Overview

The Reputational Premium presents a new theory of party identification, the central concept in the study of voting. Challenging the traditional idea that voters identify with a political party out of blind emotional attachment, this pioneering book explains why party identification in contemporary American politics enables voters to make coherent policy choices. Standard approaches to the study of policy-based voting hold that voters choose based on the policy positions of the two candidates competing for their support. This study demonstrates that candidates can get a premium in support from the policy reputations of their parties. In particular, Paul Sniderman and Edward Stiglitz present a theory of how partisans take account of the parties' policy reputations as a function of the competing candidates' policy positions. A central implication of this theory of reputation-centered choices is that party identification gives candidates tremendous latitude in their policy positioning.Paradoxically, it is the party supporters who understand and are in synch with the ideological logic of the American party system who open the door to a polarized politics precisely by making the best-informed choices on offer.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul M. Sniderman ,  Edward H. Stiglitz
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.227kg
ISBN:  

9780691154176

ISBN 10:   0691154171
Pages:   160
Publication Date:   22 July 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Language:   English

Table of Contents

Preface ix Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Our Story 3 Chapter 2: A Reputational Theory of Party Identification and Policy Reasoning 12 Premises 12 The Institutional Basis of Party- Centered Voting 13 Characteristics of Choice Sets in Politics 16 Reputational Reasoning and Candidate Positioning 23 Chapter 3: Lessons from a Sterile Downsian Environment 34 Issues of Identity 34 A Thought Experiment: Policy Reasoning in a Sterilized Downsian Space 36 The Downsian Experiment 37 Party and Partisanship in the Absence of Party 42 Lessons from a Sterile Downsian Environment 62 Chapter 4: The Electoral Logic of Party Reputations 64 The Errors- and- Bias Interpretation of Party Identifi cation 64 The Canonical Theory of Party Identifi cation 71 Programmatic Partisans and Reputational Premiums in Policy Reasoning 77 Candidate Positioning and the Reputational Premium: The Order Rule 79 Alternative Hypotheses on Candidate Positioning 82 Replication: The Order Rule 89 When Candidate Positions and Party Reputations Conflict 92 Caveat Lector 93 Chapter 5: The Democratic Experiment: A Supply- Side Theory of Political Ideas and Institutions 95 A Reputational Theory of Party Identifi cation and Policy Reasoning 96 A Party- Centered Supply- Side Approach to the Question of Citizen Competence 100 A Paradox: Citizen Competence and Partisan Reputation 104 Coda 109 Appendix A: A Limit on the Influence of the Policy Reputations of Parties 110 Introduction 110 Reputations as Encoded Information 114 The Stickiness of Preferences 116 Can Parties Induce Polarization Spikes? 119 Replication 125 Precis 130 Appendix B Study Descriptions: General Description of Methodology 133 References 137 Index 143

Reviews

The book is succinct and will therefore appeal to students in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses on political behaviour and US politics. The book is the first in a long while to take a fresh look at the concept of party identification, therefore a must read for scholars conducting research on elections and voting. Given the centrality of party identification to understanding US politics, this book is recommended to scholars engaged in all areas of study in US government and politics. Choice

Author Information

Paul M. Sniderman is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr., Professor of Public Policy at Stanford University and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Edward H. Stiglitz holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University and is completing a JD at Stanford Law School.

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