Measuring Multi-party Competition: An Overview of Technical Tools

Session Submission Type: Pre-conference Short Course Half Day

Session Description

In electoral research, voting decisions are often modeled as binary, i.e. contrasting the party (or candidate) voted for with all possible alternatives, as if the choice for the first one can be studied independently from the preference for all others.
In truth, if this argument fits quite well contexts where only two actors compete for public office, this is definitely not the case where voters can develop preferences for multiple parties or candidates.
In light of that, this short-course aims at showing a selection of technical tools tailored to the analysis of vote choice and party competition in multiparty/multicandidate contexts. In particular, attention will be given to the so-called PTV questions, i.e. variables measuring voters' propensity to vote for each relevant competitor, and to how their elaboration through specific STATA packages and routines enables to get proper and cutting-edge information about both the determinants of voting decisions and competition among political actors in such setting.
The workshop combines presentations and hands-on practical work based on data from the European Election Study. The first part of the workshop (i.e. presentation and explanation of STATA packages and routines) lasts approximately 1,5 hours. Practical demonstrations and hands-on exercises last approximately 2,5 hours.

Sub Unit

• APSA Panels and All Meetings and Receptions

Chair

• Robert Andrew Fahey Waseda University

Presenter

• Stefano Camatarri Université catholique de Louvain