Author : Brian Arata
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (125 download)
Book Synopsis Understanding The Complex Motives Behind Split-Ticket Voting by : Brian Arata
Download or read book Understanding The Complex Motives Behind Split-Ticket Voting written by Brian Arata and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Voters who choose to cast a split ticket, voting for two different parties on the same ballot, have perplexed political scientists, campaigns, candidates, and media for years. Many political observers wonder how an individual could cast a vote for more than one party in the same election, seeing it as potentially contradictory or detrimental to the voter's own welfare. However, the rate of split-ticket voting across the democratic world has been rising as the number of well-established democratic countries has increased and voters have become more familiar with both the electoral rules and political parties in their countries. Despite an increase in split-ticket voting, we know little about recent trends or why split-ticket voters are choosing to act in this way. This thesis contributes to earlier studies by analyzing three potential motivations for split-ticket voting in the 2017 German Bundestag elections: casting a strategic vote, voting based off of a sincere expression of one's personal preferences, and voting for a specific potential government coalition. I hypothesize that all three potential motivations will influence a voter's decision to split their ticket. Using data from the 2017 German Longitudinal Election Study, a nationally-representative survey of the German electorate, I find that split-ticket voting has grown in Germany in the years since German unification. I also find evidence supporting my hypothesis; all three factors do, to various degrees, motivate voters to split their ticket.