Pass the buck if you can: how partisan competition triggers attribution bias in multilevel democracies

Rico, G. and Liñeira, R. (2018) Pass the buck if you can: how partisan competition triggers attribution bias in multilevel democracies. Political Behavior, 40(1), pp. 175-196. (doi: 10.1007/s11109-017-9409-5)

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Abstract

Voters’ ability to hold politicians accountable has been shown to be limited in systems of multilevel government. The existence of multiple tiers of government blurs the lines of responsibility, making it more difficult for voters to assign credit or blame for policy performance. However, much less is known about how the vertical division of responsibility affects citizens’ propensity to rationalize responsibility attributions on the basis of group attachment. While these two processes have similar observable implications, they imply markedly different micro-mechanisms. Using experimental and observational data, this paper examines how the partisan division of power moderates the impact of voters’ partisanship and feelings of territorial attachment on attributions of responsibility for the regional economy. Our analyses show that partisan-based attribution bias varies systematically with the partisan context, such that it only emerges in regions where a party other than the national incumbent controls the regional government. We also find that responsibility judgments are rationalized on the basis of territorial identities only when a regional nationalist party is in control of the regional government. Our results contribute to explaining the contextual variations in the strength of regional economic voting and more generally to understanding one of the mechanisms through which low clarity of responsibility reduces government accountability.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This research was supported by the project ‘‘Stability and Change in Political Attitudes,’’ funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSO2010-18534), and by a Ramo´n y Cajal grant to Guillem Rico (RYC-2012-09861).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Lineira, Dr Robert
Authors: Rico, G., and Liñeira, R.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
Journal Name:Political Behavior
Publisher:Springer
ISSN:0190-9320
ISSN (Online):1573-6687
Published Online:03 June 2017
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media
First Published:First published in Political Behavior 40(1): 175-196
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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