This paper asks whether economic self-interest predicts revealed support for redistribution by examining votes on redistributive ballot initiatives rather than survey responses. Drawing on eight ballot initiatives across six American states, the authors report precinct-level evidence that precinct economic standing is systematically related to votes on redistribution and that class differences vary with local partisan composition.
This paper asks whether voters’ affect toward groups made salient by housing policy explains opposition to new development and reforms. Drawing on symbolic politics theory, the authors test whether dislike of developers, investors, government approvers, or incoming residents helps account for anti-development preferences—especially for policies that are not tied to a specific local project. The contribution is experimental and causal: the authors report evidence from survey experiments and short-form video manipulations that link affect toward these actors to policy judgments.
Does voter perception treat female candidates' ambition differently than male ones?
Does public backlash against austerity cause voters to reject it? Contrary to conventional wisdom, this paper argues that most voters actually prefer austerity as a response to economic crises.
This article asks which kinds of alleged wartime perpetrators voters are willing to support and why, focusing on civilian-targeting during and after conflict. Using a conjoint survey in Colombia that presents hypothetical former combatants running for office, the study tests a framework grounded in dyadic morality: voters assess alleged perpetrators by inferences about integrity and competence, with security competence proposed as the most salient competence in civilian-targeting contexts.
Which factors influence how voters evaluate policy responses to economic shocks from natural disasters? This paper uses an original survey experiment among American citizens to test three fairness-based explanations—affectedness, need, and political ties—and compares those stated preferences to observed disaster-relief allocations from 1993–2008. The central contribution is a combined experimental and observational assessment that links mass preferences over distributional fairness to actual allocation patterns, while preserving the authors’ qualifications.
Voter priorities are high on the agenda, but do these subjective ratings actually sway election outcomes?
New models of political dimensionality in Europe often rely on party data. But this study asks: what does measuring voter preferences across countries reveal?
Does a candidate's gender influence votes? Not always. This paper explores how the impact of gender varies dramatically across different political contexts, revealing that what might seem like an automatic preference gap is actually highly contingent.
Japan's unique political landscape raises an intriguing question: Do prime minister cues influence voter policy preferences more than party cues? This study investigates cue utilization effectiveness using a survey experiment. Previous research found single-party cues ineffective, but this paper examines whether leader cues could provide stronger guidance.
Voter preferences evolve throughout an election cycle, yet these changes follow predictable patterns across countries with different political institutions.