Voter Preferences for Candidates with Different Personal and Policy Attributes

• In Event: Does a Candidate's Social Class Matter?

Abstract

Party systems in many advanced democracies have undergone three broad changes. First, social democratic parties have adapted their policy platforms and rhetoric to better reflect the preferences of the expanding middle class. Second, parties of all types have come to increasingly recruit their political personnel from the well-educated middle class. Third, populist radical right parties have emerged and established themselves in many advanced democracies. Although populist radical right parties draw support from all social classes, they are particularly successful among less educated and working-class citizens, who traditionally voted for social democratic parties. The goal of our study is to explore the extent to which changes in the policy platforms, rhetoric, and personnel of established parties have contributed to the realignment of less educated and working-class voters with populist radical right parties. We conduct a survey-based candidate choice experiment in Britain and the US to study this question. Respondents in the experiment are presented with profiles of parliamentary candidates that vary in terms of occupational background, positions on economic policy and immigrants’ access to social benefits, and framing of societal conflict.

Authors

• Reto Wuest, University of Geneva

• Jonas Pontusson, University of Geneva