Capturing vote-seeking incentives and the cultivation of a personal and party vote. (August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Crisp, Brian F.; Schneider, Benjamin; Catalinac, Amy; Muraoka, Taishi
• Is Part Of: Electoral studies. Volume 72(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-08
• Subjects: Measuring intraparty competition -- Personal vote seeking incentives -- Party vote seeking incentives -- Candidate manifestos -- SMDP -- SNTV -- Japan; Elections -- Periodicals; Voting -- Periodicals; 324.6
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102369
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0261-3794

Abstract

Abstract: Electoral rules establish incentives that encourage candidates to strike a particular balance between cultivating their own personal reputations and cultivating shared party reputations. Higher levels of intraparty competition stress the need for an individual reputation and minimize the usefulness of a shared, party reputation. We develop a new indicator of intraparty competition that addresses shortcomings pointed out in previously used indicators. We also identify new, particularly intuitive indicators of "personal" and "party" vote seeking. Using within-system and across-system variation in parliamentary elections in Japan, we find that candidate manifestos contain more frequent uses of first-person pronouns and candidate names and fewer references to political parties when intraparty competition is stiffest.