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When Does Accommodation Work? Electoral Effects of Mainstream Left Position Taking on Immigration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2020

Frederik Hjorth Open the ORCID record for Frederik Hjorth [Opens in a new window]  and
Martin Vinæs Larsen
Frederik Hjorth*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Copenhagen University, Denmark
Martin Vinæs Larsen
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: fh@ifs.ku.dk
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Abstract

In many countries, right-wing populist parties have gained electoral support by attracting voters from mainstream left parties. This has prompted public and scholarly debate about whether mainstream left parties can regain political power by taking a more restrictive position on immigration, a so-called accommodation strategy. However, selection bias confounds observational estimates of the effectiveness of this strategy. This letter reports the results of a survey experiment conducted among Danish voters during a unique political situation in which the mainstream left party's position on immigration is ambiguous, enabling experimental manipulation of voters' perceptions of the party's position. The authors show that, consistent with spatial models of politics, accommodation attracts anti-immigration voters and repels pro-immigration voters. Because repelled voters defect to other left parties, while attracted voters come from right parties, accommodation increases overall support for parties that support a mainstream left government. The results demonstrate that in some contexts, accommodation can improve the political prospects of the mainstream left.

Keywords

immigrationvoter behaviorparty politicsspatial models of politicsexperiments
Type
Letter
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 949 - 957
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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