Competence Issue Ownership, Issue Positions and the Vote for the Greens and the Social Democrats

Abstract

Applying a consideration set approach to panel data, we contribute to the literature on intra-bloc voting by studying the vote for the Greens and the Social Democrats in the 2019 Swiss elections. Theoretically, because the two parties are ideologically and programmatically so similar, we argue that potential left-wing voters have a hard time making a final choice based on issue positions, and rely instead on their evaluations of parties' issue competence. The empirical tests partly support our expectations. Maintaining or shifting the attribution of competence on the environment to the Greens during the election campaign prompts potential left-wing voters to end up voting for the Greens; similar effects hold for the Social Democrats regarding social policy. Yet, this does not wipe out the impact of issue positions, which also help potential left-wing voters decide between the Greens and the Social Democrats. These results have important theoretical and practical implications.