6533b7d9fe1ef96bd126cc86
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Intra-party heterogeneity in policy preferences and its effect on issue salience: Developing and applying a measure based on elite survey data
Nils D. SteinerMatthias Madersubject
Manifesto021110 strategic defence & security studiesMeasure (data warehouse)Sociology and Political SciencePublic economicsSalience (language)media_common.quotation_subject05 social sciences0211 other engineering and technologies02 engineering and technologyUnitary state0506 political sciencePoliticselite surveys ideology intra-party heterogeneity issue attention party positionsddc:320Elite050602 political science & public administrationEconomicsSurvey data collectionIdeologySocial psychologymedia_commondescription
Quantitative research on party politics often has to assume that parties are unitary actors with homogeneous policy preferences simply because intra-party heterogeneity is difficult to measure. This article proposes a measure of preference heterogeneity based on surveys of party elites. We draw on Comparative Candidates Survey (CCS) data from 28 elections in 21 developed democracies to quantify intra-party heterogeneity and validate this measure. The usefulness of the measure is demonstrated by studying the effects of intra-party heterogeneity on issue salience. We find support for the hypothesis that heterogeneity regarding a policy issue tends to be negatively associated with the emphasis a party places on that issue by regressing measures of issue salience from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey and the Manifesto Project on our CCS measure of heterogeneity. Problems of elite surveys notwithstanding, drawing on this data source seems a promising way to overcome the unitary party assumption.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-06-29 | Party Politics |