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The ideological space in Irish politics: comparing voters and parties

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-01-02, 10:25 authored by RORY COSTELLORORY COSTELLO
Drawing on an original survey of voters and parties, this article examines the policy space in Irish politics in the context of the 2016 general election. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses show that four broad ideological dimensions structure voters’ policy views across a range of salient issues. These are an economic dimension, a cultural dimension, a religious dimension and an austerity dimension. Comparing the location of voters and parties on these dimensions, gaps in the policy space are identified where voters are not represented by any party. Most noticeably, a significant segment of the electorate is found to have left-wing views on economic issues but conservative/authoritarian views on the cultural dimension, and this combination is currently not offered by any of the existing political parties. The article also highlights areas where political parties are out of step with the views of their own voters.

History

Publication

Irish Political Studies: 32 (3), pp. 404-431

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This is an Author's Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form, the Version of Record, has been published in the Journal of Political Studies 2017copyright Taylor & Francis], available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2017.1328408

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en

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