Information and identities in dynamic electoral environments

Waeiss, Charla S.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/104999 Copy

Description

Title

Information and identities in dynamic electoral environments

Author(s)

Waeiss, Charla S.

Issue Date

2019-04-10

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Gaines, Brian J.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Gaines, Brian J.

Committee Member(s)

• Canache, Damarys
• Kuklinski, James
• Livny, Avital

Department of Study

Political Science

Discipline

Political Science

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

partisanship, heuristics, social identities, elections

Abstract

"Electoral environments in democracies are complex. One of the key tools voters use to simplify the information environment in elections is the party-label heuristic. However, party labels themselves change and with considerable frequency. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the consequences of party-label changes for voters’ information, partisan identities, and corresponding behavior. As a result, this dissertation makes a series of contributions to our understanding of voter decision-making and partisanship. First, I create an original dataset of party-name changes across 43 democracies from 1990-2017, allowing scholars to quantify instances of party relabeling. Second, using these data paired with electoral surveys, I demonstrate that party relabeling limits the information voters have about the party, alters their voting considerations, and is associated with decreased levels of partisanship to such parties. Third, using a case study in Germany, I demonstrate that changes as innocuous and a party relabeling itself alters how that party’s followers see themselves, other parties, and even limits their willingness to engage with political actors. Fourth, I use the same case in Germany to highlight that parties can opt for new names that include informative signals, thereby improving voters’ knowledge about them. Finally, I contend that voters may come to rely on different heuristics when party labels are no longer reliable information shortcuts, pointing to party leaders as an alternative heuristic. In doing so, I develop two new measures to capture how voters view the ""typicality"" of party leaders vis-a-vis the party and the level of attachment voters express toward leaders over the party, expanding our extant understanding of partisanship and personalization."

Graduation Semester

2019-05

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104999

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Charla Waeiss

Owning Collections