Proximity, Directionality, and the Riddle of Relative Party Extremeness

Using survey data on European countries, this paper examines the degree of correspondence in left-right policy positions between political parties and the citizens who vote for them through the prism of two competing views on what the ideal correspondence should be. The views are proximity theory, which holds that voters prefer parties to be as close as possible in policy terms, and Rabinowitz-Macdonald (RM) directionality theory, which asserts that voters prefer parties to take positions with greater emotional intensity than the voters themselves feel. It is shown that while the correspondence between party and voter is strong, parties tend to adopt positions that are relatively more extreme than those held by their voters and that the voters, perceptual distortions notwithstanding, are aware of it. This is usually taken as evidence for RM directionality but it is demonstrated that this theory does not and, in fact, cannot explain the discrepancy between what voters want and what parties deliver.