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Sceptical partisans: How citizens think about political finance

journal contribution
posted on 2015-01-01, 00:00 authored by Zim NwokoraZim Nwokora
This article investigates how citizens form their opinions on political-finance issues. Two distinct mechanisms are elaborated. First, citizens may be ‘faithful followers’, adopting positions that reflect their partisan loyalties. Second, citizens may be ‘sceptical’ and lean against cues from their party leaders. Drawing on a survey of Australian attitudes to political finance, I assess the extent to which predictions from these theories are observed in reality. The evidence suggests that Australians interpret political finance as ‘sceptical partisans’, broadly sceptical of political elites, while retaining partisan loyalties that are triggered when two conditions are satisfied: the issue has obvious partisan implications, but encouragement of partisan impulses does not threaten the competitiveness of elections.

History

Journal

Australian journal of political science

Volume

50

Pagination

73-92

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

1036-1146

eISSN

1363-030X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal, C Journal article

Copyright notice

2015, Australian Political Studies Association

Issue

1

Publisher

Taylor & Francis