Positive and Negative Social Identity appeals in Election Campaigns

This paper suggests that to study an often-neglected aspect of party competition, parties’ appeals to social groups, a new approach is needed. On the basis of an “embedded voter” perspective that suggests that groups matter for voting behaviour a party perspective is developed which allows in contrast to previous approaches to go beyond class and religion and include identity appeals to groups such as women or young people. The analysis is based on a content analysis of party manifestos of the Swiss (2015), German (2013) and Dutch (2012) most recent national elections. Most of the literature on party competition focuses on issues and positions and ignores groups all together because it is based on an “isolated voter” perspective that assumes that voters take their decisions independently from any group membership. However, in the voting literature there is an important strand defending an “embedded voter” perspective, more specifically the reference group theory that argues that social groups are important categories that influence voters’ self-concepts and their understanding of political relations. For (self-proclaimed) group members social groups serve as a source for self-identification and for non-members social groups serve as information cues based on the positive or negative evaluations of those groups. The association of parties with groups that voters like (and perhaps identify with) and groups that they dislike therefore influences voters’ evaluation of parties. For party competition this means that parties have an interest in positive identity appeals, claiming support for groups they believe their potential voter base likes and potentially identifies with, as well in negative identity appeals, criticising groups they believe their potential voter base dislikes. The reference group theory also implies that the groups which matter for voters and therefore for parties are not necessarily the objective groups, easily measured in surveys, that voters are grouped in based on their occupation or religion but rather the subjective groups voters feel attached to or dislike. Going beyond the traditional groups of class and religion the suggested party perspective of identity appeals includes as well appeals to categories such as age groups, family groups, gender groups and citizenship groups. While some studies already exist that analyse identity appeals to one group or another, this paper is one of the first to suggest a comprehensive perspective on party competition and identity appeals. The party strategies regarding positive and negative identity appeals will be studied by looking at the most recent national elections in Switzerland (2015), Germany (2013) and the Netherlands (2012). The analysis will be based on a relational content analysis of party manifestos.