Party Vote-Seeking Strategies: Issue Emphasis and Valence Characteristics

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel brings together diverse studies of party strategies with regard to electoral campaigning. Presentations will address both the effectiveness of various programmatic appeals and valence attacks as well as factors that determine the choice of certain campaigning strategies. The authors of two of the papers make use of a newly created dataset from the Comparative Campaign Dynamics Project (Debus, Somer-Topcu & Tavits 2015), while the others utilize data from recent surveys conducted among party members and the electorate. The panel allows for an exploration of some of the crucial dimensions of electoral campaigning from varying perspectives. It will also make it possible to understand the significance of what can be found in the appeals that parties tend to make at various stages of the campaign, and how these actions are perceived by party members and voters alike.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 15: European Politics and Society

Individual Presentations

• The Dynamics of Interests vs. Value References in Parliamentary Campaigns - Wojciech Rafałowski, University of Warsaw

• Valence Attacks Harm the Electoral Performance of the Left but not the Right - Jae-Hee Jung, Washington University in St. Louis; Margit Tavits, Washington University in St. Louis

• The Electoral Significance of Divided Behavior - Zachary David Greene, University of Strathclyde

• Members of Polish Political Parties in the Process of Permanent Campaigning - Maria Wincławska, Nicolaus Copernicus University; Anna Paczesniak, Wroclaw University

Chair

• Wojciech Rafałowski University of Warsaw

Discussant

• Christoffer Green-Pedersen University of Aarhus