The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Party responsiveness and voter confidence in Australia

Party responsiveness and voter confidence in Australia
Party responsiveness and voter confidence in Australia
Numerous studies have shown that Australians have little confidence in their political parties. This article presents the results of a study investigating whether the responsiveness of Australian parties to what their voters want drives this lack of confidence. It analyses two aspects of party responsiveness: programmatic responsiveness in electoral manifestos and perceived responsiveness that centres on Australian voters’ assessment of how well their parties meet their demands. The analysis finds that programmatic responsiveness has no significant influence. Instead, how Australians perceive their parties to be responsive has a modest effect on their confidence in those parties. The study suggests that, however, it is incumbency which has the most powerful effect on voter confidence.
1036-1146
436-457
Werner, Annika
dcafc9c0-9649-427b-b550-04d03e3c0b24
Werner, Annika
dcafc9c0-9649-427b-b550-04d03e3c0b24

Werner, Annika (2016) Party responsiveness and voter confidence in Australia. Australian Journal of Political Science, 51 (3), 436-457. (doi:10.1080/10361146.2016.1219692).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that Australians have little confidence in their political parties. This article presents the results of a study investigating whether the responsiveness of Australian parties to what their voters want drives this lack of confidence. It analyses two aspects of party responsiveness: programmatic responsiveness in electoral manifestos and perceived responsiveness that centres on Australian voters’ assessment of how well their parties meet their demands. The analysis finds that programmatic responsiveness has no significant influence. Instead, how Australians perceive their parties to be responsive has a modest effect on their confidence in those parties. The study suggests that, however, it is incumbency which has the most powerful effect on voter confidence.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 26 June 2016
Published date: 30 August 2016

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 498127
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/498127
ISSN: 1036-1146
PURE UUID: 1ebb2edb-295e-494a-9e8d-4883df97bca7
ORCID for Annika Werner: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7341-0551

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 10 Feb 2025 18:00
Last modified: 11 Feb 2025 03:17

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Annika Werner ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×