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De Sio, L. (2007). For a Few Votes More. The Italian General Elections of 2006. South European Society and Politics, 12(1), 95–109. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13608740601155534?journalCode=fses20 Vai al sito web

Operationalizations of the Rokkanian centre-periphery cleavage have traditionally focused on the presence of specific regional political cultures, as well as on cultural fragmentation within a country (at the aggregate level) or on proxy indicators such as town size (at the individual level). We suggest that geographical remoteness from political centres – a key element of the centre-periphery cleavage in the Rokkanian framework – could provide a more accurate measurement of the subjective position of individuals in relationship to the cleavage. As new indicators of this concept, we introduce measures of distance between the place of residence of a citizen and political centres at different hierarchical levels, based on road distances and travel times along traditional roads (also accounting for differences in orography and geography among different countries and regions). We empirically test the impact of such indicators on vote choice on the Italian and French cases. We use survey data from the 2006 ITANES and the 2002 PEF, and information about road distances and travel times obtained through online mapping/routing services. We first assess differences between the two countries in terms of orography and geography. We then estimate multivariate models of vote choice at the individual level, in order to te st the following hypotheses: a) that the new indicators add significant explanatory power, compared to traditional indicators related to the centre-periphery cleavage; b) that the new indicators have different effects on vote choice for different parties, expressing different affinities of these parties with the cleavage.

A promising strand of research is adopting survey experimental approaches to assess the extent to which parties not only aggregate preferences, but are also able to shape them - a research question which becomes crucial as the economic crisis is weakening trust in parties and the party system in many European countries. Typical survey experimental designs adopt party-mention treatments, in order to assess difference in policy support based on the mention of a party to which the respondent has some kind of affinity. Results obtained so far in a variety of countries show the significant presence of party-cuing effects; however, existing research has been mostly experimenting on artificial, low-saliency issues, thus raising concerns of external validity. In this paper we report findings from a survey experiment on real-world, high-saliency issues, which was included in the 4th wave of the CISE (Italian Center for Electoral Studies) Electoral Panel. The panel started in early 2012, covering about 12 months before recent general elections, a period of time during which the economic crisis expressed his deepest effects. The design included three issues selected in order to maximize variance on issue complexity and content: rights for gay couples, house property tax and electoral reform. On each policy issue, respondents in the control group were asked to choose among four different policy options, while respondents in the treatment group received the same options, but each accompanied by a proponent party. Results show effects of party cuing that are large and significant. Respondents tend to support more a policy if they are informed that such policy is proposed by their preferred party. This effect however varies across issues. The paper also investigates variation across party identification, with findings that confirm theoretical expectations: party identifiers show stronger cueing effects than non-identifiers, although different levels of party closeness do not always correspond to cueing effects that are significantly different. Finally we compare cueing effects across groups characterized by different levels of exposure to the economic crisis: we hypothesize that among those who are experiencing economic difficulties such effects should be weaker, expressing less trust in the party system and in specific parties.

Lo studio degli elettori in movimento, ovvero di chi cambia scelta di voto tra due elezioni, è un tema fondamentale della scienza politica. Si tratta di un tema di grande attualità in particolare alla luce della ristrutturazione del sistema partitico italiano, e per almeno due motivi. Da un lato per lo studio della risposta degli elettori alla nuova offerta partitica; dall’altro perché la dinamica della competizione bipolare rende gli elettori in movimento la categoria che di fatto può decidere le elezioni. In questo volume viene quindi affrontato il tema dello studio dei flussi elettorali in base a dati aggregati. Dopo una ricostruzione delle origini delle tecniche di stima, e della storia di queste analisi in Italia, il volume prende in esame la recente proposta innovativa dell’approccio EI (Ecological Inference) e la riformula in termini generali perché possa essere utilizzata anche nell’analisi di sistemi multipartitici come quello italiano. Il risultato è una nuova tecnica per la stima dei flussi elettorali, e quindi per la ricostruzione dei comportamenti di voto degli elettori in movimento. Questa tecnica viene infine applicata a un caso concreto: il voto differenziato tra maggioritario e proporzionale nelle elezioni politiche del 2001. Si tratta di un’analisi che rivela comportamenti inediti e dalla interessante distribuzione geografica; un’analisi in grado di rivelare già nel 2001 alcune delle dinamiche della successiva evoluzione del sistema partitico italiano.