Exploring the Meaning of Party Identification in Germany: A Qualitative Approach

Since the 1970s, party identification has been one of the most used and distinguished key concepts in empirical election studies for explaining individual voting behavior as well as voting turn out. Party identification is usually measured with a single-item. In Germany, the same question has been used since the 1970s: “Many people in the Federal Republic lean toward a particular party for a long time, although they may occasionally vote for a different party. How about you?” To this day, we still do not exactly know what party identification actually means to its identifiers. I add an innovative facet by using current German online survey data from May 2013. After stating a party identification, almost 700 respondents were asked an open-ended question about what they actually mean by “leaning toward this particular party”. Indeed, I will be able to explore the meaning of party identification more thoroughly.