How Political Parties Shape Public Opinion in the Real World

Rune Slothuus; Martin Bisgaard

doi:10.1111/ajps.12550

How Political Parties Shape Public Opinion in the Real World

Institut for Statskundskab

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avis › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

100 Citationer (Scopus)

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Abstract

How powerful are political parties in shaping citizens' opinions? Despite longstanding interest in the flow of influence between partisan elites and citizens, few studies to date examine how citizens react when their party changes its position on a major issue in the real world. We present a rare quasi-experimental panel study of how citizens responded when their political party suddenly reversed its position on two major and salient welfare issues in Denmark. With a five-wave panel survey collected just around these two events, we show that citizens' policy opinions changed immediately and substantially when their party switched its policy position--even when the new position went against citizens' previously held views. These findings advance the current, largely experimental literature on partisan elite influence.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	American Journal of Political Science
Vol/bind	65
Nummer	4
Sider (fra-til)	896-911
Antal sider	16
ISSN	0092-5853
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12550
Status	Udgivet - okt. 2021

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10.1111/ajps.12550

How Political Parties Shape Public Opinion in the Real World (with Appendix)_Accepted manuscript_2021Accepteret manuskript, 727 KB

Citationsformater

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How Political Parties Shape Public Opinion in the Real World

Abstract

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