Voter satisfaction during electoral campaigns isn't solely determined by proportional outcomes, according to a new study analyzing the Canadian federal election. Using survey experiments in 2019, researchers tested how citizens' views of six possible electoral results were shaped by their partisan preferences versus proportionality. The findings suggest voters slightly prefer proportional outcomes but focus on who will form government—partisans are happy when their preferred party has a plurality and unhappy otherwise.
🗳️ Experimental Design: Voters reacted to both majoritarian and proportional scenarios during the 2019 election campaign. Conditions included variations in vote share for parties, ranging from reference polls to gains or losses of six percentage points.
📊 Key Finding 1: Proportional outcomes show slight preference over majoritarian ones among citizens.
📝 Why It Matters: This study highlights how survey experiments can reveal practical electoral considerations over abstract principles, despite methodological limits.
| Are Voters' Views About Proportional Outcomes Shaped by Partisan Preferences? A Survey Experiment in the Context of a Real Election was authored by André Blais, Semra Sevi and Carolina Plescia. It was published by Cambridge in PSR&M in 2022. |
