All (electoral) politics is local? Candidate's regional roots and vote choice

Many authors argue that candidates are more popular among voters from their own region. Two potential explanations have been suggested: voters’ identification with their home region, and the representation of regional interests. The information on candidates’ residence can be transmitted to voters in different ways, the most easily accessible way being information printed on the ballot paper. However, most studies on “friends and neighbour voting” use aggregate data. Studies that rely on individual level data usually put respondents in hypothetical situations and confront them with synthetic candidates, reducing their realism. To bridge this gap and to test the effect of providing information on the candidates’ residence, we use data from a survey experiment to analyze voters’ responses to ballot paper information on the regional background of real candidates in the 2014 European election in Germany. We find that voters in an open list PR election are more likely to support regional candidates if ballot paper information on the candidates’ geographic background helps them to do so. The appeal of personal ties is a stronger explanation for vote preference than the one based on regional interests.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties on 2023-03-25, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17457289.2023.2189257.

Files

Metadata

Work Title All (electoral) politics is local? Candidate's regional roots and vote choice
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Philipp Harfst
  2. Damien Bol
  3. André Blais
  4. Sona N. Golder
  5. Jean-François Laslier
  6. Laura Stephenson
  7. Karine Van Der Straeten
Keyword
  1. Voting behaviour
  2. Personal vote
  3. Friends and neighbour voting
  4. Ballot paper information
  5. Candidates’ regional roots
  6. Preference vote
  7. Open list PR
  8. Voting cues
License CC BY-NC 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties
Publication Date March 25, 2023
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2023.2189257
Deposited July 26, 2023

Versions

Analytics

Collections

This resource is currently not in any collection.

Work History

Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added regiovote_final_withauthors.pdf
  • Added Creator Philipp Harfst
  • Added Creator Damien Bol
  • Added Creator André Blais
  • Added Creator Sona N. Golder
  • Added Creator Jean François Laslier
  • Added Creator Laura Stephenson
  • Added Creator Karine Van Der Straeten
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword, Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Voting behaviour, Personal vote, Friends and neighbour voting, Ballot paper information, Candidates’ regional roots, Preference vote, Open list PR, Voting cues
    Publication Date
    • 2023-01-01
    • 2023-03-25
  • Renamed Creator Jean-François Laslier Show Changes
    • Jean François Laslier
    • Jean-François Laslier
  • Updated