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Voting in a Multi-dimensional Space: A Conjoint AnalysisEmploying Valence and Ideology Attributes of Candidates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2014

Fabio Franchino  and
Francesco Zucchini
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Abstract

Most formal models of valence competition add a single, separable andunweighted component to the standard one-dimensional utility function ofvoters. This article presents the results of a conjoint analysis experimentin which respondents were asked to choose between two candidates whoseprofiles vary along five attributes. Four of these traits behave likevalence or policy issues as expected, but one, which has been employed inrecent formal and empirical works, does not. Moreover, policy and valenceare not separable. They interact at least in some cases, taking a competencyform whereby the marginal impact of valence on voters’ choice is conditionalon candidates’ policies. This result lends support to recent studies thathave found more extensive valence voting under ideological convergence.Finally, policy trumps valence in awkward choices. Respondents even prefercorrupt candidates with similar policy views to honest ones with differentopinions, despite integrity being declared the most important attribute.

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Type
Original Articles
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 3 , Supplement 2 , May 2015 , pp. 221 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © The European Political Science Association 2014 

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Footnotes

Fabio Franchino and Francesco Zucchini are Associate Professors ofPolitical Science, Department of Social and Political Sciences,Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Conservatorio 7, Milan, 20122,Italy (fabio.franchino@unimi.it, francesco.zucchini@unimi.it).This article has greatly benefitted from presentations at the 71stAnnual Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association(Chicago, April 2013), the 3rd Annual Conference of the EuropeanPolitical Science Association (Barcelona, June 2013) and at theseminar series of the Department of Social and Political Sciences,Università degli Studi di Milano. The authors would like to thankLuigi Curini, Walter R. Mebane, Guy D. Whitten and the reviewers of PSRM for their useful comments, and AlessandraCaserini of the Opinion Polls Laboratory (Laboratorio Indagini Demoscopiche, Università degli Studi di Milano), forresearch assistance. Supplementary material is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2014.24.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/26639
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Franchino and Zucchini Supplementary Material

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