Determinants of Vote Choice

VOTE CHOICE SIMPLY refers to the candidate or candidates for whom an individual votes. Elections are the primary means through which citizens impact the shape and production of government. The act of voting, therefore, is the single most important political activity in which most citizens will engage. The study of what affects these decisions has encompassed several decades of research by many prominent scholars. Vote choice refers to an individual behavior, as opposed to an outcome or aggregation of choices. Scholars studying voting behavior have identified several factors that contribute to the voting calculus. These can be categorized as political factors, demographic characteristics, and evaluations. Political factors refer primarily to partisanship and ideology. These are two of the most important determinants of vote choice, and are affected by a second set of factors, demographic characteristics. Finally, leading from demographics and political factors, vote choice is also affected by evaluations of candidates and the current political climate.

Partisanship, a long-standing disposition in favor of a particular political party, has a large impact on voting. In its most common use, partisanship is measured along a scale from strong Democrat to strong Republican, with Independent in the middle. The stronger an [Page 181]individual's identification with a party the more likely they are to vote for candidates from that party. Ideology, a second important political factor, is a set of beliefs or issue positions organized in a specific manner. Ideology can also be measured by an individual's self-identification as liberal, moderate, or conservative and carries with it an intensity of identification. Liberals tend to vote for Democratic candidates; conservatives tend to vote for Republicans.

Underlying the political factors that affect voting decisions are the demographic characteristics that lead to both political identification and vote choice. Literature on voting and public opinion points mainly to race, gender, region, religion, and income as the characteristics that affect voting behavior. Demographics affect political factors, contributing to both partisan and ideological identifications. Demographics also affect voting independent of political dispositions.