Three Competing Paradigm in Explaining Voting Behavior

1
Three Competing Paradigm in Explaining Voting
Behavior

• The Sociological Approach
• The Psychological Approach
• The Economic Approach

2

• Sociological Approach The Columbia school
• The structural conditions and social constraints
  that voters found them in should be the starting
  point for voting behavior. The focal point is
  social class or ethnicity.
• Psychological Approach The Michigan school
• All human behaviors are guided by pre-existing
  psychological propensities. The focal point is
  the mediating role of long-term psychological
  predispositionparty identity in guiding citizen
  voting.
• The Economic Approach The Rochester school
• All human behaviors are driven by
  utility-maximizing motivation. The focal point is
  the expected net material benefits that
  parties/candidates bring to the voter.

3
Explaining Voting and Non-Voting

• Psychological Approach Propensity to vote is a
  function of
• Sense of citizen duty
• Political efficacy
• Intensity of partisanship
• Rational Choice Approach
• The paradox of voting
• First remedy by Anthony Downs to support and
  sustain democratic system

4
Efforts to Resolve the Paradox

• Anthony Downs R pjB - C (R???????,B?????,pj???
  ??????????????,C?????
• Riker and Ordeshook R pjB D - C
• (D??????????????)
• Ferejohn and Fiorina Decision rule based on
  Minimax strategy to minimize the possibility of
  maximum regret
• Retrospective Voting Party identification is no
  more than a running tally of past evaluation of
  the performance of one party versus the other.