We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Mass Media and Party Divergence in Multiparty Systems.
- Authors
Bækgaard, Martin; Jensen, Carsten
- Abstract
Does the mass media affect the dispersion of the policy positions of political parties? In this article it is argued that the mass media polarize parties' policy positions because vote-seeking strategies are more viable if party policy positions are clearly communicated to the electorate and because a vote-seeking strategy corresponds with parties taking a distinct policy position away from the median. Hence, the main hypothesis is that party policy position dispersion is larger with more mass media penetration. In order to test this argument, a novel dataset on party positions and mass media penetration in 267 Danish municipalities in 2004 is utilized and a new measure of the dispersion of policy positions in multiparty systems is constructed. The analysis corroborates the article's main hypothesis.
- Subjects
DENMARK; MASS media; MUNICIPAL government; POLITICAL parties; REPRESENTATIVE government; DANISH politics &; government; VOTER attitudes; VOTING; VOTER turnout; POLITICAL party leadership; POLITICAL science; POLITICAL competition; DANISH politics &; government, 1972-
- Publication
Scandinavian Political Studies, 2013, Vol 36, Issue 2, p137
- ISSN
0080-6757
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9477.2012.00299.x