eprintid: 31154
rev_number: 12
eprint_status: archive
userid: 5878
dir: disk0/00/03/11/54
datestamp: 2022-01-18 14:35:15
lastmod: 2022-09-12 11:39:26
status_changed: 2022-01-18 14:35:15
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Wenzelburger, Georg
creators_name: Zohlnhöfer, Reimut
title: Bringing agency back into the study of partisan politics: A note on recent developments in the literature on party politics
subjects: ddc-320
divisions: i-180500
keywords: partisan effects, party politics, public policy, vote seeking
note: Dieser Beitrag ist aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. *** This publication is freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
abstract: The question of whether political parties make a systematic difference in terms of public policies is one of the classics of comparative public policy research. However, unstable class cleavages and changing party strategies challenge the assumptions of traditional partisan theory, namely that parties represent a stable group of voters and implement policies according to the preferences of this group. Against this backdrop, several recent studies have called for an “electoral turn” in partisan theory and suggest establishing a party–voter link on the microlevel, depending on the policy area at stake. In this article, we propose a different view on partisan effects. While we do not argue that public opinion is unimportant for parties, we maintain that the electoral turn literature has a tendency to black-box the political actors and their preferences, because they become mere agents of voter preferences. Our argument builds on a growing literature that shows that political actors both at the party member and the elite level do have preferences and that these may ormay not be congruent with those of the voters. Hence, the effect of partisan ideology on public policies may also be situated on the level of the parties or policy-makers themselves.
date: 2021
publisher: Sage Publ.
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00031154
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068820919316
ppn_swb: 181584857X
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-311544
language: eng
bibsort: WENZELBURGBRINGINGAG2021
full_text_status: public
publication: Party Politics
volume: 27
number: 5
place_of_pub: London [u.a.]
pagerange: 1055-1065
issn: 1354-0688 (Print-Ausg.), 1460-3683 (Online-Ausg.)
edition: Zweitveröffentlichung
citation:   Wenzelburger, Georg ; Zohlnhöfer, Reimut  (2021) Bringing agency back into the study of partisan politics: A note on recent developments in the literature on party politics.  Party Politics, 27 (5).  pp. 1055-1065.  ISSN 1354-0688 (Print-Ausg.), 1460-3683 (Online-Ausg.)     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/31154/1/10.1177_1354068820919316.pdf