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'Are we losing touch?' Mainstream parties' failure to represent their voters on immigration and its electoral consequences
[journal article]
Abstract In many advanced democracies, mainstream political parties have been disrupted either by the rise of new (populist) parties or by hostile takeovers. In this article we argue that immigration attitudes have had a powerful impact on the strategic environment of political parties and leaders. We show, ... view more
In many advanced democracies, mainstream political parties have been disrupted either by the rise of new (populist) parties or by hostile takeovers. In this article we argue that immigration attitudes have had a powerful impact on the strategic environment of political parties and leaders. We show, based on evidence from a comparative study conducted by YouGov in spring of 2015, that immigration attitudes had, by that time, driven a wedge between mainstream parties - those that regularly play a role in government - and their partisans. This ‘immigration gap' opened up enormous space for new political movements to form, either inside existing parties or outside. Furthermore, we show that the representation gap on immigration issues is a relevant predictor of vote choice, so that parties are particularly likely to lose votes when they are more distant from their supporters on immigration.... view less
Keywords
voting behavior; party; attitude; Western Europe; party supporter; representation; political attitude; immigration; United States of America
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
ZA5685: Eurobarometer 78.1 (2012) (Data file Version 2.0.0); ZA5932: Eurobarometer 82.3 (2014) (Data file Version 3.0.0); ZA6928: Eurobarometer 88.3 (2017) (Data file Version 1.0.0)
Document language
German
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 398-421
Journal
Italian Political Science Review = Rivista italiana di scienza politica, 50 (2020) 3
Issue topic
Special Section on 2019 European Elections
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2019.42
ISSN
2057-4908
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed