Political Consequences of Election Timing

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel explores the effects of election timing in democracies. In the presidential system, where the election timing is fixed, the timing generates cyclical phenomena, such as the electoral business cycle. In the parliamentary system, the government opportunistically changes election timing to increase their chance of winning the election. In either case, election timing matters to political outcomes. What is the benefit of controlling the election timing? How do voters evaluate the government when the election schedule is manipulated? How does election timing affect agenda setting in the legislature? What is the effect of an upcoming election on the government's reaction to public health issues? By answering these questions with observational and experimental data, this panel will illuminate the political consequences of election timing. The first two papers examine the impacts of the change in election timing, and the others investigate the effects of a given timing.

Sub Unit

• Division 36: Elections and Voting Behavior

Individual Presentations

• The Element of Surprise: Election Timing and Opposition Preparedness - Charles McClean, University of Michigan

• Manipulation of Election Timing and Popular Support for the Government - Masaaki Higashijima, Tohoku University; Naoki Shimizu, University of Kochi; Hidekuni Washida, Toyo University; Yuki Yanai, Kochi University of Technology

• Strategic Agenda Setting and Election Timing in the U.S. House - Stephanie A. Nail, Stanford University

• Election Timing and Government Response to COVID-19 - Hidekuni Washida, Toyo University; Yuki Yanai, Kochi University of Technology

Chair

• Yuki Yanai Kochi University of Technology

Discussants

• Petra Schleiter University of Oxford

• Sarah F. Anzia University of California-Berkeley