Can Candidates Activate or Deactivate the Economic Vote?

Abstract

Do electoral campaigns affect the strength of the economic vote? Against the conventional expectation that candidates have little influence over when and to what extent economic voting occurs, I argue that political communications systematically condition voters’ willingness to hold candidates responsible for past economic performance. I test this priming-based approach against extant economic voting theory using data from Mexico’s 2000 and 2006 presidential elections, in which economic messages were absent and dominant respectively. The results show that candidates, by choosing to emphasize or deemphasize economic issues in their televised campaign ads, can activate and even deactivate economic considerations in the minds of voters. By bringing the priming approach to economic voting theory, I highlight the importance of communication strategy and demonstrate the power of campaigns to overcome structural conditions thought to hamstring electoral candidates.

Citation

Hart, A. (2013). Can candidates activate or deactivate the economic vote? Evidence from two Mexican elections. Journal of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613001011