Party Identification

1348 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of political parties in democracy

Introduction
How people reach their voting choice during an election is a culmination of various attitudes (Dalton, 2014:155). Determining the causes of these attitudes has become an important part of examining political behaviour (Campbell, Converse, Miller & Stokes, 1960). The following essay will discuss the influences on political behaviour by first examining how the funnel of causality determines voting choices. Thereafter, party identification and its defining features will be addressed. Finally, party dealignment and its affects will be outlined.
Funnel of casualty
Explanation
The “funnel of causality” is a heuristic model developed to illustrate how different factors influence voting behaviour (Campbell, 2006:3; Wilder, 2016:724). …show more content…

This plays a vital role in assuring the stability of the party system (Campbell et al., 1960:121). Party attachments are enduring and cannot easily be changed once established (Schulz-Herzenberg, 2009:29; Dalton, 2014:189) Partisans generally continue to vote for their preferred party; this repeated support strengthens party loyalty, which is why older generations tend to have stronger party ties (Dalton, 2014:189; Dalton, 2016:2). Party identification thus “stabilizes voting patterns for the individual and the party system” (Dalton, …show more content…

These cues are used as a “decisional short-cut” by voters to position themselves in the political world (Dalton, 2002:21). Many people have a limited understanding of the complicated issues their vote relates towards (Dalton, 2016:2). These “unsophisticated” voters use their party-loyalty as the main cue for voting (Dalton, 2014:193). Party identification is thus a “default value” used by voters instead of information about policies and candidates (Schulz, 2009:29). People with a broader understanding of politics also use their party affiliation as a voting shortcut because they agree with the fundamental policies of that party (Dalton,

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of The Unpolitical Animal By Louis Menand

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    For instance, Menand writes, “The fraction of the electorates that responds to substantive political argument is hugely outweighed by the fraction that responds to slogans, misinformation...random personal association.” Mass voters mostly pursue the wrong or irrelevant information that are irrelevant to the election; thus lead them to vote for the candidates which they do not really want. Their choices mostly lack rationalities. Many voters who are slightly informative think that they are participating in a certain issue and considering the value of the candidates; yet most of them do not have adequate information and knowledge in understanding the meaning of political terms. Voters lack judgment on their government and candidates, their minds are easily being brainwashed by a small amount of people who has informative approaches in participating governmental issue, and affect their

    Read More

  • Summary: Gerald Pomper's Classifying Political Election

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every individual can stand for a race, gender, income, education, age, or a combination of countless categories. Another criticism of Pomper is the complication of “critical elections” and “temporary peculiarities.” Pomper defines a critical election as “not usually part of (these) stable periods, but serve as breaking points, ending one era and leading to the next” (Pomper 547). A “temporary peculiarity” marks surprising changes in party electorate, but does not mark the end of one era and the beginning of another. This makes elections hard to accurately classify until after the long-term effects have been realized.

    Read More

  • Is Party Competition Still Driven by Ideology?

    1444 Words  | 3 Pages

    Party is an inevitable feature of the democracy and it is defined as ‘an autonomous group of citizens having the purpose of making nominations and contesting elections in the hope of gaining control over governmental power through the capture of public offices and the organization of the government’ (Caramani, 2011, p.220). Parties are ubiquitous in modern political systems and they perform a number of functions, they are: coordination, contesting elections, recruitment, and representation (Caramani, 2011). Political parties are the product of the parliamentary and electoral game, and party systems reflect the social oppositions that characterize society when parties first appear (Coxall et al., 2011).

    Read More

  • The Case for Mandatory Voting in Canada

    2588 Words  | 6 Pages

    Selb, Peter and Lachat, Romain. 2009. “The more, the better? Counterfactual Evidence on The Effect of Compulsory Voting on The Consistency of Party Choice.” European Journal of Political Research 5: 573-79.

    Read More

  • Political Ideology: Nolan Test

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Millions of citizens around the United States, at some point in their lifetime, obtain a political ideology. Typically, their political values are influenced by their parents. Political scientists have identified that around age eleven, children begin to develop political opinion. According to Wilson’s, American Government: Institutions and Policies, 91% of a high school senior class indentified with the same party as their parents (American Government 158). I can attest to this since I in fact have the same party association as my parents. Ever since I was young, I categorized myself as a Democrat due to the fact that my elders were. However, as I have matured I am able to recognize the beliefs and ideologies that followers of certain parties possess. Since I have been more exposed to the political arena I am able analyze the issues more critically and hence I continuously question whether I should classify myself as a Democrat or Republican.

    Read More

  • Implementing Compulsory Voting in Canada

    1732 Words  | 4 Pages

    Singh, S., & Judd, T. (2013). Compulsory Voting and the Dynamics of Partisan Identification. European Journal of Political research, 52(2), 188-211. Retrieved from http://journals1.scholarsportal.info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/details.xqy?uri=/03044130/v52i0002/188_cvatdopi.xml

    Read More

  • Poliical Parties in America

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    One reason political parties have a positive effect on American politics is that they unite and organize Americans that share similar viewpoints on a variety of political issues. Political parties allow Americans to select a party that demonstrates their personal values/beliefs and articulates their views on ways to overcome the issues facing America. Murray S. Stedman, J...

    Read More

  • Party Polarization Examples

    495 Words  | 1 Pages

    From their earliest formation, political parties have been a controversial aspect that have both strengthened and weakened the United States. It has a massive effect on voters, congress, and policymaking in the government. Party polarization is the prominent division that exists between parties, most noticeably Democrats and Republicans, because of the extreme differences of the ideological beliefs of the opposing parties. In the past, many individuals considered themselves “mixed” and did not associate themselves with just one side. According to www.pewresearch.org, “the share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades”. Every year less and less people consider

    Read More

  • Political Parties: Party Identification

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    Party identification is the political party that an individual categorizes them self with. Political parties came about as a way to organize citizens with similar beliefs and attitudes. These parties then attempt to influence the government by electing members into office. Today there are two main parties people can identify: Republican and Democrat. There is also a third choice, being an Independent, but for the purpose of this paper this group will not be recognized as a political party. These reasons will be discussed later. There are many different theories as to why people do or do not identify with a political party, including social psychology, issue related, and psychological attachments. I believe the social psychology theory has the right idea. Sociology is about studying human society and how it develops and functions. So, it makes sense that social factors would have a big impact on whether we identify with a political party or not.

    Read More

  • Personal Political Beliefs

    1589 Words  | 4 Pages

    The views of my parents were the first experiences that I had relating to politics, and they helped shape the political opinions and beliefs that I hold today. In this paper, I will be discussing the political party I identify with, as well as which interest groups have influenced my life and beliefs the most. I will also discuss specific policies that I support, and what we as Americans can and cannot do because of the laws passed by the political party that I support. I will also touch on my personal level of interest and involvement in my political party.

    Read More

  • Anthony Down's Voting Model Accuracy

    2077 Words  | 5 Pages

    During the second half of the past century the notion that, political science should be treated as a science became extremely popular among academics specially in the United States. One of the most prominent exposers of this school of thought was Anthony Downs, who developed a theorem to explain in a rather economic sense, how and why voters behave in a certain way when it comes to voting. Downs did not only applied his theory to the way voters behave, he also used it to explain the way political parties align themselves when it comes to elections in a two and a multiparty system nevertheless this essay will analyze Downs’ claims about a two party system only. This essay argues that the Downs’ model has proven to be accurate in many cases throughout history, nevertheless it makes a series of assumptions about voters and parties that can not be considered realistic neither in 1957, when he published his paper An Economic Theory of Political Action in Democracy in 1957 nor in 2013. This essay also acknowledges that fact that this theory might help to explain how parties behave but it is by no means the only explanation. Furthermore this essay will prove that it is a multiplicity of factors rather than an economic theory what can help us understand why parties behave the way they do. In order to support the argument previously stated this essay will state and critically analyze a number of Downs assumptions, then his theory will be outlined. Then it will carefully consider how effective it has been at predicting the way in which parties align themselves by examining the behavior of political parties during general elections in different countries.

    Read More

  • Debating the Impact of the Electoral College

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the presidential primaries, closed primary voters tend to be seen more extreme than the voters in the open primary. Voters in a closed primary can only vote for the party they have registered themselves as through the voter’s registration form they are required to fill out before they are even eligible to vote. Norrander states that more independents vote in the open primaries rather than the closed primaries, unlike the republicans and democrats, because of the rules and party identification. In the states that conduct the primaries using party identification laws were seen to have more party members and few independents. In a survey, Norrander found that the higher level of voters who claimed to be independents were in the states that had either semi-closed primaries or open primaries. The fewest amount of independent voters was found in the semi-open and closed primary

    Read More

  • Congressional Polarization Essay

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to scholars, many moderates in the public ‘lean’ toward either the Democratic or Republican camp, which complicates the polarization trends (a); they often outnumber partisans of the party towards which they ‘lean’ (Smith). While the public remains consistently moderate, Congress consistently loses its moderates as they retire, and more radical congressmen and women secure their places (Fiorina 5). Fiorina hardly considers independents or moderates in this essay; this mistake overlooks their ‘swing vote’ in many major elections for both Congress and the executive branch (Enns and Schmidt). But, Hill and Tausanovitch note that while tracking Congressional polarization may be easy, public polarization is more difficult. So, accounting for the 'swing vote' becomes difficult because accounting for public polarization at all is a daunting task (1068). The claim that diversity in moderates has been decreasing (Hill and Tausanovitch 1073) disagrees with recent polls; many moderates disagree with the extremist views of the right and left, rather they often fall somewhere in the middle on many key issues (Ball). Moderates in the public do not follow polarization or sorting as some scholars explain; they do not belong any party, but vote depending on the issues and can often decide the winner of major

    Read More

  • The Five Models Reflecting Public Opinion in Politics

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Political Parties Model in which politicians diverge ideologically to provide a cue of party affiliation, allowing voters to vote rationally using their habit of party identification. The Political Parties Model suggests that party labels clarify the political choices available to voters.

    Read More

  • Essay On Political Parties

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Political parties are the link between general society and the representative machinery of our government. In order for an effective democracy to be in place, these political parties must be continually operative in the functions that they carry out. They are vehicles in which groups of people as well as individuals work together to secure political power, and to exercise that...

    Read More

More about Party Identification

Open Document