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The Impact of Issue Preferences on Voting Choices in the Swiss Federal Elections, 1999

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2004

HANSPETER KRIESI
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Zurich
PASCAL SCIARINI
Affiliation:
Graduate Institute of Public Administration (IDHEAP), Lausanne

Extract

This Note presents a study of the impact of issue positions of political parties on electoral choice. Together with economic performance and the popularity of leaders and candidates, issue-specific considerations are the main ‘short-term’ forces influencing the voting choices of individual voters. Issue voting has been shown to matter in a large number of studies. Most recently, Alvarez et al. have demonstrated the power of issues in British general elections, which have long been known as an important case of class voting. They argue that one should no longer debate whether issues (and the economy) matter in British elections: ‘Instead, the focus should shift from whether to how much and to how their influence in particular elections compares to their influence on other British elections, and to elections in other nations.’

Type
Notes and Comments
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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