Economic voting in the Netherlands

In: European journal of political research: official journal of the European Consortium for Political Research, Band 18, Heft 5, S. 535-555

Abstract

Abstract.An attempt to integrate various previous approaches to economic voting is made and several LISREL‐models were tested in the Netherlands. We found that, like in most American studies, voters' experience with and evaluation of government policies' effects on the National Economic Condition are a more important determinant of the vote than voters' evaluation of the effects of government policies on one's Personal Economic Condition. Different models for various social classes were found (cf. Weatherford, 1978), but 'self‐reliants'had similar determinants of the vote as compared to 'government reliants'. The specifying effect of 'party identification'on the vote was discussed. It seems that about 10–15% of the Dutch vote can be considered determined by economic evaluations, mainly of the perception of government policies' effect on the National Economic Condition (NEC).