Search results

I investigate the political significance of the left-right semantics within & across two selected groups of Mexican citizens in 2001 & 2004. Extending extant works, I argue that meanings assigned to these labels should: (1) reference valence issues, in addition to political actors & policy stances, (2) reflect elite rhetoric, & (3) vary by partisan sympathies & political sophistication. These expectations are tested using factor-analyzed data from a set of Q-sort studies. The results support the expectations & have important implications for: (1) what they suggest about latent & active lines of competition in this country, & (2) what they reveal about the meanings assigned to ideological labels & the ways in which elite behavior & individual characteristics condition these meanings. Tables, Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.

I argue, and test using data from the 2000 Mexican elections, the following assertions: perceptions of issue space condition the weights voters assign to policy stances and these perceptions in turn are affected by both individual and contextual variables. By perceptions of issue space I mean the choice candidates appear to offer on a given issue. The principal data I use come from the Mexico 2000 Panel Study; hypotheses are tested using multinomial logit and OLS analyses. The first set of results supports the thesis that perceptions of issue space condition the tendency for individuals to select leaders on the basis of select policy stances. The second set demonstrates that individual characteristics, structural constraints, and candidates' rhetorical strategies (the latter mediated by partisan leanings) all affect perceptions of issue space. Combined, these findings have important implications for understanding voting behavior in young and old democracies alike. [Copyright 2008 Elsevier Ltd.]

This paper argues that personal attitudes toward risk influence vote choice in Mexico. Great uncertainty over the political stances & capabilities of the opposition parties makes risk propensity a key determinant of vote choice. Not all voters who are disenchanted with the status quo take a chance on the less known opposition; risk-acceptant voters gamble on these parties, whereas risk-averse individuals stick with the "devil they know." Using data from a 1997 national survey & multinomial probit analysis, we show that attitudes toward risk influence voting behavior in Mexico in two ways. First, risk has a direct impact on vote choice. Risk-acceptant individuals are more likely, in general, to support the opposition. Second, risk affects vote choice indirectly by conditioning the importance of economic assessments. Risk-acceptant individuals are willing to punish negative economic performance, whereas similar, but risk-averse, individuals are not. 3 Tables, 2 Figures, 24 References. Adapted from the source document.