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Valence as macro-competence: an analysis of mood in party competence evaluations in Great Britain

Valence as macro-competence: an analysis of mood in party competence evaluations in Great Britain
Valence as macro-competence: an analysis of mood in party competence evaluations in Great Britain
There is a discernable mood in macro-level public evaluations of party issue competence. This paper argues that voters use heuristics to transfer issue competence ratings of parties between issues, therefore issue competence ratings move in common. Events, economic shocks and the costs of governing reinforce these shared dynamics. These expectations are analysed using issue competence data in Britain 1950–2008, and using Stimson's dyad ratios algorithm to estimate ‘macro-competence’. Effects on macro-competence are found for events and economic shocks, time in government, leader ratings, economic evaluations and partisanship, but macro-competence also accounts for unique variance in a model of party choice. The article presents an aggregate-level time-series measure to capture the long-term dynamics of ‘valence’.
0007-1234
311-343
Green, Jane
cff6cee4-a008-4a79-ad4f-bab7f80ff1fd
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Green, Jane
cff6cee4-a008-4a79-ad4f-bab7f80ff1fd
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7

Green, Jane and Jennings, Will (2012) Valence as macro-competence: an analysis of mood in party competence evaluations in Great Britain. British Journal of Political Science, 42 (2), 311-343. (doi:10.1017/S0007123411000330).

Record type: Article

Abstract

There is a discernable mood in macro-level public evaluations of party issue competence. This paper argues that voters use heuristics to transfer issue competence ratings of parties between issues, therefore issue competence ratings move in common. Events, economic shocks and the costs of governing reinforce these shared dynamics. These expectations are analysed using issue competence data in Britain 1950–2008, and using Stimson's dyad ratios algorithm to estimate ‘macro-competence’. Effects on macro-competence are found for events and economic shocks, time in government, leader ratings, economic evaluations and partisanship, but macro-competence also accounts for unique variance in a model of party choice. The article presents an aggregate-level time-series measure to capture the long-term dynamics of ‘valence’.

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Published date: April 2012
Organisations: Politics & International Relations

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 336591
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/336591
ISSN: 0007-1234
PURE UUID: 30168b90-3035-44d4-a3ad-9dc6d67386b3
ORCID for Will Jennings: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9007-8896

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Date deposited: 30 Mar 2012 10:14
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:42

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Contributors

Author: Jane Green
Author: Will Jennings ORCID iD

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