IRS - Tarik Abou-Chadi - A Party for "Someone like Me" - Towards a Theory of Party Competition and Group IdentitiesWe welcome Tarik Abou-Chadi on April 10 2025

10. April 2025

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In the Interdisciplinary Research Seminar of the GRK "Collective Decision-Making" we welcome on

on April 10 2025, 17:15-18:45 CET in VMP 5 , room 0079, ground floor

Tarik Abou-Chadi (Nuffield College, University of Oxford) - Title: A Party for "Someone like Me" - Towards a Theory of Party Competition and Group Identities

Abstract:  This project examines how political parties in European democracies leverage group identities to increase their electoral support. We propose a novel framework of dynamic identity appeals in which parties try to make salient different identities that are associated with stronger party support. Building upon recent contributions, we argue that voters have a “mental map” that links various societal groups with a higher affinity for specific parties. We propose that when political actors make one of these group identities salient, this map activates, leading voters to feel a stronger connection to both the group and the associated party. This, in turn, increases their likelihood of voting for that party. We argue that this identity-based linkage between voters and parties operates independently of policy preferences. We provide some first evidence for this theory based on original survey experiments conducted in the United Kingdom and Germany and present plans for further data collections in other European democracies. Our contribution is twofold: first, we introduce and empirically test a novel theory of party competition in European multiparty systems, and second, we theorize the existence of party-voter linkages that extend beyond programmatic and clientelistic frameworks.

Find the abstract as PDF here.

We invite everyone interested to attend and are looking forward to seeing you.

Please find more information on the IRS Seminar Series here.