accuracy in ordering these parties. We reach three main conclusions. First, this study shows that voters become more able and accurate during the campaign. However, these campaign learning effects erode after the elections. Second, whereas voters’ attention to campaigns consistently contributes to their ability to position parties, its effect on accuracy is somewhat less consistent. Third, televised election debates contribute to what voters learn. Parties that advocate their issue positions in the debates stimulate debate viewers’ ability to position these parties on these issues. In the face of the complexity of campaigns and debates in multiparty systems, campaigns are more likely to boost voters’ subjective ability to position parties than their accuracy.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/754451
Keywords: Campaign effects, Issue learning, Policy positions, Election debates
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2015.1016639
Depositing User: Walter, Annemarie
Date Deposited: 25 Sep 2017 12:48
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 17:10
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/46616

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View Edit View