IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jothpo/v9y1997i1p5-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Symposium. The Directional Theory of Issue Voting: I

Author

Listed:
  • Mikael Gilljam

Abstract

The directional theory of issue voting - a new theory proposed by Rabinowitz and Macdonald - has, in a series of analyses, been shown to outperform the old Downsian proximity theory. This result has a very practical consequence: according to the directional theory, a centrist party cannot expect to receive strong electoral support. Thus, in the practice of politics, the directional theory means conflict, not consensus. In their analyses, Rabinowitz, Macdonald and Listhaug use the mean of all the respondents' party placement (a constant) as a proxy for the party's position. However, using a more adequate analysis, where the party position along a scale varies between the respondents (i.e. is a variable), the results become different. The directional theory is not without its merits as a new theory of issue voting. Nevertheless, the old proximity theory is still the most powerful theory within electoral research.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikael Gilljam, 1997. "Symposium. The Directional Theory of Issue Voting: I," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 9(1), pages 5-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:9:y:1997:i:1:p:5-12
    DOI: 10.1177/0951692897009001001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0951692897009001001
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0951692897009001001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rabinowitz, George & Macdonald, Stuart Elaine, 1989. "A Directional Theory of Issue Voting," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(1), pages 93-121, March.
    2. Enelow,James M. & Hinich,Melvin J., 1984. "The Spatial Theory of Voting," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521275156.
    3. Macdonald, Stuart Elaine & Rabinowitz, George & Listhaug, Ola, 1995. "Political Sophistication and Models of Issue Voting," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 453-483, October.
    4. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65, pages 135-135.
    5. Macdonald, Stuart Elaine & Listhaug, Ola & Rabinowitz, George, 1991. "Issues and Party Support in Multiparty Systems," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(4), pages 1107-1131, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mauerer, Ingrid & Pößnecker, Wolfgang & Thurner, Paul W. & Tutz, Gerhard, 2015. "Modeling electoral choices in multiparty systems with high-dimensional data: A regularized selection of parameters using the lasso approach," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 23-42.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. N/A, 1997. "Individual Perception and Models of Issue Voting," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 9(1), pages 13-21, January.
    2. Irwin L. Morris & George Rabinowitz, 1997. "Symposium. The Directional Theory of Issue Voting: IV," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 9(1), pages 75-88, January.
    3. Kenneth Benoit & Michael Laver, 2005. "Mapping the Irish Policy Space - Voter and Party Spaces in Preferential Elections," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 36(2), pages 83-108.
    4. Hanne Marthe Narud, 1996. "Electoral Competition and Coalition Bargaining in Multiparty Systems," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 8(4), pages 499-525, October.
    5. Stuart Elaine Macdonald & George Rabinowitz, 1997. "On `Correcting' for Rationalization," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 9(1), pages 49-55, January.
    6. Joseph Gershtenson, 2009. "Candidates and Competition: Variability in Ideological Voting in U.S. Senate Elections," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(1), pages 117-133, March.
    7. Peter Grand & Guido Tiemann, 2013. "Projection effects and specification bias in spatial models of European Parliament elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(4), pages 497-521, December.
    8. Melvin J. Hinich & Michael C. Munger, 1992. "A Spatial Theory of Ideology," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 4(1), pages 5-30, January.
    9. Marc van de Wardt & Joost Berkhout & Floris Vermeulen, 2017. "Ecologies of ideologies: Explaining party entry and exit in West-European parliaments, 1945–2013," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(2), pages 239-259, June.
    10. Catherine E. de Vries, 2007. "Sleeping Giant: Fact or Fairytale?," European Union Politics, , vol. 8(3), pages 363-385, September.
    11. Catherine E. De Vries & Sara B. Hobolt, 2012. "When dimensions collide: The electoral success of issue entrepreneurs," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(2), pages 246-268, June.
    12. Melvin Hinich & Xinsheng Liu & Arnold Vedlitz & Charles Lindsey, 2013. "Beyond the left–right cleavage: Exploring American political choice space," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 25(1), pages 75-104, January.
    13. Ryan Bakker & Seth Jolly & Jonathan Polk, 2018. "Multidimensional incongruence and vote switching in Europe," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 267-296, July.
    14. Stuart Elaine Macdonald & George Rabinowitz, 1993. "Direction and Uncertainty in a Model of Issue Voting," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 5(1), pages 61-87, January.
    15. Jane Green, 2007. "When Voters and Parties Agree: Valence Issues and Party Competition," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 55(3), pages 629-655, October.
    16. Samuel Merrill III & Bernard Grofman, 1997. "Symposium. The Directional Theory of Issue Voting: II," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 9(1), pages 25-48, January.
    17. Wael J. Haboub, 2012. "Demystifying the Rise of Hamas," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 28(1), pages 57-79, March.
    18. Paul V. Warwick, 2004. "Proximity, Directionality, and the Riddle of Relative Party Extremeness," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 16(3), pages 263-287, July.
    19. Alan E. Wiseman, 2006. "A Theory of Partisan Support and Entry Deterrence in Electoral Competition," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 18(2), pages 123-158, April.
    20. Francisco Martínez-Mora & M. Socorro Puy, 2009. "Off-the-peak preferences over government size," Working Papers 2009-9, Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:9:y:1997:i:1:p:5-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.