Winning Elections with Unpopular Policies: Valence Advantage and Single-Party Dominance in Japan

• In Event: Party Strategy in Elections

Brief Overview

We measure voters’ utility from parties’ policies with a conjoint survey design in single-party dominant Japan. We find that the LDP enjoys a strong valence advantage over other parties despite proposing policies that are, on average, less popular.

Authors

• Shusei Eshima, Harvard University

• Yusaku Horiuchi, Dartmouth College

• Shiro Kuriwaki, Yale University

• Daniel M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania