Information Behavior and Political Preferences

This article shows that citizens consider policy positions for the formation of their political preferences when they actively seek and find high-quality information, while they dismiss passively acquired and low-quality information. The study develops an extended theory of information and political preferences that incorporates the process of information acquisition and its connection with information quality. A novel experimental design separates the effects on political preferences due to information behavior as an activity from those due to selective exposure to information. The study applies this design in a laboratory experiment with a diverse group of participants using the example of issue voting and European integration in the context of the 2014 European Parliament elections

The quality of political information

The article conceptualizes the quality of political information and shows how the concept can be used for empirical research. I distinguish three aspects of quality (intelligibility, relevance, validity) and use them to judge the constituent foundations of political information, that is component claims (statements of alleged facts) and connection claims (argumentative statements created by causally linking two component claims). The resulting conceptual map thus entails six manifestations of information quality (component claimintelligibility, connection claim intelligibility, component claimrelevance, connection claim relevance, component claim validity, and connection claim validity). I explain how the conceptual map can be used to make sense of the eclectic variety of existing research, and how it can advance new empirical research, as a guide for determining variation in information quality, as a conceptual template for the analysis of different types of political messages and their common quality deficiencies, and as a generator of new research questions and theoretical expectations

Shaping public opinion about regional integration: the rhetoric of justification and party cues

The article investigates how justifications used by politicians to explain their positions on policies of regional integration shape public opinion about these policies. I argue that support for a policy position increases when politicians tailor their justifications to the expectations of their audience; and I suggest that this happens even when party cues offer a less effortful way of forming opinions. I test my theoretical expectations in laboratory experiments with diverse samples, which manipulate party cues and justifications for a policy of European integration. I find that citizens use justifications and cues to form opinions. The relative importance of the two factors depends on individual dispositions and political context. In a non-competitive context (study 1), politically invested citizens use cues, while uninvested citizens use justifications. In a competitive context (study 2), the opinions of politically invested citizens are shaped by both factors, while the opinions of uninvested citizens become erratic

How leaders mobilize workers : social democracy, revolution, and moderate syndicalism

This book explains why leaders chose social democracy, revolution, or moderate syndicalism to mobilize workers, and why it matters. In some countries, leaders have responded effectively to their political environment, while leaders in other countries have made ill-fitting choices. Vössing explains not only why leaders make fitting or ill-fitting choices of mobilization strategies, but also how their choices affect the success of that interest mobilization and subsequent political development. Using the most extensive compilation of quantitative data and historical sources, this book combines a thorough analysis of the formation of class politics in all twenty industrialized countries between 1863 and 1919 with a general theory of political mobilization. It integrates economic, political, and ideational factors into a comprehensive account which highlights the critical role of individual leaders, and which develops an innovative model for their decision-making process based on insights from both rational choice theory and psychology.1 Introduction: A Theory of National Variation in Interest Mobilization, 1 2 Outcomes: Dominant Models of Class Politics and Institutionalization Success, 44 3 Environments: National Differences in Labor Inclusion, 80 4 Agency: Constraints, Choice Alternatives, and Decision-Making, 111 5 Choices: Explaining Variation in Dominant Models of Class Politics, 169 6 Consequences: Explaining Differences in Institutionalization Success, 232 7 Conclusion: Causes and Consequences of National Variation in Interest Mobilization, 25

Vossing Class Politics: data set and online appendix

Data set and online appendix for "Konstantin Vössing (2017) How leaders mobilize workers. Social Democracy, Revolution, and Moderate Syndicalism. New York: Cambridge University Press

The company makes the feast : party constellations, campaign context and issue voting in multi-party systems

The online version of this chapter (doi:10.1007/978-3-319-40573-5_3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Political parties in multi-party systems find themselves in varying patterns of agreement and disagreement over contested issues with their competitors. This article investigates the cross-pressures on voting behavior emanating from constellations of party conflict that contradict voters’ preferences. We argue that the campaign context is a key moderator of citizens’ responses to this type of cross-pressure: Before the beginning of an election campaign, voters are more likely to process information about inconvenient party constellations and adjust their preferences. During an ongoing campaign, however, voters will discard such issue information in favor of pre-established preferences. We find support for our theory in an experimental study about issue conflict over the scope of European integration and voting behavior in Germany, on the occasion of the elections to the European Parliament in May 2014

Replication Data for: Information Behavior and Political Preferences (British Journal of Political Science)

This article shows that citizens consider policy positions for the formation of their political preferences when they actively seek and find high-quality information, while they dismiss passively acquired and low-quality information. We develop an extended theory of information and political preferences that incorporates the process of information acquisition and its connection with information quality. A novel experimental design allows us to separate the effects on political preferences due to information behavior as an activity from those due to selective exposure to information. We apply our design in a laboratory experiment with a diverse group of participants using the example of issue voting and European integration on the occasion of the 2014 elections to the European Parliament