Description
Book SynopsisArgues that political parties are motivated to strategically blur their position on an issue when they struggle with a certain disadvantage in the issue. Specifically, political parties present an ambiguous position when their own supporters are divided in their stances on the issue.
Trade Review“This is a great book for all political scientists eager to better understand how parties strategically act to ensure their vote share. Politicians and party elites could learn from the evidence here to think about their own choices.”— Sean McGraw, Boston College
“
Rationality of Irrationality is a highly promising book on position blurring as a partisan strategy and how voters respond to this strategy. Han expands on this recent wave of literature on position blurring with original ideas and inspiring analyses. A must-read for anyone interested in party strategies and their electoral effects.”— Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Aarhus UniversityTable of Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- 1. Introduction
- 2. A Theory of Position Blurring
- 3. Measuring Position Blurring
- 4. Position Blurring and Voter Behavior
- 5. Issue Disadvantage, Party Competition Environment, and Issue Avoidance
- 6. Radical Right-Wing Parties’ Position Blurring on the Economy
- 7. Social Democratic Parties’ Position Blurring on Immigration
- 8. Concluding Remarks
- Appendix
- References
