Snap Elections’ Diverse Effects on Voters

• In Event: Innovative Approaches to Understanding Voter Preferences

Abstract

An important feature of European parliamentary democracies is the high likelihood of the parliamentary elections to be conducted before their constitutionally scheduled date. Many factors may lead to an early election call. The incumbent governing party may see an opportunity to improve its standing by calling for an early election (opportunistic election), or scandals, successful no-confidence motions, or policy failures may result in the resignation of the government and call for an early election. While scholars have been interested in how the opportunistic election calls affect party performance and voter behavior, we still do not know how early elections differently affect voter preferences depending on the reason for their call. Using survey data across European democracies as well as a survey experiment in the UK and Austria, we examine how different types of early election calls affect voters’ feelings toward governing parties and their voting behavior.

Authors

• Zeynep Somer-Topcu, University of Texas at Austin

• Kendall Curtis, University of Texas at Austin