ECONOMY AND THE VOTE: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND ELECTIONS IN FIFTEEN COUNTRIES

"Economic conditions are said to affect election outcomes, but past research has produced unstable and even contradictory findings in this respect. This book argues that these problems are caused by the failure to take account of electoral competition between parties. A research strategy to correct this problem is designed and applied to investigate effects of economic conditions on (individual) voter choices and (aggregate) election outcomes in forty-two electoral contexts." "It shows that economic conditions exert small effects on individual party preferences, which can nevertheless have large consequences for election outcomes when competition between parties is strong. In countries where responsibility for economic policy is clear, voters vote retrospectively and reward or punish incumbent parties although in coalition systems the large government party usually gains at the expense of its junior partners when the economy is doing well. Where clarity of responsibility for economic policy is less clear, voters vote more prospectively on the basis of expected party policies."--Jacket.