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Why does partisanship override concerns about hypocrisy with voters?
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Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
I'll provide a few examples to demonstrate what I mean:
When their party's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court is facing confirmation, they insist that every candidate should receive a fair hearing and an up or down vote. When an opposing party's nominee is in the same shoes, they claim to be proud to play hardball to keep that person off the bench.
When their partisans are accused of personal misconduct, they downplay or deny that there was wrongdoing, while they push for harsh accountability when their opponents are accused.
When the other party runs up huge deficits they decry that party's gross irresponsibility, and then run up huge deficits themselves without a peep of complaint about their own party's actions.
When they other party secures a diplomatic agreement they complain about being too soft on the nation's adversaries, and then when they are in power coo over the positive aspects of the nation's adversaries, presumably in the interests of diplomacy.
Politicians who decry government regulation when another party is in power often actively support a great deal of government regulation when they are power.
The rare politicians who take long term positions on a bipartisan basis, while hailed as statesmen by some observers are frequently decried as traitors by their fellow partisans.
Politicians do not behave this way, because voters don't care, not by mistake, or because their hypocrisy is unlikely to be observed.
While an occasional politician may indeed be dumb, as an occupational class, overall and on average, they aren't stupid.
Politicians act this way, in part, because they know that they won't pay a political price with voters for taking inconsistent positions or acting hypocritically in pursuit of partisan advantage.
And, this isn't because their hypocritical conduct is unlikely to be discovered. The portion of the voting public that is paying attention is routinely made aware of hypocrisy on the part of politicians when in occurs in news reporting, in published opinion pieces, on social media, in discussions with other people about politics, and in attack ads when election season rolls around.
It seems to follow logically, that politicians aren't concerned about acting hypocritically because voters and other people whose support they need don't really care about this conduct.
Whatever causes this behavior, moreover, has to be pretty fundamental, because this conclusion holds true robustly. While I drew my examples of hypocrisy above mostly from U.S. politics, the observation that politicians aren't worried about hypocrisy and taking inconsistent political positions over time, seems to be fairly universal. The same conduct is routinely seen in every other country with democratic elections of which I am aware.
Even politicians in totalitarian regimes act this way, leading to sudden about faces on what is good and bad in regimes like China that sound like they come right out of George Orwell's "1984", and while totalitarian politicians don't have to campaign in democratic election, they too should care somewhat what people think about their actions, because still need public support to be legitimate and need support from leadership group elites.
Political theory naively suggests that voters should care about hypocrisy
Median voters tend to have fairly stable interests.
For example, the extent to which U.S. counties are liberal v. conservative in their electoral behavior in the U.S. on relative basis has been largely unchanged for at least a century and a half. For example, rural Indian and Arkansas have leaned conservative, while New England and major U.S. cities has leaned liberal since before the mid-19th century, even as the liberal and conservative political parties in the U.S. have flipped.
The median voter theorem, which has considerable empirical support, argues that politicians pursue policies that favor the median voter.
So, it would naively seem that voters should favor politicians who can make credible long term commitments to policies and political norms that advance their interests, over those who demonstrate hypocrisy who will betray their constituents from time to time.
And, as I noted above, information about hypocrisy by politicians is one of the more widely disseminated kinds of information about politicians in our political system and most democratic systems. So, if any information about the conduct of politicians is available and influences voter conduct, information about hypocrisy on the part of politicians should be a powerful force influencing voter behavior.
But, empirically, it also seems clear that voters don't care in a way that influences how they vote. There is no evidence that politicians who act or in a hypocritical manner have a harder time getting re-elected. If anything, the reverse is true.
More generally, it seems that the public isn't very concerned about hypocrisy by politicians when their concerns are evaluated on the basis of their revealed preferences (i.e. by what they do rather than by what they say), even though many people in the abstract would say that politicians shouldn't be hypocritical.
Why?
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
election political-theory parties
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
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ohwilleke
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Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
I'll provide a few examples to demonstrate what I mean:
When their party's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court is facing confirmation, they insist that every candidate should receive a fair hearing and an up or down vote. When an opposing party's nominee is in the same shoes, they claim to be proud to play hardball to keep that person off the bench.
When their partisans are accused of personal misconduct, they downplay or deny that there was wrongdoing, while they push for harsh accountability when their opponents are accused.
When the other party runs up huge deficits they decry that party's gross irresponsibility, and then run up huge deficits themselves without a peep of complaint about their own party's actions.
When they other party secures a diplomatic agreement they complain about being too soft on the nation's adversaries, and then when they are in power coo over the positive aspects of the nation's adversaries, presumably in the interests of diplomacy.
Politicians who decry government regulation when another party is in power often actively support a great deal of government regulation when they are power.
The rare politicians who take long term positions on a bipartisan basis, while hailed as statesmen by some observers are frequently decried as traitors by their fellow partisans.
Politicians do not behave this way, because voters don't care, not by mistake, or because their hypocrisy is unlikely to be observed.
While an occasional politician may indeed be dumb, as an occupational class, overall and on average, they aren't stupid.
Politicians act this way, in part, because they know that they won't pay a political price with voters for taking inconsistent positions or acting hypocritically in pursuit of partisan advantage.
And, this isn't because their hypocritical conduct is unlikely to be discovered. The portion of the voting public that is paying attention is routinely made aware of hypocrisy on the part of politicians when in occurs in news reporting, in published opinion pieces, on social media, in discussions with other people about politics, and in attack ads when election season rolls around.
It seems to follow logically, that politicians aren't concerned about acting hypocritically because voters and other people whose support they need don't really care about this conduct.
Whatever causes this behavior, moreover, has to be pretty fundamental, because this conclusion holds true robustly. While I drew my examples of hypocrisy above mostly from U.S. politics, the observation that politicians aren't worried about hypocrisy and taking inconsistent political positions over time, seems to be fairly universal. The same conduct is routinely seen in every other country with democratic elections of which I am aware.
Even politicians in totalitarian regimes act this way, leading to sudden about faces on what is good and bad in regimes like China that sound like they come right out of George Orwell's "1984", and while totalitarian politicians don't have to campaign in democratic election, they too should care somewhat what people think about their actions, because still need public support to be legitimate and need support from leadership group elites.
Political theory naively suggests that voters should care about hypocrisy
Median voters tend to have fairly stable interests.
For example, the extent to which U.S. counties are liberal v. conservative in their electoral behavior in the U.S. on relative basis has been largely unchanged for at least a century and a half. For example, rural Indian and Arkansas have leaned conservative, while New England and major U.S. cities has leaned liberal since before the mid-19th century, even as the liberal and conservative political parties in the U.S. have flipped.
The median voter theorem, which has considerable empirical support, argues that politicians pursue policies that favor the median voter.
So, it would naively seem that voters should favor politicians who can make credible long term commitments to policies and political norms that advance their interests, over those who demonstrate hypocrisy who will betray their constituents from time to time.
And, as I noted above, information about hypocrisy by politicians is one of the more widely disseminated kinds of information about politicians in our political system and most democratic systems. So, if any information about the conduct of politicians is available and influences voter conduct, information about hypocrisy on the part of politicians should be a powerful force influencing voter behavior.
But, empirically, it also seems clear that voters don't care in a way that influences how they vote. There is no evidence that politicians who act or in a hypocritical manner have a harder time getting re-elected. If anything, the reverse is true.
More generally, it seems that the public isn't very concerned about hypocrisy by politicians when their concerns are evaluated on the basis of their revealed preferences (i.e. by what they do rather than by what they say), even though many people in the abstract would say that politicians shouldn't be hypocritical.
Why?
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
election political-theory parties
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
1036
asked yesterday
ohwilleke
18.6k34281
1
You seem to base most of your question on the US. Have you seen the same pattern in countries with multiple large political parties? In the US, most elections are a choice between a democrat or a republican. If you really dislike one, you're likely to vote for the others regardless of some lies or hypocrisy.
– JJJ
22 hours ago
1
@jpmc26 I also thought it was unintelligible - but if you read it like I did, note that it's "trump", not "Trump".
– HammerN'Songs
4 hours ago
2
@jpmc26 As a very "trump" means "prevails over", so when there is a conflict between partisanship and concerns about hypocrisy, partisanship wins. The terminology comes from card games in the family of Bridge and Hearts (among others).
– ohwilleke
4 hours ago
Because voters are, on average, complete morons.
– Davor
2 hours ago
This is really a question about why the human mind works as it does. That's not a question about politics. It might even be a better question for Philosophy SE. "Why is it that a majority of people care more about their preferences than about hypocrisy?" "Why do people think the ends justify the means?"
– Wildcard
53 mins ago
 |Â
show 1 more comment
up vote
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down vote
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up vote
22
down vote
favorite
Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
I'll provide a few examples to demonstrate what I mean:
When their party's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court is facing confirmation, they insist that every candidate should receive a fair hearing and an up or down vote. When an opposing party's nominee is in the same shoes, they claim to be proud to play hardball to keep that person off the bench.
When their partisans are accused of personal misconduct, they downplay or deny that there was wrongdoing, while they push for harsh accountability when their opponents are accused.
When the other party runs up huge deficits they decry that party's gross irresponsibility, and then run up huge deficits themselves without a peep of complaint about their own party's actions.
When they other party secures a diplomatic agreement they complain about being too soft on the nation's adversaries, and then when they are in power coo over the positive aspects of the nation's adversaries, presumably in the interests of diplomacy.
Politicians who decry government regulation when another party is in power often actively support a great deal of government regulation when they are power.
The rare politicians who take long term positions on a bipartisan basis, while hailed as statesmen by some observers are frequently decried as traitors by their fellow partisans.
Politicians do not behave this way, because voters don't care, not by mistake, or because their hypocrisy is unlikely to be observed.
While an occasional politician may indeed be dumb, as an occupational class, overall and on average, they aren't stupid.
Politicians act this way, in part, because they know that they won't pay a political price with voters for taking inconsistent positions or acting hypocritically in pursuit of partisan advantage.
And, this isn't because their hypocritical conduct is unlikely to be discovered. The portion of the voting public that is paying attention is routinely made aware of hypocrisy on the part of politicians when in occurs in news reporting, in published opinion pieces, on social media, in discussions with other people about politics, and in attack ads when election season rolls around.
It seems to follow logically, that politicians aren't concerned about acting hypocritically because voters and other people whose support they need don't really care about this conduct.
Whatever causes this behavior, moreover, has to be pretty fundamental, because this conclusion holds true robustly. While I drew my examples of hypocrisy above mostly from U.S. politics, the observation that politicians aren't worried about hypocrisy and taking inconsistent political positions over time, seems to be fairly universal. The same conduct is routinely seen in every other country with democratic elections of which I am aware.
Even politicians in totalitarian regimes act this way, leading to sudden about faces on what is good and bad in regimes like China that sound like they come right out of George Orwell's "1984", and while totalitarian politicians don't have to campaign in democratic election, they too should care somewhat what people think about their actions, because still need public support to be legitimate and need support from leadership group elites.
Political theory naively suggests that voters should care about hypocrisy
Median voters tend to have fairly stable interests.
For example, the extent to which U.S. counties are liberal v. conservative in their electoral behavior in the U.S. on relative basis has been largely unchanged for at least a century and a half. For example, rural Indian and Arkansas have leaned conservative, while New England and major U.S. cities has leaned liberal since before the mid-19th century, even as the liberal and conservative political parties in the U.S. have flipped.
The median voter theorem, which has considerable empirical support, argues that politicians pursue policies that favor the median voter.
So, it would naively seem that voters should favor politicians who can make credible long term commitments to policies and political norms that advance their interests, over those who demonstrate hypocrisy who will betray their constituents from time to time.
And, as I noted above, information about hypocrisy by politicians is one of the more widely disseminated kinds of information about politicians in our political system and most democratic systems. So, if any information about the conduct of politicians is available and influences voter conduct, information about hypocrisy on the part of politicians should be a powerful force influencing voter behavior.
But, empirically, it also seems clear that voters don't care in a way that influences how they vote. There is no evidence that politicians who act or in a hypocritical manner have a harder time getting re-elected. If anything, the reverse is true.
More generally, it seems that the public isn't very concerned about hypocrisy by politicians when their concerns are evaluated on the basis of their revealed preferences (i.e. by what they do rather than by what they say), even though many people in the abstract would say that politicians shouldn't be hypocritical.
Why?
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
election political-theory parties
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
1036
asked yesterday
ohwilleke
18.6k34281
Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
Politicians are routinely hypocritical in support of partisan ends.
I'll provide a few examples to demonstrate what I mean:
When their party's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court is facing confirmation, they insist that every candidate should receive a fair hearing and an up or down vote. When an opposing party's nominee is in the same shoes, they claim to be proud to play hardball to keep that person off the bench.
When their partisans are accused of personal misconduct, they downplay or deny that there was wrongdoing, while they push for harsh accountability when their opponents are accused.
When the other party runs up huge deficits they decry that party's gross irresponsibility, and then run up huge deficits themselves without a peep of complaint about their own party's actions.
When they other party secures a diplomatic agreement they complain about being too soft on the nation's adversaries, and then when they are in power coo over the positive aspects of the nation's adversaries, presumably in the interests of diplomacy.
Politicians who decry government regulation when another party is in power often actively support a great deal of government regulation when they are power.
The rare politicians who take long term positions on a bipartisan basis, while hailed as statesmen by some observers are frequently decried as traitors by their fellow partisans.
Politicians do not behave this way, because voters don't care, not by mistake, or because their hypocrisy is unlikely to be observed.
While an occasional politician may indeed be dumb, as an occupational class, overall and on average, they aren't stupid.
Politicians act this way, in part, because they know that they won't pay a political price with voters for taking inconsistent positions or acting hypocritically in pursuit of partisan advantage.
And, this isn't because their hypocritical conduct is unlikely to be discovered. The portion of the voting public that is paying attention is routinely made aware of hypocrisy on the part of politicians when in occurs in news reporting, in published opinion pieces, on social media, in discussions with other people about politics, and in attack ads when election season rolls around.
It seems to follow logically, that politicians aren't concerned about acting hypocritically because voters and other people whose support they need don't really care about this conduct.
Whatever causes this behavior, moreover, has to be pretty fundamental, because this conclusion holds true robustly. While I drew my examples of hypocrisy above mostly from U.S. politics, the observation that politicians aren't worried about hypocrisy and taking inconsistent political positions over time, seems to be fairly universal. The same conduct is routinely seen in every other country with democratic elections of which I am aware.
Even politicians in totalitarian regimes act this way, leading to sudden about faces on what is good and bad in regimes like China that sound like they come right out of George Orwell's "1984", and while totalitarian politicians don't have to campaign in democratic election, they too should care somewhat what people think about their actions, because still need public support to be legitimate and need support from leadership group elites.
Political theory naively suggests that voters should care about hypocrisy
Median voters tend to have fairly stable interests.
For example, the extent to which U.S. counties are liberal v. conservative in their electoral behavior in the U.S. on relative basis has been largely unchanged for at least a century and a half. For example, rural Indian and Arkansas have leaned conservative, while New England and major U.S. cities has leaned liberal since before the mid-19th century, even as the liberal and conservative political parties in the U.S. have flipped.
The median voter theorem, which has considerable empirical support, argues that politicians pursue policies that favor the median voter.
So, it would naively seem that voters should favor politicians who can make credible long term commitments to policies and political norms that advance their interests, over those who demonstrate hypocrisy who will betray their constituents from time to time.
And, as I noted above, information about hypocrisy by politicians is one of the more widely disseminated kinds of information about politicians in our political system and most democratic systems. So, if any information about the conduct of politicians is available and influences voter conduct, information about hypocrisy on the part of politicians should be a powerful force influencing voter behavior.
But, empirically, it also seems clear that voters don't care in a way that influences how they vote. There is no evidence that politicians who act or in a hypocritical manner have a harder time getting re-elected. If anything, the reverse is true.
More generally, it seems that the public isn't very concerned about hypocrisy by politicians when their concerns are evaluated on the basis of their revealed preferences (i.e. by what they do rather than by what they say), even though many people in the abstract would say that politicians shouldn't be hypocritical.
Why?
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
election political-theory parties
election political-theory parties
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
1036
asked yesterday
ohwilleke
18.6k34281
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
1036
asked yesterday
ohwilleke
18.6k34281
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
1036
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
1036
edited 14 mins ago
jpmc26
1036
1036
asked yesterday
ohwilleke
18.6k34281
asked yesterday
ohwilleke
18.6k34281
asked yesterday
ohwilleke
18.6k34281
18.6k34281
1
You seem to base most of your question on the US. Have you seen the same pattern in countries with multiple large political parties? In the US, most elections are a choice between a democrat or a republican. If you really dislike one, you're likely to vote for the others regardless of some lies or hypocrisy.
– JJJ
22 hours ago
1
@jpmc26 I also thought it was unintelligible - but if you read it like I did, note that it's "trump", not "Trump".
– HammerN'Songs
4 hours ago
2
@jpmc26 As a very "trump" means "prevails over", so when there is a conflict between partisanship and concerns about hypocrisy, partisanship wins. The terminology comes from card games in the family of Bridge and Hearts (among others).
– ohwilleke
4 hours ago
Because voters are, on average, complete morons.
– Davor
2 hours ago
This is really a question about why the human mind works as it does. That's not a question about politics. It might even be a better question for Philosophy SE. "Why is it that a majority of people care more about their preferences than about hypocrisy?" "Why do people think the ends justify the means?"
– Wildcard
53 mins ago
 |Â
show 1 more comment
1
You seem to base most of your question on the US. Have you seen the same pattern in countries with multiple large political parties? In the US, most elections are a choice between a democrat or a republican. If you really dislike one, you're likely to vote for the others regardless of some lies or hypocrisy.
– JJJ
22 hours ago
1
@jpmc26 I also thought it was unintelligible - but if you read it like I did, note that it's "trump", not "Trump".
– HammerN'Songs
4 hours ago
2
@jpmc26 As a very "trump" means "prevails over", so when there is a conflict between partisanship and concerns about hypocrisy, partisanship wins. The terminology comes from card games in the family of Bridge and Hearts (among others).
– ohwilleke
4 hours ago
Because voters are, on average, complete morons.
– Davor
2 hours ago
This is really a question about why the human mind works as it does. That's not a question about politics. It might even be a better question for Philosophy SE. "Why is it that a majority of people care more about their preferences than about hypocrisy?" "Why do people think the ends justify the means?"
– Wildcard
53 mins ago
1
1
You seem to base most of your question on the US. Have you seen the same pattern in countries with multiple large political parties? In the US, most elections are a choice between a democrat or a republican. If you really dislike one, you're likely to vote for the others regardless of some lies or hypocrisy.
– JJJ
22 hours ago
You seem to base most of your question on the US. Have you seen the same pattern in countries with multiple large political parties? In the US, most elections are a choice between a democrat or a republican. If you really dislike one, you're likely to vote for the others regardless of some lies or hypocrisy.
– JJJ
22 hours ago
1
1
@jpmc26 I also thought it was unintelligible - but if you read it like I did, note that it's "trump", not "Trump".
– HammerN'Songs
4 hours ago
@jpmc26 I also thought it was unintelligible - but if you read it like I did, note that it's "trump", not "Trump".
– HammerN'Songs
4 hours ago
2
2
@jpmc26 As a very "trump" means "prevails over", so when there is a conflict between partisanship and concerns about hypocrisy, partisanship wins. The terminology comes from card games in the family of Bridge and Hearts (among others).
– ohwilleke
4 hours ago
@jpmc26 As a very "trump" means "prevails over", so when there is a conflict between partisanship and concerns about hypocrisy, partisanship wins. The terminology comes from card games in the family of Bridge and Hearts (among others).
– ohwilleke
4 hours ago
Because voters are, on average, complete morons.
– Davor
2 hours ago
Because voters are, on average, complete morons.
– Davor
2 hours ago
This is really a question about why the human mind works as it does. That's not a question about politics. It might even be a better question for Philosophy SE. "Why is it that a majority of people care more about their preferences than about hypocrisy?" "Why do people think the ends justify the means?"
– Wildcard
53 mins ago
This is really a question about why the human mind works as it does. That's not a question about politics. It might even be a better question for Philosophy SE. "Why is it that a majority of people care more about their preferences than about hypocrisy?" "Why do people think the ends justify the means?"
– Wildcard
53 mins ago
 |Â
show 1 more comment
8 Answers
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Short answer: everybody hates somebody, and by extension that person/group's cherished pet cause.
Seriously. Consider the following conversation:
- Person A: Hey there gun owner, did you know that you support school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because the people trying to take your guns away hate them.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe:
- Person A: Hey there pro-choice person, did you know you hate school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because right-to-lifers love them.
This dialog rarely if ever is spoken aloud, but occurs internally as part of some calculus of politics. And of course, once sides are taken, politics is the mind killer: arguments (and scandals) are soldiers, any concession means aiding the enemy. Hence "hypocrisy". Note that the above narratives are perfectly comprehensible (from a US perspective) regardless of how you feel about any of the issues mentioned.
This also explains the otherwise hard-to-explain juxtaposition of certain elements of party platforms like attitudes about economic liberty vs. social liberty.
Indeed, a common trope of both history and fiction is that when one is involved in a sufficiently intense conflict, one is faced with the quandry of sacrificing principles in pursuit of one's goals or staying the true path possibly at the cost of victory.
Even median voters have hot button issues, and while party platforms enforce a certain amount of adherence any given candidate will be hotter or colder on the radar of any given voter. So the median voter may very will flit back and forth between parties, but the x issue for their particular value of x is the driving force.
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
3
"politics is the mind killer" Lovely, and probably more true than the original.
– ohwilleke
20 hours ago
3
This could benefit from decent citations from psychology and poly sci; but in essense is the correct answer.
– user4012
19 hours ago
3
Non-US'an here, what are "school vouchers"?
– AkselA
16 hours ago
3
@AkselA In the U.S. a school voucher is a tuition payment made by the government to a private sector school when a student eligible to attend a local government operated school chooses to attend a private sector school instead. A complicating factor is that most private sector schools in the United States are operated by religious denominations or a religiously affiliated which means that the government is paying many thousands of dollars a year to finance a religious institution. But, since the child and not the government is choosing which school to attend it's not establishment of religion.
– ohwilleke
15 hours ago
3
Point is, the rigid two-party system here creates a "package deal" between policies that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. You can replace "school vouchers" with "a flat tax" or "the border wall" or any other issue.
– dan04
14 hours ago
 |Â
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8
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People do react negatively to hypocrisy, at least in laboratory experiments in which they have to punish
hypothetical criminals (Laurent, 2012); they punish the hypocrites more. But this is largely a form of "cold" thinking.
In politics however, there are substantial counter-effects to this, like myside bias. There are some neuroimaging studies, e.g. Westen (2006) on partisan (aka "motivated") reasoning, showing that it differs at brain-activation level from "cold" thinking. And this kind of partisan (myside) bias turned out to be equally distributed on the political spectrum in the US, according to a recent meta-analysis (Ditto, 2018).
There aren't a lot of studies specifically looking at how much hypocrisy gets discounted in partisan/myside/"motivated" reasoning, but I found one conducted in Denmark, Bhatti (2013). First they conducted an experiment of how much a deviation of what a politician does from he preaches (which they dub "political hypocrisy") affects the politician's (loss of) trust, and they:
found
support for the idea that political hypocrisy is evaluated much more negatively than
scandals that play into existing stereotypes about politicians pursuing their own
ideological interests. A Social Democrat is punished more for using private hospitals
than a Liberal, because their party position is to be sceptical towards private
hospitals. Similarly, it is considered more damaging when a Liberal cannot control
their own private economy, as personal fiscal responsibility is a central part of their
party agenda. These results indicate that even scandals belonging to the private
sphere of a politician’s personal life are evaluated on political grounds by voters.
This is not terribly surprising; hypocrisy does affect overall evaluation from the electorate. And then the study authors also looked how the loss of trust varied with the political orientation (bias) of the subject making the evaluation. And again, not terribly surprising, they found that there's an evaluation myside bias in all such scenarios:
left-wing voters evaluate private life
scandals more mildly for left-wing politicians than right-wing voters do, whereas
they evaluate right-wing politicians more harshly than right-wing voters do – and
vice versa. Figure 2 illustrates this effect. First and the third estimates from the right
(same-party evaluation) are always lower than every second and fourth (other-party
evaluation). For the private hospitals, the difference across treatment status is much
greater for liberals than socialists. This is because socialist respondents punish
socialist politicians for hypocrisy while evaluating them favourably for being sameparty
candidates, and these two tendencies almost cancel each other out. Interestingly,
the interaction effect is largest for the private hospital scenario, the scenario
with the clearest political-ideological hypocrisy. This could indicate that voters
become more partisan in the scenarios where the political cues are most
pronounced.
The scenarios involved in that figure were
Absence, hobby: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre has been absent within
the last year from half of the parliament committee meetings for the
committee of which the MP is a member in order to spend time on a hobby
instead
Bankruptcy: Imagine that a debt of of € 27 000 of an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre
has been restructured by court after having obtained an expensive loan for
personal spending
Private hospital: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre paid for their own knee
surgery at a private hospital, thereby bypassing the waiting list in the public
health system
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
2
And, to finish the thought, hypocrisy on the part of someone you wouldn't have voted for anyway that reduces your opinion of them, doesn't influence electoral outcomes. Also, to be clear, while some kinds of political misconduct has a clear partisan bias, hypocrisy is not one of them.
– ohwilleke
14 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
Partisanship happens when population of said country splits in two (or more) irreconcilable groups
Current situation in US is good example and illustration for such two groups. On one side we have White working and middle class, with their mostly traditional and Christian values. On other side we have so called minorities and liberals (White and non-White) pushing for so called multicultural and multiracial society, homosexual agenda etc ... First group wants to keep White majority in US, second group pushes for White minority and demographics comparable to modern Brazil. First group wants to preserve US culture based on traditions hailing from independence till modern days, second group pushes for mixture of various new customs. First groups cherishes traditional values, especially considering family and marriage, second group pushes for homosexual rights, open relationships etc ...
It is becoming clearer every day that divisions between these two groups are becoming larger and irreconcilable, almost like those two groups want to live in separate states. It is not uncommon these days that people from one group do not know personally anyone from other group .
Of course, both sides seek some political party or movement to represent their interest. In this case first group is more and more identified with GOP (especially conservative Republicans) and second with Democrats (especially left-leaning Democrats) . With ideological differences growing, those in the middle (independents, so called moderate Republicans and Democrats) are losing ground. Any sort of compromise is sen by both sides as weakness.
In such situation, bi-partisanship is slowly dying and people tend to root for their side. It is almost like in war - even if our side makes some dirty trick, it is excused because it harms enemy. Any personal flaws of politicians, or even direct breaking of law is viewed trough partisan glasses, and if said politician is good party solider, his side would forgive him his transgressions. In such state, law is getting sidelined anyway, because it is fruit of political compromise, and as mentioned before, compromise is more and more a dirty word.
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
In other words, if voters are governed by tribal membership rather than policy, then hypocrisy doesn't matter, but partisanship which may align with tribal loyalty, does matter.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
@ohwilleke Tribal membership is a sort of policy, good (and bad) as any other. Humans tend to coalesce in various groups based on ethnicity, class, culture, economic interests etc ... This is inevitable part of human nature. Partisanship arises when those groups became so opposed to each other that they no longer want to live with each other.
– rs.29
12 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
People simply want to win, regardless of the size of the prize. People who make $35k in a office where the average is $30k are happier than those making $40k in an office where the average is $45k. Voting is not a logical behavior, it's an emotional one. It's silly to try to imagine someone tallying up some score card in the fall and picking a party, yet we often pretend that some egregious act will be a "disqualifier" once such a calculus is made.
This moves political beliefs more into the realm of religious beliefs. Nobody faults god for murdering villagers while commanding "thou shalt not kill"; he's god, and who's side are you on, anyway? As long as "the good side" wins, (almost) nobody who cares will care how.
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends?
I will limit my answer to one argument. It's not the only argument, but I think it's a good one. My answer is: lack of alternatives given a voter's preference.
I start with a general comparison of two-party versus multi-party systems. Then I give an example of how people do care about actions and how that affects the polls.
Two or more parties
In a two-party system, many people lean towards one of the parties. In multi-party systems, the same may hold for a larger subset of parties. For example, there could be multiple progressive parties like En Marche and MoDem in France. In that case, a liberal leaning voter may lean towards both and away from the others.
In a two-party system a person leaning towards one party is unlikely to vote for the other. Their preferred party would have to do relatively (depending on how strong the voter feels) bad things to have the voter opt for the other party.
Dutch example
If there are multiple parties in the voter's sphere of preference then it's easier for the voter to opt for another party. A good example of that can be found in the Netherlands, with two large progressive parties Democrats 66 (D66) and Green Left (GL). The first is part of the national government coalition and the second isn't. On a local level, they are said to target the same type of voter.
In the 2017 national election, D66 won 19 seats as opposed to GL which won only 14. A more recent poll (June 2018) suggests the roles are roughly reversed now. Tom Louwerse, a political scientist, is quoted explaining this swap (in Dutch):
"Regeren kost tegenwoordig steun van de kiezer. Niet alleen in Nederland, je ziet dat breed internationaal. Dat geldt met name voor de kleinere partijen binnen een coalitie, de zogenoemde junior partners. Niet voor niets verliezen ook CDA en D66 in de Peilingwijzer zetels, nog meer dan de VVD. Alleen de ChristenUnie, een partij met een relatief trouwe achterban, boekt een heel klein plusje."
In essence, he is saying that parties in government generally lose votes and that this phenomenon is not limited to the Netherlands, but that it is also observed internationally. He does note that one of the smaller christian parties in government does rise in the polls, which he explains by saying they have a loyal following.
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
What you call "partisanship" goes by a different name within a party. Maybe it's "values", or maybe "the most important thing", or "what we're trying to accomplish", or things like "progress", "growth", and "prosperity".
Since politics is a matter of power rather than truth, politicians need to do whatever is necessary to apply power toward "the most important thing".
An example would be the idea that conservative politicians favor less government spending: I don't believe that any Republican today would deny this. Why, then, has government spending not been reduced more-than-it-has through Republican control of the Federal government?
The only possible answer is that the politicians are confident that their voters will forgive them for doing less on the budget as long as they accomplish something that's more important.
One thing about hypocrisy is that it is an accusation that the politician must face: he (or she) is the one who made the claims, and we can all see that those claims are fake. It doesn't cause confusion on our part but for a moment; other kinds of lying are more damaging, I suppose.
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
I'm assuming here politicians under US-style representative democracy, who don't serve life terms.
– elliot svensson
21 hours ago
2
Interestingly, bona fide monarchs rather than mere one party state dictators, who serve for life tend to be less hypocritical and less partisan.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
Partisanship seems very black and white, but the specific way you asked your question isn't that simple.
People on the left tend to vote left and people on the right tend to vote right - that's not news. Elections are decided not so much by which side has more people, the left or the right, but by which side is less motivated and more likely to stay home and elections are also decided by the centrists. People with no loyalty to either party (or, one could say, disgust for both).
Partisanship can play a role in a few ways. "Look how partisan my opponant is, he voted for this, this and that, right in line with (Obama/Trump). My opponent is a partisan liberal/conservative, that's why you must vote for me. If a candidate is truly and grossly partisan, I think that can motivate the other side to be more likely to get out and vote against him. Overly partisan candidates don't seem to have a lot of staying power.
Ted Cruz (who may lose), Dennis Kucinich (distracted out by his own party), Michelle Bachmann (was expected to lose, opted not to re-run). I don't consider Obama overly partisan but he was painted that way and while he never lost an election, his party a whole lot during his watch and the same situation appears to be underway under Trump. Partisanship is often punished by the other side getting out and voting in larger numbers.
Also, Partisanship can be punished by the centrists. The people with no strong allegiance to either party, and, I'm the first to admit that I don't understand non party affiliated people well, but I've known a few. They do exist and in large enough numbers to matter. I'm not talking libertarians who vote republican or green party liberals who vote democrat, but actual centrists who could vote either way. I can't provide solid numbers on this, but I believe that they would vote against over the top partisanship.
So to the voters, partisanship doesn't matter. Where it might not matter is for the voter who always votes left or always votes right - they usually won't abandon their beliefs just because their guy is over-the-top partisan, but to other voters it does matter and it can hurt a guy get re-elected.
Now, politicians, once in office have their constituency, so they may have reasons to be partisan, for better or worse, but if they go overboard, the voters might turn on them. Ted Cruz for example was a strong candidate for the Republican presidential nominee and might well have beaten Trump head to head in 2016 and in 2018 he might lose his senate seat.
Where I agree with the asker of this question is that there's too much partisanship in politics and both sides have their loyal voters who won't waiver pretty much no matter what.
Where I disagree, is that partisanship actually can hurt a candidate (examples above) because enough voters will notice and vote accordingly.
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
I wanted to address the question:
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
The question starts with an assumption that voters don't care, which is not necessarily the case.
A study of 571 Italians was conducted and found statistical evidence to support the hypothesis "Political disengagement is positively related to perception of political hypocrisy." [1]
There is further discussion in the article, and it seems that there is some negative long term cost associated with hypocrisy. Additionally, to (under)state the obvious, the authors say
Perception of political hypocrisy can be deemed to be related to the feeling of
cynicism that seems to affect modern Western societies.
I might have a bit more to say, but @Fizz already said it better in their answer discussing Bhatti et al 2013.
[1] Prete, M. Irene, et al. "Political disengagement and political hypocrisy: A hidden connection?." Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference-The Magic in Marketing. 2015.
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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8 Answers
8
active
oldest
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8 Answers
8
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oldest
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active
oldest
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active
oldest
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up vote
27
down vote
Short answer: everybody hates somebody, and by extension that person/group's cherished pet cause.
Seriously. Consider the following conversation:
- Person A: Hey there gun owner, did you know that you support school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because the people trying to take your guns away hate them.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe:
- Person A: Hey there pro-choice person, did you know you hate school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because right-to-lifers love them.
This dialog rarely if ever is spoken aloud, but occurs internally as part of some calculus of politics. And of course, once sides are taken, politics is the mind killer: arguments (and scandals) are soldiers, any concession means aiding the enemy. Hence "hypocrisy". Note that the above narratives are perfectly comprehensible (from a US perspective) regardless of how you feel about any of the issues mentioned.
This also explains the otherwise hard-to-explain juxtaposition of certain elements of party platforms like attitudes about economic liberty vs. social liberty.
Indeed, a common trope of both history and fiction is that when one is involved in a sufficiently intense conflict, one is faced with the quandry of sacrificing principles in pursuit of one's goals or staying the true path possibly at the cost of victory.
Even median voters have hot button issues, and while party platforms enforce a certain amount of adherence any given candidate will be hotter or colder on the radar of any given voter. So the median voter may very will flit back and forth between parties, but the x issue for their particular value of x is the driving force.
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
3
"politics is the mind killer" Lovely, and probably more true than the original.
– ohwilleke
20 hours ago
3
This could benefit from decent citations from psychology and poly sci; but in essense is the correct answer.
– user4012
19 hours ago
3
Non-US'an here, what are "school vouchers"?
– AkselA
16 hours ago
3
@AkselA In the U.S. a school voucher is a tuition payment made by the government to a private sector school when a student eligible to attend a local government operated school chooses to attend a private sector school instead. A complicating factor is that most private sector schools in the United States are operated by religious denominations or a religiously affiliated which means that the government is paying many thousands of dollars a year to finance a religious institution. But, since the child and not the government is choosing which school to attend it's not establishment of religion.
– ohwilleke
15 hours ago
3
Point is, the rigid two-party system here creates a "package deal" between policies that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. You can replace "school vouchers" with "a flat tax" or "the border wall" or any other issue.
– dan04
14 hours ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
up vote
27
down vote
Short answer: everybody hates somebody, and by extension that person/group's cherished pet cause.
Seriously. Consider the following conversation:
- Person A: Hey there gun owner, did you know that you support school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because the people trying to take your guns away hate them.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe:
- Person A: Hey there pro-choice person, did you know you hate school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because right-to-lifers love them.
This dialog rarely if ever is spoken aloud, but occurs internally as part of some calculus of politics. And of course, once sides are taken, politics is the mind killer: arguments (and scandals) are soldiers, any concession means aiding the enemy. Hence "hypocrisy". Note that the above narratives are perfectly comprehensible (from a US perspective) regardless of how you feel about any of the issues mentioned.
This also explains the otherwise hard-to-explain juxtaposition of certain elements of party platforms like attitudes about economic liberty vs. social liberty.
Indeed, a common trope of both history and fiction is that when one is involved in a sufficiently intense conflict, one is faced with the quandry of sacrificing principles in pursuit of one's goals or staying the true path possibly at the cost of victory.
Even median voters have hot button issues, and while party platforms enforce a certain amount of adherence any given candidate will be hotter or colder on the radar of any given voter. So the median voter may very will flit back and forth between parties, but the x issue for their particular value of x is the driving force.
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
3
"politics is the mind killer" Lovely, and probably more true than the original.
– ohwilleke
20 hours ago
3
This could benefit from decent citations from psychology and poly sci; but in essense is the correct answer.
– user4012
19 hours ago
3
Non-US'an here, what are "school vouchers"?
– AkselA
16 hours ago
3
@AkselA In the U.S. a school voucher is a tuition payment made by the government to a private sector school when a student eligible to attend a local government operated school chooses to attend a private sector school instead. A complicating factor is that most private sector schools in the United States are operated by religious denominations or a religiously affiliated which means that the government is paying many thousands of dollars a year to finance a religious institution. But, since the child and not the government is choosing which school to attend it's not establishment of religion.
– ohwilleke
15 hours ago
3
Point is, the rigid two-party system here creates a "package deal" between policies that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. You can replace "school vouchers" with "a flat tax" or "the border wall" or any other issue.
– dan04
14 hours ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
up vote
27
down vote
up vote
27
down vote
Short answer: everybody hates somebody, and by extension that person/group's cherished pet cause.
Seriously. Consider the following conversation:
- Person A: Hey there gun owner, did you know that you support school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because the people trying to take your guns away hate them.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe:
- Person A: Hey there pro-choice person, did you know you hate school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because right-to-lifers love them.
This dialog rarely if ever is spoken aloud, but occurs internally as part of some calculus of politics. And of course, once sides are taken, politics is the mind killer: arguments (and scandals) are soldiers, any concession means aiding the enemy. Hence "hypocrisy". Note that the above narratives are perfectly comprehensible (from a US perspective) regardless of how you feel about any of the issues mentioned.
This also explains the otherwise hard-to-explain juxtaposition of certain elements of party platforms like attitudes about economic liberty vs. social liberty.
Indeed, a common trope of both history and fiction is that when one is involved in a sufficiently intense conflict, one is faced with the quandry of sacrificing principles in pursuit of one's goals or staying the true path possibly at the cost of victory.
Even median voters have hot button issues, and while party platforms enforce a certain amount of adherence any given candidate will be hotter or colder on the radar of any given voter. So the median voter may very will flit back and forth between parties, but the x issue for their particular value of x is the driving force.
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
Short answer: everybody hates somebody, and by extension that person/group's cherished pet cause.
Seriously. Consider the following conversation:
- Person A: Hey there gun owner, did you know that you support school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because the people trying to take your guns away hate them.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe:
- Person A: Hey there pro-choice person, did you know you hate school vouchers?
- Person B: I do? Why?
- Person A: Because right-to-lifers love them.
This dialog rarely if ever is spoken aloud, but occurs internally as part of some calculus of politics. And of course, once sides are taken, politics is the mind killer: arguments (and scandals) are soldiers, any concession means aiding the enemy. Hence "hypocrisy". Note that the above narratives are perfectly comprehensible (from a US perspective) regardless of how you feel about any of the issues mentioned.
This also explains the otherwise hard-to-explain juxtaposition of certain elements of party platforms like attitudes about economic liberty vs. social liberty.
Indeed, a common trope of both history and fiction is that when one is involved in a sufficiently intense conflict, one is faced with the quandry of sacrificing principles in pursuit of one's goals or staying the true path possibly at the cost of victory.
Even median voters have hot button issues, and while party platforms enforce a certain amount of adherence any given candidate will be hotter or colder on the radar of any given voter. So the median voter may very will flit back and forth between parties, but the x issue for their particular value of x is the driving force.
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
edited 4 hours ago
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
answered 21 hours ago
Jared Smith
2,2891811
2,2891811
3
"politics is the mind killer" Lovely, and probably more true than the original.
– ohwilleke
20 hours ago
3
This could benefit from decent citations from psychology and poly sci; but in essense is the correct answer.
– user4012
19 hours ago
3
Non-US'an here, what are "school vouchers"?
– AkselA
16 hours ago
3
@AkselA In the U.S. a school voucher is a tuition payment made by the government to a private sector school when a student eligible to attend a local government operated school chooses to attend a private sector school instead. A complicating factor is that most private sector schools in the United States are operated by religious denominations or a religiously affiliated which means that the government is paying many thousands of dollars a year to finance a religious institution. But, since the child and not the government is choosing which school to attend it's not establishment of religion.
– ohwilleke
15 hours ago
3
Point is, the rigid two-party system here creates a "package deal" between policies that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. You can replace "school vouchers" with "a flat tax" or "the border wall" or any other issue.
– dan04
14 hours ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
3
"politics is the mind killer" Lovely, and probably more true than the original.
– ohwilleke
20 hours ago
3
This could benefit from decent citations from psychology and poly sci; but in essense is the correct answer.
– user4012
19 hours ago
3
Non-US'an here, what are "school vouchers"?
– AkselA
16 hours ago
3
@AkselA In the U.S. a school voucher is a tuition payment made by the government to a private sector school when a student eligible to attend a local government operated school chooses to attend a private sector school instead. A complicating factor is that most private sector schools in the United States are operated by religious denominations or a religiously affiliated which means that the government is paying many thousands of dollars a year to finance a religious institution. But, since the child and not the government is choosing which school to attend it's not establishment of religion.
– ohwilleke
15 hours ago
3
Point is, the rigid two-party system here creates a "package deal" between policies that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. You can replace "school vouchers" with "a flat tax" or "the border wall" or any other issue.
– dan04
14 hours ago
3
3
"politics is the mind killer" Lovely, and probably more true than the original.
– ohwilleke
20 hours ago
"politics is the mind killer" Lovely, and probably more true than the original.
– ohwilleke
20 hours ago
3
3
This could benefit from decent citations from psychology and poly sci; but in essense is the correct answer.
– user4012
19 hours ago
This could benefit from decent citations from psychology and poly sci; but in essense is the correct answer.
– user4012
19 hours ago
3
3
Non-US'an here, what are "school vouchers"?
– AkselA
16 hours ago
Non-US'an here, what are "school vouchers"?
– AkselA
16 hours ago
3
3
@AkselA In the U.S. a school voucher is a tuition payment made by the government to a private sector school when a student eligible to attend a local government operated school chooses to attend a private sector school instead. A complicating factor is that most private sector schools in the United States are operated by religious denominations or a religiously affiliated which means that the government is paying many thousands of dollars a year to finance a religious institution. But, since the child and not the government is choosing which school to attend it's not establishment of religion.
– ohwilleke
15 hours ago
@AkselA In the U.S. a school voucher is a tuition payment made by the government to a private sector school when a student eligible to attend a local government operated school chooses to attend a private sector school instead. A complicating factor is that most private sector schools in the United States are operated by religious denominations or a religiously affiliated which means that the government is paying many thousands of dollars a year to finance a religious institution. But, since the child and not the government is choosing which school to attend it's not establishment of religion.
– ohwilleke
15 hours ago
3
3
Point is, the rigid two-party system here creates a "package deal" between policies that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. You can replace "school vouchers" with "a flat tax" or "the border wall" or any other issue.
– dan04
14 hours ago
Point is, the rigid two-party system here creates a "package deal" between policies that might otherwise seem completely unrelated. You can replace "school vouchers" with "a flat tax" or "the border wall" or any other issue.
– dan04
14 hours ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
up vote
8
down vote
People do react negatively to hypocrisy, at least in laboratory experiments in which they have to punish
hypothetical criminals (Laurent, 2012); they punish the hypocrites more. But this is largely a form of "cold" thinking.
In politics however, there are substantial counter-effects to this, like myside bias. There are some neuroimaging studies, e.g. Westen (2006) on partisan (aka "motivated") reasoning, showing that it differs at brain-activation level from "cold" thinking. And this kind of partisan (myside) bias turned out to be equally distributed on the political spectrum in the US, according to a recent meta-analysis (Ditto, 2018).
There aren't a lot of studies specifically looking at how much hypocrisy gets discounted in partisan/myside/"motivated" reasoning, but I found one conducted in Denmark, Bhatti (2013). First they conducted an experiment of how much a deviation of what a politician does from he preaches (which they dub "political hypocrisy") affects the politician's (loss of) trust, and they:
found
support for the idea that political hypocrisy is evaluated much more negatively than
scandals that play into existing stereotypes about politicians pursuing their own
ideological interests. A Social Democrat is punished more for using private hospitals
than a Liberal, because their party position is to be sceptical towards private
hospitals. Similarly, it is considered more damaging when a Liberal cannot control
their own private economy, as personal fiscal responsibility is a central part of their
party agenda. These results indicate that even scandals belonging to the private
sphere of a politician’s personal life are evaluated on political grounds by voters.
This is not terribly surprising; hypocrisy does affect overall evaluation from the electorate. And then the study authors also looked how the loss of trust varied with the political orientation (bias) of the subject making the evaluation. And again, not terribly surprising, they found that there's an evaluation myside bias in all such scenarios:
left-wing voters evaluate private life
scandals more mildly for left-wing politicians than right-wing voters do, whereas
they evaluate right-wing politicians more harshly than right-wing voters do – and
vice versa. Figure 2 illustrates this effect. First and the third estimates from the right
(same-party evaluation) are always lower than every second and fourth (other-party
evaluation). For the private hospitals, the difference across treatment status is much
greater for liberals than socialists. This is because socialist respondents punish
socialist politicians for hypocrisy while evaluating them favourably for being sameparty
candidates, and these two tendencies almost cancel each other out. Interestingly,
the interaction effect is largest for the private hospital scenario, the scenario
with the clearest political-ideological hypocrisy. This could indicate that voters
become more partisan in the scenarios where the political cues are most
pronounced.
The scenarios involved in that figure were
Absence, hobby: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre has been absent within
the last year from half of the parliament committee meetings for the
committee of which the MP is a member in order to spend time on a hobby
instead
Bankruptcy: Imagine that a debt of of € 27 000 of an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre
has been restructured by court after having obtained an expensive loan for
personal spending
Private hospital: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre paid for their own knee
surgery at a private hospital, thereby bypassing the waiting list in the public
health system
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
2
And, to finish the thought, hypocrisy on the part of someone you wouldn't have voted for anyway that reduces your opinion of them, doesn't influence electoral outcomes. Also, to be clear, while some kinds of political misconduct has a clear partisan bias, hypocrisy is not one of them.
– ohwilleke
14 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
8
down vote
People do react negatively to hypocrisy, at least in laboratory experiments in which they have to punish
hypothetical criminals (Laurent, 2012); they punish the hypocrites more. But this is largely a form of "cold" thinking.
In politics however, there are substantial counter-effects to this, like myside bias. There are some neuroimaging studies, e.g. Westen (2006) on partisan (aka "motivated") reasoning, showing that it differs at brain-activation level from "cold" thinking. And this kind of partisan (myside) bias turned out to be equally distributed on the political spectrum in the US, according to a recent meta-analysis (Ditto, 2018).
There aren't a lot of studies specifically looking at how much hypocrisy gets discounted in partisan/myside/"motivated" reasoning, but I found one conducted in Denmark, Bhatti (2013). First they conducted an experiment of how much a deviation of what a politician does from he preaches (which they dub "political hypocrisy") affects the politician's (loss of) trust, and they:
found
support for the idea that political hypocrisy is evaluated much more negatively than
scandals that play into existing stereotypes about politicians pursuing their own
ideological interests. A Social Democrat is punished more for using private hospitals
than a Liberal, because their party position is to be sceptical towards private
hospitals. Similarly, it is considered more damaging when a Liberal cannot control
their own private economy, as personal fiscal responsibility is a central part of their
party agenda. These results indicate that even scandals belonging to the private
sphere of a politician’s personal life are evaluated on political grounds by voters.
This is not terribly surprising; hypocrisy does affect overall evaluation from the electorate. And then the study authors also looked how the loss of trust varied with the political orientation (bias) of the subject making the evaluation. And again, not terribly surprising, they found that there's an evaluation myside bias in all such scenarios:
left-wing voters evaluate private life
scandals more mildly for left-wing politicians than right-wing voters do, whereas
they evaluate right-wing politicians more harshly than right-wing voters do – and
vice versa. Figure 2 illustrates this effect. First and the third estimates from the right
(same-party evaluation) are always lower than every second and fourth (other-party
evaluation). For the private hospitals, the difference across treatment status is much
greater for liberals than socialists. This is because socialist respondents punish
socialist politicians for hypocrisy while evaluating them favourably for being sameparty
candidates, and these two tendencies almost cancel each other out. Interestingly,
the interaction effect is largest for the private hospital scenario, the scenario
with the clearest political-ideological hypocrisy. This could indicate that voters
become more partisan in the scenarios where the political cues are most
pronounced.
The scenarios involved in that figure were
Absence, hobby: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre has been absent within
the last year from half of the parliament committee meetings for the
committee of which the MP is a member in order to spend time on a hobby
instead
Bankruptcy: Imagine that a debt of of € 27 000 of an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre
has been restructured by court after having obtained an expensive loan for
personal spending
Private hospital: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre paid for their own knee
surgery at a private hospital, thereby bypassing the waiting list in the public
health system
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
2
And, to finish the thought, hypocrisy on the part of someone you wouldn't have voted for anyway that reduces your opinion of them, doesn't influence electoral outcomes. Also, to be clear, while some kinds of political misconduct has a clear partisan bias, hypocrisy is not one of them.
– ohwilleke
14 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
8
down vote
up vote
8
down vote
People do react negatively to hypocrisy, at least in laboratory experiments in which they have to punish
hypothetical criminals (Laurent, 2012); they punish the hypocrites more. But this is largely a form of "cold" thinking.
In politics however, there are substantial counter-effects to this, like myside bias. There are some neuroimaging studies, e.g. Westen (2006) on partisan (aka "motivated") reasoning, showing that it differs at brain-activation level from "cold" thinking. And this kind of partisan (myside) bias turned out to be equally distributed on the political spectrum in the US, according to a recent meta-analysis (Ditto, 2018).
There aren't a lot of studies specifically looking at how much hypocrisy gets discounted in partisan/myside/"motivated" reasoning, but I found one conducted in Denmark, Bhatti (2013). First they conducted an experiment of how much a deviation of what a politician does from he preaches (which they dub "political hypocrisy") affects the politician's (loss of) trust, and they:
found
support for the idea that political hypocrisy is evaluated much more negatively than
scandals that play into existing stereotypes about politicians pursuing their own
ideological interests. A Social Democrat is punished more for using private hospitals
than a Liberal, because their party position is to be sceptical towards private
hospitals. Similarly, it is considered more damaging when a Liberal cannot control
their own private economy, as personal fiscal responsibility is a central part of their
party agenda. These results indicate that even scandals belonging to the private
sphere of a politician’s personal life are evaluated on political grounds by voters.
This is not terribly surprising; hypocrisy does affect overall evaluation from the electorate. And then the study authors also looked how the loss of trust varied with the political orientation (bias) of the subject making the evaluation. And again, not terribly surprising, they found that there's an evaluation myside bias in all such scenarios:
left-wing voters evaluate private life
scandals more mildly for left-wing politicians than right-wing voters do, whereas
they evaluate right-wing politicians more harshly than right-wing voters do – and
vice versa. Figure 2 illustrates this effect. First and the third estimates from the right
(same-party evaluation) are always lower than every second and fourth (other-party
evaluation). For the private hospitals, the difference across treatment status is much
greater for liberals than socialists. This is because socialist respondents punish
socialist politicians for hypocrisy while evaluating them favourably for being sameparty
candidates, and these two tendencies almost cancel each other out. Interestingly,
the interaction effect is largest for the private hospital scenario, the scenario
with the clearest political-ideological hypocrisy. This could indicate that voters
become more partisan in the scenarios where the political cues are most
pronounced.
The scenarios involved in that figure were
Absence, hobby: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre has been absent within
the last year from half of the parliament committee meetings for the
committee of which the MP is a member in order to spend time on a hobby
instead
Bankruptcy: Imagine that a debt of of € 27 000 of an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre
has been restructured by court after having obtained an expensive loan for
personal spending
Private hospital: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre paid for their own knee
surgery at a private hospital, thereby bypassing the waiting list in the public
health system
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
People do react negatively to hypocrisy, at least in laboratory experiments in which they have to punish
hypothetical criminals (Laurent, 2012); they punish the hypocrites more. But this is largely a form of "cold" thinking.
In politics however, there are substantial counter-effects to this, like myside bias. There are some neuroimaging studies, e.g. Westen (2006) on partisan (aka "motivated") reasoning, showing that it differs at brain-activation level from "cold" thinking. And this kind of partisan (myside) bias turned out to be equally distributed on the political spectrum in the US, according to a recent meta-analysis (Ditto, 2018).
There aren't a lot of studies specifically looking at how much hypocrisy gets discounted in partisan/myside/"motivated" reasoning, but I found one conducted in Denmark, Bhatti (2013). First they conducted an experiment of how much a deviation of what a politician does from he preaches (which they dub "political hypocrisy") affects the politician's (loss of) trust, and they:
found
support for the idea that political hypocrisy is evaluated much more negatively than
scandals that play into existing stereotypes about politicians pursuing their own
ideological interests. A Social Democrat is punished more for using private hospitals
than a Liberal, because their party position is to be sceptical towards private
hospitals. Similarly, it is considered more damaging when a Liberal cannot control
their own private economy, as personal fiscal responsibility is a central part of their
party agenda. These results indicate that even scandals belonging to the private
sphere of a politician’s personal life are evaluated on political grounds by voters.
This is not terribly surprising; hypocrisy does affect overall evaluation from the electorate. And then the study authors also looked how the loss of trust varied with the political orientation (bias) of the subject making the evaluation. And again, not terribly surprising, they found that there's an evaluation myside bias in all such scenarios:
left-wing voters evaluate private life
scandals more mildly for left-wing politicians than right-wing voters do, whereas
they evaluate right-wing politicians more harshly than right-wing voters do – and
vice versa. Figure 2 illustrates this effect. First and the third estimates from the right
(same-party evaluation) are always lower than every second and fourth (other-party
evaluation). For the private hospitals, the difference across treatment status is much
greater for liberals than socialists. This is because socialist respondents punish
socialist politicians for hypocrisy while evaluating them favourably for being sameparty
candidates, and these two tendencies almost cancel each other out. Interestingly,
the interaction effect is largest for the private hospital scenario, the scenario
with the clearest political-ideological hypocrisy. This could indicate that voters
become more partisan in the scenarios where the political cues are most
pronounced.
The scenarios involved in that figure were
Absence, hobby: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre has been absent within
the last year from half of the parliament committee meetings for the
committee of which the MP is a member in order to spend time on a hobby
instead
Bankruptcy: Imagine that a debt of of € 27 000 of an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre
has been restructured by court after having obtained an expensive loan for
personal spending
Private hospital: Imagine that an MP from the Social Democrats/Venstre paid for their own knee
surgery at a private hospital, thereby bypassing the waiting list in the public
health system
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
edited 11 hours ago
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
answered 15 hours ago
Fizz
9,70712367
9,70712367
2
And, to finish the thought, hypocrisy on the part of someone you wouldn't have voted for anyway that reduces your opinion of them, doesn't influence electoral outcomes. Also, to be clear, while some kinds of political misconduct has a clear partisan bias, hypocrisy is not one of them.
– ohwilleke
14 hours ago
add a comment |Â
2
And, to finish the thought, hypocrisy on the part of someone you wouldn't have voted for anyway that reduces your opinion of them, doesn't influence electoral outcomes. Also, to be clear, while some kinds of political misconduct has a clear partisan bias, hypocrisy is not one of them.
– ohwilleke
14 hours ago
2
2
And, to finish the thought, hypocrisy on the part of someone you wouldn't have voted for anyway that reduces your opinion of them, doesn't influence electoral outcomes. Also, to be clear, while some kinds of political misconduct has a clear partisan bias, hypocrisy is not one of them.
– ohwilleke
14 hours ago
And, to finish the thought, hypocrisy on the part of someone you wouldn't have voted for anyway that reduces your opinion of them, doesn't influence electoral outcomes. Also, to be clear, while some kinds of political misconduct has a clear partisan bias, hypocrisy is not one of them.
– ohwilleke
14 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
Partisanship happens when population of said country splits in two (or more) irreconcilable groups
Current situation in US is good example and illustration for such two groups. On one side we have White working and middle class, with their mostly traditional and Christian values. On other side we have so called minorities and liberals (White and non-White) pushing for so called multicultural and multiracial society, homosexual agenda etc ... First group wants to keep White majority in US, second group pushes for White minority and demographics comparable to modern Brazil. First group wants to preserve US culture based on traditions hailing from independence till modern days, second group pushes for mixture of various new customs. First groups cherishes traditional values, especially considering family and marriage, second group pushes for homosexual rights, open relationships etc ...
It is becoming clearer every day that divisions between these two groups are becoming larger and irreconcilable, almost like those two groups want to live in separate states. It is not uncommon these days that people from one group do not know personally anyone from other group .
Of course, both sides seek some political party or movement to represent their interest. In this case first group is more and more identified with GOP (especially conservative Republicans) and second with Democrats (especially left-leaning Democrats) . With ideological differences growing, those in the middle (independents, so called moderate Republicans and Democrats) are losing ground. Any sort of compromise is sen by both sides as weakness.
In such situation, bi-partisanship is slowly dying and people tend to root for their side. It is almost like in war - even if our side makes some dirty trick, it is excused because it harms enemy. Any personal flaws of politicians, or even direct breaking of law is viewed trough partisan glasses, and if said politician is good party solider, his side would forgive him his transgressions. In such state, law is getting sidelined anyway, because it is fruit of political compromise, and as mentioned before, compromise is more and more a dirty word.
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
In other words, if voters are governed by tribal membership rather than policy, then hypocrisy doesn't matter, but partisanship which may align with tribal loyalty, does matter.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
@ohwilleke Tribal membership is a sort of policy, good (and bad) as any other. Humans tend to coalesce in various groups based on ethnicity, class, culture, economic interests etc ... This is inevitable part of human nature. Partisanship arises when those groups became so opposed to each other that they no longer want to live with each other.
– rs.29
12 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
Partisanship happens when population of said country splits in two (or more) irreconcilable groups
Current situation in US is good example and illustration for such two groups. On one side we have White working and middle class, with their mostly traditional and Christian values. On other side we have so called minorities and liberals (White and non-White) pushing for so called multicultural and multiracial society, homosexual agenda etc ... First group wants to keep White majority in US, second group pushes for White minority and demographics comparable to modern Brazil. First group wants to preserve US culture based on traditions hailing from independence till modern days, second group pushes for mixture of various new customs. First groups cherishes traditional values, especially considering family and marriage, second group pushes for homosexual rights, open relationships etc ...
It is becoming clearer every day that divisions between these two groups are becoming larger and irreconcilable, almost like those two groups want to live in separate states. It is not uncommon these days that people from one group do not know personally anyone from other group .
Of course, both sides seek some political party or movement to represent their interest. In this case first group is more and more identified with GOP (especially conservative Republicans) and second with Democrats (especially left-leaning Democrats) . With ideological differences growing, those in the middle (independents, so called moderate Republicans and Democrats) are losing ground. Any sort of compromise is sen by both sides as weakness.
In such situation, bi-partisanship is slowly dying and people tend to root for their side. It is almost like in war - even if our side makes some dirty trick, it is excused because it harms enemy. Any personal flaws of politicians, or even direct breaking of law is viewed trough partisan glasses, and if said politician is good party solider, his side would forgive him his transgressions. In such state, law is getting sidelined anyway, because it is fruit of political compromise, and as mentioned before, compromise is more and more a dirty word.
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
In other words, if voters are governed by tribal membership rather than policy, then hypocrisy doesn't matter, but partisanship which may align with tribal loyalty, does matter.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
@ohwilleke Tribal membership is a sort of policy, good (and bad) as any other. Humans tend to coalesce in various groups based on ethnicity, class, culture, economic interests etc ... This is inevitable part of human nature. Partisanship arises when those groups became so opposed to each other that they no longer want to live with each other.
– rs.29
12 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
up vote
4
down vote
Partisanship happens when population of said country splits in two (or more) irreconcilable groups
Current situation in US is good example and illustration for such two groups. On one side we have White working and middle class, with their mostly traditional and Christian values. On other side we have so called minorities and liberals (White and non-White) pushing for so called multicultural and multiracial society, homosexual agenda etc ... First group wants to keep White majority in US, second group pushes for White minority and demographics comparable to modern Brazil. First group wants to preserve US culture based on traditions hailing from independence till modern days, second group pushes for mixture of various new customs. First groups cherishes traditional values, especially considering family and marriage, second group pushes for homosexual rights, open relationships etc ...
It is becoming clearer every day that divisions between these two groups are becoming larger and irreconcilable, almost like those two groups want to live in separate states. It is not uncommon these days that people from one group do not know personally anyone from other group .
Of course, both sides seek some political party or movement to represent their interest. In this case first group is more and more identified with GOP (especially conservative Republicans) and second with Democrats (especially left-leaning Democrats) . With ideological differences growing, those in the middle (independents, so called moderate Republicans and Democrats) are losing ground. Any sort of compromise is sen by both sides as weakness.
In such situation, bi-partisanship is slowly dying and people tend to root for their side. It is almost like in war - even if our side makes some dirty trick, it is excused because it harms enemy. Any personal flaws of politicians, or even direct breaking of law is viewed trough partisan glasses, and if said politician is good party solider, his side would forgive him his transgressions. In such state, law is getting sidelined anyway, because it is fruit of political compromise, and as mentioned before, compromise is more and more a dirty word.
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
Partisanship happens when population of said country splits in two (or more) irreconcilable groups
Current situation in US is good example and illustration for such two groups. On one side we have White working and middle class, with their mostly traditional and Christian values. On other side we have so called minorities and liberals (White and non-White) pushing for so called multicultural and multiracial society, homosexual agenda etc ... First group wants to keep White majority in US, second group pushes for White minority and demographics comparable to modern Brazil. First group wants to preserve US culture based on traditions hailing from independence till modern days, second group pushes for mixture of various new customs. First groups cherishes traditional values, especially considering family and marriage, second group pushes for homosexual rights, open relationships etc ...
It is becoming clearer every day that divisions between these two groups are becoming larger and irreconcilable, almost like those two groups want to live in separate states. It is not uncommon these days that people from one group do not know personally anyone from other group .
Of course, both sides seek some political party or movement to represent their interest. In this case first group is more and more identified with GOP (especially conservative Republicans) and second with Democrats (especially left-leaning Democrats) . With ideological differences growing, those in the middle (independents, so called moderate Republicans and Democrats) are losing ground. Any sort of compromise is sen by both sides as weakness.
In such situation, bi-partisanship is slowly dying and people tend to root for their side. It is almost like in war - even if our side makes some dirty trick, it is excused because it harms enemy. Any personal flaws of politicians, or even direct breaking of law is viewed trough partisan glasses, and if said politician is good party solider, his side would forgive him his transgressions. In such state, law is getting sidelined anyway, because it is fruit of political compromise, and as mentioned before, compromise is more and more a dirty word.
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
answered 21 hours ago
rs.29
2,007110
2,007110
In other words, if voters are governed by tribal membership rather than policy, then hypocrisy doesn't matter, but partisanship which may align with tribal loyalty, does matter.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
@ohwilleke Tribal membership is a sort of policy, good (and bad) as any other. Humans tend to coalesce in various groups based on ethnicity, class, culture, economic interests etc ... This is inevitable part of human nature. Partisanship arises when those groups became so opposed to each other that they no longer want to live with each other.
– rs.29
12 hours ago
add a comment |Â
In other words, if voters are governed by tribal membership rather than policy, then hypocrisy doesn't matter, but partisanship which may align with tribal loyalty, does matter.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
@ohwilleke Tribal membership is a sort of policy, good (and bad) as any other. Humans tend to coalesce in various groups based on ethnicity, class, culture, economic interests etc ... This is inevitable part of human nature. Partisanship arises when those groups became so opposed to each other that they no longer want to live with each other.
– rs.29
12 hours ago
In other words, if voters are governed by tribal membership rather than policy, then hypocrisy doesn't matter, but partisanship which may align with tribal loyalty, does matter.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
In other words, if voters are governed by tribal membership rather than policy, then hypocrisy doesn't matter, but partisanship which may align with tribal loyalty, does matter.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
@ohwilleke Tribal membership is a sort of policy, good (and bad) as any other. Humans tend to coalesce in various groups based on ethnicity, class, culture, economic interests etc ... This is inevitable part of human nature. Partisanship arises when those groups became so opposed to each other that they no longer want to live with each other.
– rs.29
12 hours ago
@ohwilleke Tribal membership is a sort of policy, good (and bad) as any other. Humans tend to coalesce in various groups based on ethnicity, class, culture, economic interests etc ... This is inevitable part of human nature. Partisanship arises when those groups became so opposed to each other that they no longer want to live with each other.
– rs.29
12 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
People simply want to win, regardless of the size of the prize. People who make $35k in a office where the average is $30k are happier than those making $40k in an office where the average is $45k. Voting is not a logical behavior, it's an emotional one. It's silly to try to imagine someone tallying up some score card in the fall and picking a party, yet we often pretend that some egregious act will be a "disqualifier" once such a calculus is made.
This moves political beliefs more into the realm of religious beliefs. Nobody faults god for murdering villagers while commanding "thou shalt not kill"; he's god, and who's side are you on, anyway? As long as "the good side" wins, (almost) nobody who cares will care how.
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
People simply want to win, regardless of the size of the prize. People who make $35k in a office where the average is $30k are happier than those making $40k in an office where the average is $45k. Voting is not a logical behavior, it's an emotional one. It's silly to try to imagine someone tallying up some score card in the fall and picking a party, yet we often pretend that some egregious act will be a "disqualifier" once such a calculus is made.
This moves political beliefs more into the realm of religious beliefs. Nobody faults god for murdering villagers while commanding "thou shalt not kill"; he's god, and who's side are you on, anyway? As long as "the good side" wins, (almost) nobody who cares will care how.
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
up vote
4
down vote
People simply want to win, regardless of the size of the prize. People who make $35k in a office where the average is $30k are happier than those making $40k in an office where the average is $45k. Voting is not a logical behavior, it's an emotional one. It's silly to try to imagine someone tallying up some score card in the fall and picking a party, yet we often pretend that some egregious act will be a "disqualifier" once such a calculus is made.
This moves political beliefs more into the realm of religious beliefs. Nobody faults god for murdering villagers while commanding "thou shalt not kill"; he's god, and who's side are you on, anyway? As long as "the good side" wins, (almost) nobody who cares will care how.
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
People simply want to win, regardless of the size of the prize. People who make $35k in a office where the average is $30k are happier than those making $40k in an office where the average is $45k. Voting is not a logical behavior, it's an emotional one. It's silly to try to imagine someone tallying up some score card in the fall and picking a party, yet we often pretend that some egregious act will be a "disqualifier" once such a calculus is made.
This moves political beliefs more into the realm of religious beliefs. Nobody faults god for murdering villagers while commanding "thou shalt not kill"; he's god, and who's side are you on, anyway? As long as "the good side" wins, (almost) nobody who cares will care how.
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
answered 20 hours ago
dandavis
2756
2756
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends?
I will limit my answer to one argument. It's not the only argument, but I think it's a good one. My answer is: lack of alternatives given a voter's preference.
I start with a general comparison of two-party versus multi-party systems. Then I give an example of how people do care about actions and how that affects the polls.
Two or more parties
In a two-party system, many people lean towards one of the parties. In multi-party systems, the same may hold for a larger subset of parties. For example, there could be multiple progressive parties like En Marche and MoDem in France. In that case, a liberal leaning voter may lean towards both and away from the others.
In a two-party system a person leaning towards one party is unlikely to vote for the other. Their preferred party would have to do relatively (depending on how strong the voter feels) bad things to have the voter opt for the other party.
Dutch example
If there are multiple parties in the voter's sphere of preference then it's easier for the voter to opt for another party. A good example of that can be found in the Netherlands, with two large progressive parties Democrats 66 (D66) and Green Left (GL). The first is part of the national government coalition and the second isn't. On a local level, they are said to target the same type of voter.
In the 2017 national election, D66 won 19 seats as opposed to GL which won only 14. A more recent poll (June 2018) suggests the roles are roughly reversed now. Tom Louwerse, a political scientist, is quoted explaining this swap (in Dutch):
"Regeren kost tegenwoordig steun van de kiezer. Niet alleen in Nederland, je ziet dat breed internationaal. Dat geldt met name voor de kleinere partijen binnen een coalitie, de zogenoemde junior partners. Niet voor niets verliezen ook CDA en D66 in de Peilingwijzer zetels, nog meer dan de VVD. Alleen de ChristenUnie, een partij met een relatief trouwe achterban, boekt een heel klein plusje."
In essence, he is saying that parties in government generally lose votes and that this phenomenon is not limited to the Netherlands, but that it is also observed internationally. He does note that one of the smaller christian parties in government does rise in the polls, which he explains by saying they have a loyal following.
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends?
I will limit my answer to one argument. It's not the only argument, but I think it's a good one. My answer is: lack of alternatives given a voter's preference.
I start with a general comparison of two-party versus multi-party systems. Then I give an example of how people do care about actions and how that affects the polls.
Two or more parties
In a two-party system, many people lean towards one of the parties. In multi-party systems, the same may hold for a larger subset of parties. For example, there could be multiple progressive parties like En Marche and MoDem in France. In that case, a liberal leaning voter may lean towards both and away from the others.
In a two-party system a person leaning towards one party is unlikely to vote for the other. Their preferred party would have to do relatively (depending on how strong the voter feels) bad things to have the voter opt for the other party.
Dutch example
If there are multiple parties in the voter's sphere of preference then it's easier for the voter to opt for another party. A good example of that can be found in the Netherlands, with two large progressive parties Democrats 66 (D66) and Green Left (GL). The first is part of the national government coalition and the second isn't. On a local level, they are said to target the same type of voter.
In the 2017 national election, D66 won 19 seats as opposed to GL which won only 14. A more recent poll (June 2018) suggests the roles are roughly reversed now. Tom Louwerse, a political scientist, is quoted explaining this swap (in Dutch):
"Regeren kost tegenwoordig steun van de kiezer. Niet alleen in Nederland, je ziet dat breed internationaal. Dat geldt met name voor de kleinere partijen binnen een coalitie, de zogenoemde junior partners. Niet voor niets verliezen ook CDA en D66 in de Peilingwijzer zetels, nog meer dan de VVD. Alleen de ChristenUnie, een partij met een relatief trouwe achterban, boekt een heel klein plusje."
In essence, he is saying that parties in government generally lose votes and that this phenomenon is not limited to the Netherlands, but that it is also observed internationally. He does note that one of the smaller christian parties in government does rise in the polls, which he explains by saying they have a loyal following.
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
up vote
4
down vote
why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends?
I will limit my answer to one argument. It's not the only argument, but I think it's a good one. My answer is: lack of alternatives given a voter's preference.
I start with a general comparison of two-party versus multi-party systems. Then I give an example of how people do care about actions and how that affects the polls.
Two or more parties
In a two-party system, many people lean towards one of the parties. In multi-party systems, the same may hold for a larger subset of parties. For example, there could be multiple progressive parties like En Marche and MoDem in France. In that case, a liberal leaning voter may lean towards both and away from the others.
In a two-party system a person leaning towards one party is unlikely to vote for the other. Their preferred party would have to do relatively (depending on how strong the voter feels) bad things to have the voter opt for the other party.
Dutch example
If there are multiple parties in the voter's sphere of preference then it's easier for the voter to opt for another party. A good example of that can be found in the Netherlands, with two large progressive parties Democrats 66 (D66) and Green Left (GL). The first is part of the national government coalition and the second isn't. On a local level, they are said to target the same type of voter.
In the 2017 national election, D66 won 19 seats as opposed to GL which won only 14. A more recent poll (June 2018) suggests the roles are roughly reversed now. Tom Louwerse, a political scientist, is quoted explaining this swap (in Dutch):
"Regeren kost tegenwoordig steun van de kiezer. Niet alleen in Nederland, je ziet dat breed internationaal. Dat geldt met name voor de kleinere partijen binnen een coalitie, de zogenoemde junior partners. Niet voor niets verliezen ook CDA en D66 in de Peilingwijzer zetels, nog meer dan de VVD. Alleen de ChristenUnie, een partij met een relatief trouwe achterban, boekt een heel klein plusje."
In essence, he is saying that parties in government generally lose votes and that this phenomenon is not limited to the Netherlands, but that it is also observed internationally. He does note that one of the smaller christian parties in government does rise in the polls, which he explains by saying they have a loyal following.
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends?
I will limit my answer to one argument. It's not the only argument, but I think it's a good one. My answer is: lack of alternatives given a voter's preference.
I start with a general comparison of two-party versus multi-party systems. Then I give an example of how people do care about actions and how that affects the polls.
Two or more parties
In a two-party system, many people lean towards one of the parties. In multi-party systems, the same may hold for a larger subset of parties. For example, there could be multiple progressive parties like En Marche and MoDem in France. In that case, a liberal leaning voter may lean towards both and away from the others.
In a two-party system a person leaning towards one party is unlikely to vote for the other. Their preferred party would have to do relatively (depending on how strong the voter feels) bad things to have the voter opt for the other party.
Dutch example
If there are multiple parties in the voter's sphere of preference then it's easier for the voter to opt for another party. A good example of that can be found in the Netherlands, with two large progressive parties Democrats 66 (D66) and Green Left (GL). The first is part of the national government coalition and the second isn't. On a local level, they are said to target the same type of voter.
In the 2017 national election, D66 won 19 seats as opposed to GL which won only 14. A more recent poll (June 2018) suggests the roles are roughly reversed now. Tom Louwerse, a political scientist, is quoted explaining this swap (in Dutch):
"Regeren kost tegenwoordig steun van de kiezer. Niet alleen in Nederland, je ziet dat breed internationaal. Dat geldt met name voor de kleinere partijen binnen een coalitie, de zogenoemde junior partners. Niet voor niets verliezen ook CDA en D66 in de Peilingwijzer zetels, nog meer dan de VVD. Alleen de ChristenUnie, een partij met een relatief trouwe achterban, boekt een heel klein plusje."
In essence, he is saying that parties in government generally lose votes and that this phenomenon is not limited to the Netherlands, but that it is also observed internationally. He does note that one of the smaller christian parties in government does rise in the polls, which he explains by saying they have a loyal following.
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
answered 20 hours ago
JJJ
2,071831
2,071831
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up vote
3
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What you call "partisanship" goes by a different name within a party. Maybe it's "values", or maybe "the most important thing", or "what we're trying to accomplish", or things like "progress", "growth", and "prosperity".
Since politics is a matter of power rather than truth, politicians need to do whatever is necessary to apply power toward "the most important thing".
An example would be the idea that conservative politicians favor less government spending: I don't believe that any Republican today would deny this. Why, then, has government spending not been reduced more-than-it-has through Republican control of the Federal government?
The only possible answer is that the politicians are confident that their voters will forgive them for doing less on the budget as long as they accomplish something that's more important.
One thing about hypocrisy is that it is an accusation that the politician must face: he (or she) is the one who made the claims, and we can all see that those claims are fake. It doesn't cause confusion on our part but for a moment; other kinds of lying are more damaging, I suppose.
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
I'm assuming here politicians under US-style representative democracy, who don't serve life terms.
– elliot svensson
21 hours ago
2
Interestingly, bona fide monarchs rather than mere one party state dictators, who serve for life tend to be less hypocritical and less partisan.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
What you call "partisanship" goes by a different name within a party. Maybe it's "values", or maybe "the most important thing", or "what we're trying to accomplish", or things like "progress", "growth", and "prosperity".
Since politics is a matter of power rather than truth, politicians need to do whatever is necessary to apply power toward "the most important thing".
An example would be the idea that conservative politicians favor less government spending: I don't believe that any Republican today would deny this. Why, then, has government spending not been reduced more-than-it-has through Republican control of the Federal government?
The only possible answer is that the politicians are confident that their voters will forgive them for doing less on the budget as long as they accomplish something that's more important.
One thing about hypocrisy is that it is an accusation that the politician must face: he (or she) is the one who made the claims, and we can all see that those claims are fake. It doesn't cause confusion on our part but for a moment; other kinds of lying are more damaging, I suppose.
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
I'm assuming here politicians under US-style representative democracy, who don't serve life terms.
– elliot svensson
21 hours ago
2
Interestingly, bona fide monarchs rather than mere one party state dictators, who serve for life tend to be less hypocritical and less partisan.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
What you call "partisanship" goes by a different name within a party. Maybe it's "values", or maybe "the most important thing", or "what we're trying to accomplish", or things like "progress", "growth", and "prosperity".
Since politics is a matter of power rather than truth, politicians need to do whatever is necessary to apply power toward "the most important thing".
An example would be the idea that conservative politicians favor less government spending: I don't believe that any Republican today would deny this. Why, then, has government spending not been reduced more-than-it-has through Republican control of the Federal government?
The only possible answer is that the politicians are confident that their voters will forgive them for doing less on the budget as long as they accomplish something that's more important.
One thing about hypocrisy is that it is an accusation that the politician must face: he (or she) is the one who made the claims, and we can all see that those claims are fake. It doesn't cause confusion on our part but for a moment; other kinds of lying are more damaging, I suppose.
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
What you call "partisanship" goes by a different name within a party. Maybe it's "values", or maybe "the most important thing", or "what we're trying to accomplish", or things like "progress", "growth", and "prosperity".
Since politics is a matter of power rather than truth, politicians need to do whatever is necessary to apply power toward "the most important thing".
An example would be the idea that conservative politicians favor less government spending: I don't believe that any Republican today would deny this. Why, then, has government spending not been reduced more-than-it-has through Republican control of the Federal government?
The only possible answer is that the politicians are confident that their voters will forgive them for doing less on the budget as long as they accomplish something that's more important.
One thing about hypocrisy is that it is an accusation that the politician must face: he (or she) is the one who made the claims, and we can all see that those claims are fake. It doesn't cause confusion on our part but for a moment; other kinds of lying are more damaging, I suppose.
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
answered 21 hours ago
elliot svensson
647113
647113
I'm assuming here politicians under US-style representative democracy, who don't serve life terms.
– elliot svensson
21 hours ago
2
Interestingly, bona fide monarchs rather than mere one party state dictators, who serve for life tend to be less hypocritical and less partisan.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
add a comment |Â
I'm assuming here politicians under US-style representative democracy, who don't serve life terms.
– elliot svensson
21 hours ago
2
Interestingly, bona fide monarchs rather than mere one party state dictators, who serve for life tend to be less hypocritical and less partisan.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
I'm assuming here politicians under US-style representative democracy, who don't serve life terms.
– elliot svensson
21 hours ago
I'm assuming here politicians under US-style representative democracy, who don't serve life terms.
– elliot svensson
21 hours ago
2
2
Interestingly, bona fide monarchs rather than mere one party state dictators, who serve for life tend to be less hypocritical and less partisan.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
Interestingly, bona fide monarchs rather than mere one party state dictators, who serve for life tend to be less hypocritical and less partisan.
– ohwilleke
19 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
Partisanship seems very black and white, but the specific way you asked your question isn't that simple.
People on the left tend to vote left and people on the right tend to vote right - that's not news. Elections are decided not so much by which side has more people, the left or the right, but by which side is less motivated and more likely to stay home and elections are also decided by the centrists. People with no loyalty to either party (or, one could say, disgust for both).
Partisanship can play a role in a few ways. "Look how partisan my opponant is, he voted for this, this and that, right in line with (Obama/Trump). My opponent is a partisan liberal/conservative, that's why you must vote for me. If a candidate is truly and grossly partisan, I think that can motivate the other side to be more likely to get out and vote against him. Overly partisan candidates don't seem to have a lot of staying power.
Ted Cruz (who may lose), Dennis Kucinich (distracted out by his own party), Michelle Bachmann (was expected to lose, opted not to re-run). I don't consider Obama overly partisan but he was painted that way and while he never lost an election, his party a whole lot during his watch and the same situation appears to be underway under Trump. Partisanship is often punished by the other side getting out and voting in larger numbers.
Also, Partisanship can be punished by the centrists. The people with no strong allegiance to either party, and, I'm the first to admit that I don't understand non party affiliated people well, but I've known a few. They do exist and in large enough numbers to matter. I'm not talking libertarians who vote republican or green party liberals who vote democrat, but actual centrists who could vote either way. I can't provide solid numbers on this, but I believe that they would vote against over the top partisanship.
So to the voters, partisanship doesn't matter. Where it might not matter is for the voter who always votes left or always votes right - they usually won't abandon their beliefs just because their guy is over-the-top partisan, but to other voters it does matter and it can hurt a guy get re-elected.
Now, politicians, once in office have their constituency, so they may have reasons to be partisan, for better or worse, but if they go overboard, the voters might turn on them. Ted Cruz for example was a strong candidate for the Republican presidential nominee and might well have beaten Trump head to head in 2016 and in 2018 he might lose his senate seat.
Where I agree with the asker of this question is that there's too much partisanship in politics and both sides have their loyal voters who won't waiver pretty much no matter what.
Where I disagree, is that partisanship actually can hurt a candidate (examples above) because enough voters will notice and vote accordingly.
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
Partisanship seems very black and white, but the specific way you asked your question isn't that simple.
People on the left tend to vote left and people on the right tend to vote right - that's not news. Elections are decided not so much by which side has more people, the left or the right, but by which side is less motivated and more likely to stay home and elections are also decided by the centrists. People with no loyalty to either party (or, one could say, disgust for both).
Partisanship can play a role in a few ways. "Look how partisan my opponant is, he voted for this, this and that, right in line with (Obama/Trump). My opponent is a partisan liberal/conservative, that's why you must vote for me. If a candidate is truly and grossly partisan, I think that can motivate the other side to be more likely to get out and vote against him. Overly partisan candidates don't seem to have a lot of staying power.
Ted Cruz (who may lose), Dennis Kucinich (distracted out by his own party), Michelle Bachmann (was expected to lose, opted not to re-run). I don't consider Obama overly partisan but he was painted that way and while he never lost an election, his party a whole lot during his watch and the same situation appears to be underway under Trump. Partisanship is often punished by the other side getting out and voting in larger numbers.
Also, Partisanship can be punished by the centrists. The people with no strong allegiance to either party, and, I'm the first to admit that I don't understand non party affiliated people well, but I've known a few. They do exist and in large enough numbers to matter. I'm not talking libertarians who vote republican or green party liberals who vote democrat, but actual centrists who could vote either way. I can't provide solid numbers on this, but I believe that they would vote against over the top partisanship.
So to the voters, partisanship doesn't matter. Where it might not matter is for the voter who always votes left or always votes right - they usually won't abandon their beliefs just because their guy is over-the-top partisan, but to other voters it does matter and it can hurt a guy get re-elected.
Now, politicians, once in office have their constituency, so they may have reasons to be partisan, for better or worse, but if they go overboard, the voters might turn on them. Ted Cruz for example was a strong candidate for the Republican presidential nominee and might well have beaten Trump head to head in 2016 and in 2018 he might lose his senate seat.
Where I agree with the asker of this question is that there's too much partisanship in politics and both sides have their loyal voters who won't waiver pretty much no matter what.
Where I disagree, is that partisanship actually can hurt a candidate (examples above) because enough voters will notice and vote accordingly.
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
up vote
2
down vote
Partisanship seems very black and white, but the specific way you asked your question isn't that simple.
People on the left tend to vote left and people on the right tend to vote right - that's not news. Elections are decided not so much by which side has more people, the left or the right, but by which side is less motivated and more likely to stay home and elections are also decided by the centrists. People with no loyalty to either party (or, one could say, disgust for both).
Partisanship can play a role in a few ways. "Look how partisan my opponant is, he voted for this, this and that, right in line with (Obama/Trump). My opponent is a partisan liberal/conservative, that's why you must vote for me. If a candidate is truly and grossly partisan, I think that can motivate the other side to be more likely to get out and vote against him. Overly partisan candidates don't seem to have a lot of staying power.
Ted Cruz (who may lose), Dennis Kucinich (distracted out by his own party), Michelle Bachmann (was expected to lose, opted not to re-run). I don't consider Obama overly partisan but he was painted that way and while he never lost an election, his party a whole lot during his watch and the same situation appears to be underway under Trump. Partisanship is often punished by the other side getting out and voting in larger numbers.
Also, Partisanship can be punished by the centrists. The people with no strong allegiance to either party, and, I'm the first to admit that I don't understand non party affiliated people well, but I've known a few. They do exist and in large enough numbers to matter. I'm not talking libertarians who vote republican or green party liberals who vote democrat, but actual centrists who could vote either way. I can't provide solid numbers on this, but I believe that they would vote against over the top partisanship.
So to the voters, partisanship doesn't matter. Where it might not matter is for the voter who always votes left or always votes right - they usually won't abandon their beliefs just because their guy is over-the-top partisan, but to other voters it does matter and it can hurt a guy get re-elected.
Now, politicians, once in office have their constituency, so they may have reasons to be partisan, for better or worse, but if they go overboard, the voters might turn on them. Ted Cruz for example was a strong candidate for the Republican presidential nominee and might well have beaten Trump head to head in 2016 and in 2018 he might lose his senate seat.
Where I agree with the asker of this question is that there's too much partisanship in politics and both sides have their loyal voters who won't waiver pretty much no matter what.
Where I disagree, is that partisanship actually can hurt a candidate (examples above) because enough voters will notice and vote accordingly.
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
Partisanship seems very black and white, but the specific way you asked your question isn't that simple.
People on the left tend to vote left and people on the right tend to vote right - that's not news. Elections are decided not so much by which side has more people, the left or the right, but by which side is less motivated and more likely to stay home and elections are also decided by the centrists. People with no loyalty to either party (or, one could say, disgust for both).
Partisanship can play a role in a few ways. "Look how partisan my opponant is, he voted for this, this and that, right in line with (Obama/Trump). My opponent is a partisan liberal/conservative, that's why you must vote for me. If a candidate is truly and grossly partisan, I think that can motivate the other side to be more likely to get out and vote against him. Overly partisan candidates don't seem to have a lot of staying power.
Ted Cruz (who may lose), Dennis Kucinich (distracted out by his own party), Michelle Bachmann (was expected to lose, opted not to re-run). I don't consider Obama overly partisan but he was painted that way and while he never lost an election, his party a whole lot during his watch and the same situation appears to be underway under Trump. Partisanship is often punished by the other side getting out and voting in larger numbers.
Also, Partisanship can be punished by the centrists. The people with no strong allegiance to either party, and, I'm the first to admit that I don't understand non party affiliated people well, but I've known a few. They do exist and in large enough numbers to matter. I'm not talking libertarians who vote republican or green party liberals who vote democrat, but actual centrists who could vote either way. I can't provide solid numbers on this, but I believe that they would vote against over the top partisanship.
So to the voters, partisanship doesn't matter. Where it might not matter is for the voter who always votes left or always votes right - they usually won't abandon their beliefs just because their guy is over-the-top partisan, but to other voters it does matter and it can hurt a guy get re-elected.
Now, politicians, once in office have their constituency, so they may have reasons to be partisan, for better or worse, but if they go overboard, the voters might turn on them. Ted Cruz for example was a strong candidate for the Republican presidential nominee and might well have beaten Trump head to head in 2016 and in 2018 he might lose his senate seat.
Where I agree with the asker of this question is that there's too much partisanship in politics and both sides have their loyal voters who won't waiver pretty much no matter what.
Where I disagree, is that partisanship actually can hurt a candidate (examples above) because enough voters will notice and vote accordingly.
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
answered 12 hours ago
userLTK
2,98611323
2,98611323
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
I wanted to address the question:
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
The question starts with an assumption that voters don't care, which is not necessarily the case.
A study of 571 Italians was conducted and found statistical evidence to support the hypothesis "Political disengagement is positively related to perception of political hypocrisy." [1]
There is further discussion in the article, and it seems that there is some negative long term cost associated with hypocrisy. Additionally, to (under)state the obvious, the authors say
Perception of political hypocrisy can be deemed to be related to the feeling of
cynicism that seems to affect modern Western societies.
I might have a bit more to say, but @Fizz already said it better in their answer discussing Bhatti et al 2013.
[1] Prete, M. Irene, et al. "Political disengagement and political hypocrisy: A hidden connection?." Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference-The Magic in Marketing. 2015.
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
I wanted to address the question:
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
The question starts with an assumption that voters don't care, which is not necessarily the case.
A study of 571 Italians was conducted and found statistical evidence to support the hypothesis "Political disengagement is positively related to perception of political hypocrisy." [1]
There is further discussion in the article, and it seems that there is some negative long term cost associated with hypocrisy. Additionally, to (under)state the obvious, the authors say
Perception of political hypocrisy can be deemed to be related to the feeling of
cynicism that seems to affect modern Western societies.
I might have a bit more to say, but @Fizz already said it better in their answer discussing Bhatti et al 2013.
[1] Prete, M. Irene, et al. "Political disengagement and political hypocrisy: A hidden connection?." Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference-The Magic in Marketing. 2015.
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
I wanted to address the question:
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
The question starts with an assumption that voters don't care, which is not necessarily the case.
A study of 571 Italians was conducted and found statistical evidence to support the hypothesis "Political disengagement is positively related to perception of political hypocrisy." [1]
There is further discussion in the article, and it seems that there is some negative long term cost associated with hypocrisy. Additionally, to (under)state the obvious, the authors say
Perception of political hypocrisy can be deemed to be related to the feeling of
cynicism that seems to affect modern Western societies.
I might have a bit more to say, but @Fizz already said it better in their answer discussing Bhatti et al 2013.
[1] Prete, M. Irene, et al. "Political disengagement and political hypocrisy: A hidden connection?." Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference-The Magic in Marketing. 2015.
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I wanted to address the question:
My question is, why don't voters care when politicians are hypocritical in support of partisan ends? Is there any political theory literature that explains this phenomena?
The question starts with an assumption that voters don't care, which is not necessarily the case.
A study of 571 Italians was conducted and found statistical evidence to support the hypothesis "Political disengagement is positively related to perception of political hypocrisy." [1]
There is further discussion in the article, and it seems that there is some negative long term cost associated with hypocrisy. Additionally, to (under)state the obvious, the authors say
Perception of political hypocrisy can be deemed to be related to the feeling of
cynicism that seems to affect modern Western societies.
I might have a bit more to say, but @Fizz already said it better in their answer discussing Bhatti et al 2013.
[1] Prete, M. Irene, et al. "Political disengagement and political hypocrisy: A hidden connection?." Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference-The Magic in Marketing. 2015.
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
answered 3 hours ago
BurnsBA
1115
1115
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
BurnsBA is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
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1
You seem to base most of your question on the US. Have you seen the same pattern in countries with multiple large political parties? In the US, most elections are a choice between a democrat or a republican. If you really dislike one, you're likely to vote for the others regardless of some lies or hypocrisy.
– JJJ
22 hours ago
1
@jpmc26 I also thought it was unintelligible - but if you read it like I did, note that it's "trump", not "Trump".
– HammerN'Songs
4 hours ago
2
@jpmc26 As a very "trump" means "prevails over", so when there is a conflict between partisanship and concerns about hypocrisy, partisanship wins. The terminology comes from card games in the family of Bridge and Hearts (among others).
– ohwilleke
4 hours ago
Because voters are, on average, complete morons.
– Davor
2 hours ago
This is really a question about why the human mind works as it does. That's not a question about politics. It might even be a better question for Philosophy SE. "Why is it that a majority of people care more about their preferences than about hypocrisy?" "Why do people think the ends justify the means?"
– Wildcard
53 mins ago