Candidate Rhetorical Strategy and Perceptions of Sincerity  Elizabeth Simas (University of Houston)Scott Clifford (University of Houston) Recent polls suggest that as few as 8% of Americans think that politicians believe most of the stances that they take on issues. This extreme level of cynicism threatens to break a fundamental link in representation. If candidates cannot […] Read more

Un pays divisé: identité, fédéralisme et régionalisme au Canada Evelyne Brie (University of Pennsylvania) Félix Mathieu (University of Winnipeg) Le Canada est un pays divisé… mais à quel point? Et surtout, comment expliquer et interpréter ce phénomène ? À l’aide de données de sondage originales issues de l’enquête La Confédération de demain 2.0 / The Confederation of […] Read more

Voters’ Preferences for Parties’ Moral Rhetoric Jae-Hee Jung (University of Houston) Moral rhetoric in party messages reflect parties’ attempts to represent voters’ moral values. It is unclear, however, how voters feel about such messages of moral representation. Do voters want parties to use moral rhetoric? Based on insights about the link between morality and politics, […] Read more

Voters’ Preferences for Parties’ Moral Rhetoric Jae-Hee Jung (University of Houston) Moral rhetoric in party messages reflect parties’ attempts to represent voters’ moral values. It is unclear, however, how voters feel about such messages of moral representation. Do voters want parties to use moral rhetoric? Based on insights about the link between morality and politics, […] Read more

Les clivages politiques et le système partisan du Québec au XXIe siècle Eric Bélanger (McGill University) Jean-François Godbout (Université de Montréal) Depuis quelques années, le Québec semble en proie à une transformation significative sur le plan politique. L’exemple le plus frappant de cette évolution tient au fait que les débats qui occupent la scène politique […] Read more

The Effectiveness of Symbolic Group Appeals Ruth Dassonneville (Université de Montréal) Citizens’ socio-demographic characteristics shape their political preferences, resulting in systematic differences in how social groups vote. These group-differences emerge when there are clear associations between social groups and specific parties. Recent work has shown that one way in which parties can create such linkages […] Read more

The Expertise Paradox: How Policy Expertise Can Hinder Responsiveness Miguel M. Pereira (University of Southern California)Patrick Ohberg (University of Gothenburg) We argue that policy expertise constrains the ability of politicians to act on voter preferences. Legislators with more knowledge and experience in a given domain have more confidence in their own issue-specific positions. Enhanced confidence, in turn, […] Read more

You can Sort but don’t Polarize: How Elite Polarization Shapes Opinion Formation Semih Cakir (Université de Montréal) A great deal of scholarly attention is given to whether political parties shape citizens’ opinions to which they subsequently respond. These works show that citizens indeed follow party cues and adjust their issue opinions even when they go against […] Read more

Follow mainly the leader? An experimental study of the relative impact of parties on opinion formation Fernando Feitosa (McGill University) Jennifer Oser (Ben-Gurion University) Nir Grinberg (Ben-Gurion University) Prior work convincingly demonstrates that Americans follow the policy positions of parties with whom they identify. However, not much research investigates the relative impact of parties on opinion formation. More specifically, are parties […] Read more

Are Citizens Tougher on Politicians Than Other Professions? Evidence from Survey Experiments in the United States and Canada Jean-François Daoust (University of Edinburgh)John McAndrews (University of Toronto)Thomas Bergeron (University of Toronto)Roosmarijn de Geus (University of Oxford) Peter J. Loewen (University of Toronto) Being a politician is not among the professions held in high regard by […] Read more