Voting for locals: Voters’ information processing strategies in open-list PR systems

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• 作者：Michael Jankowski ^{michael.jankowski@uni-oldenburg.de" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：Open-list PR systems ; Personal vote ; Information shortcuts ; Residence effects
• 刊名：Electoral Studies
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：September 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：43
• 期：Complete
• 页码：72-84
• 全文大小：1239 K

文摘

While most of the literature on information shortcuts in open-list PR systems focuses on the importance of ballot position effects, the influence of a candidate’s localness has widely been ignored by existing studies. In this paper, I address this research gap and argue that voting patterns in open-list PR systems are more versatile than existing research would suggest. By analyzing a special characteristic of the open-list PR system employed in the parliamentary elections of Hamburg, it is shown that a large portion of voters chooses to vote for local candidates irrespective of the ballot position of the candidate. The paper further controls for factors conditioning the effect and finds that it remains strong even after taking them into consideration. The results have important implications for the representativeness of open-list PR systems, ballot paper design, as well as for our understanding of voters’ decision making process.