Abstract
Voters may have different strategic reasons to vote for a party that is not their
favourite. The best known form of strategic voting takes place in majoritarian
electoral systems, where citizens may decide to not waste their vote by
supporting a candidate that has no chance of winning the seat. This incentive to
vote strategically is absent in proportional systems with large district
magnitude. We argue that in multi-party systems another form of strategic
voting takes place, as considerations about future coalitions may also stimulate
citizens to vote strategically. We analyse this for Netherlands on the basis of
the Dutch Parliamentary Election Study 2006, which contained a novel series
of survey items aimed at identifying such considerations. The results suggest
that Dutch voters did indeed vote strategically on the basis of their preferences
for the future coalition. Voters’ estimates of the probability that particular
coalitions would form, on the other hand, had virtually no impact.
favourite. The best known form of strategic voting takes place in majoritarian
electoral systems, where citizens may decide to not waste their vote by
supporting a candidate that has no chance of winning the seat. This incentive to
vote strategically is absent in proportional systems with large district
magnitude. We argue that in multi-party systems another form of strategic
voting takes place, as considerations about future coalitions may also stimulate
citizens to vote strategically. We analyse this for Netherlands on the basis of
the Dutch Parliamentary Election Study 2006, which contained a novel series
of survey items aimed at identifying such considerations. The results suggest
that Dutch voters did indeed vote strategically on the basis of their preferences
for the future coalition. Voters’ estimates of the probability that particular
coalitions would form, on the other hand, had virtually no impact.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2008 |
| Event | 58th PSA Annual Conference 2008 - University of Swansea, Swansea, United Kingdom Duration: 1 Apr 2008 → 3 Apr 2008 Conference number: 58 |
Conference
| Conference | 58th PSA Annual Conference 2008 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
| City | Swansea |
| Period | 1/04/08 → 3/04/08 |