Political mobilisation and socioeconomic inequality in policy congruence

IF 3.6 1区 社会学 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE European Journal of Political Research Pub Date : 2024-02-01 DOI:10.1111/1475-6765.12661
DAVID WEISSTANNER, CARSTEN JENSEN
{"title":"Political mobilisation and socioeconomic inequality in policy congruence","authors":"DAVID WEISSTANNER,&nbsp;CARSTEN JENSEN","doi":"10.1111/1475-6765.12661","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>In recent years, scholars have observed that political parties’ policy positions frequently fit the preferences of well-to-do voters better than those of the less well-to-do; a phenomenon known as policy congruence inequality. While the existence of inequality in policy congruence is well-established, we currently only have a modest understanding of the causes of it. We develop an argument proposing that the political mobilisation of citizens with low socioeconomic status (SES) both in the parliamentary channel, in the form of high turnout, and in the extra-parliamentary channel, in the form of high union density, is pivotal. Both high turnout and union density force parties to pay more attention to the preferences of the disadvantaged, thereby creating lower policy congruence inequality. To test the argument, we have collected and harmonised election surveys and party manifestos covering 90 elections in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, covering several decades until today, yielding more than 120,000 voter–party dyads. Employing this new dataset, our results confirm that the political mobilisation of citizens with low SES is a strong predictor of policy congruence inequality. This finding nuances the conclusion of extant research by showing that low-SES citizens are not always on the losing side politically. It also implies the important role of maintaining or maybe even increasing turnout and union membership among the disadvantaged in society. Places where either turnout or union density is slipping in these years are likely to witness further increases in policy congruence inequality in the years to come.</p>","PeriodicalId":48273,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Political Research","volume":"63 4","pages":"1540-1556"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Political Research","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6765.12661","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

In recent years, scholars have observed that political parties’ policy positions frequently fit the preferences of well-to-do voters better than those of the less well-to-do; a phenomenon known as policy congruence inequality. While the existence of inequality in policy congruence is well-established, we currently only have a modest understanding of the causes of it. We develop an argument proposing that the political mobilisation of citizens with low socioeconomic status (SES) both in the parliamentary channel, in the form of high turnout, and in the extra-parliamentary channel, in the form of high union density, is pivotal. Both high turnout and union density force parties to pay more attention to the preferences of the disadvantaged, thereby creating lower policy congruence inequality. To test the argument, we have collected and harmonised election surveys and party manifestos covering 90 elections in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, covering several decades until today, yielding more than 120,000 voter–party dyads. Employing this new dataset, our results confirm that the political mobilisation of citizens with low SES is a strong predictor of policy congruence inequality. This finding nuances the conclusion of extant research by showing that low-SES citizens are not always on the losing side politically. It also implies the important role of maintaining or maybe even increasing turnout and union membership among the disadvantaged in society. Places where either turnout or union density is slipping in these years are likely to witness further increases in policy congruence inequality in the years to come.

查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
政策一致性中的政治动员和社会经济不平等
近年来,学者们注意到,政党的政策立场往往更符合富裕选民的偏好,而非不富裕选民的偏好;这种现象被称为政策一致性不平等。虽然政策一致性不平等现象的存在已得到证实,但我们目前对其成因的了解还很有限。我们提出了一个论点,即社会经济地位低下的公民在议会渠道(高投票率)和议会外渠道(高工会密度)的政治动员至关重要。高投票率和高工会密度都会迫使政党更加关注弱势群体的偏好,从而降低政策一致性不平等。为了验证这一论点,我们收集并统一了澳大利亚、丹麦、德国、瑞典、瑞士、英国和美国的 90 次选举调查和政党宣言,涵盖了数十年来的选举情况,得出了超过 12 万个选民-政党对偶数据。利用这一新的数据集,我们的研究结果证实,低社会经济地位公民的政治动员是政策一致性不平等的有力预测因素。这一研究结果表明,低社会经济地位的公民在政治上并不总是处于劣势。这也意味着在社会弱势群体中保持甚至增加投票率和工会会员人数的重要作用。在这些年中,投票率或工会密度下降的地方很可能会在未来几年中看到政策一致性不平等的进一步加剧。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
10.00
自引率
5.70%
发文量
67
期刊介绍: European Journal of Political Research specialises in articles articulating theoretical and comparative perspectives in political science, and welcomes both quantitative and qualitative approaches. EJPR also publishes short research notes outlining ongoing research in more specific areas of research. The Journal includes the Political Data Yearbook, published as a double issue at the end of each volume.
期刊最新文献
Issue Information Issue Information Correction to (When) do electoral mandates set the agenda? Government capacity and mandate responsiveness in Germany Issue Information Patterns of democracy and democratic satisfaction: Results from a comparative conjoint experiment
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1