cross pressure

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A special situation of the voter in the microsociological approach to explaining voting behavior in electoral research is called cross pressure .

According to the school of thought known as Columbia School , founded by Paul Lazarsfeld and his colleagues Bernard R. Berelson and Hazel Gaudet with their work " The People's Choice ", first published in 1944 , belonging to social circles - for example family or the work environment - is decisive for the voting decision of the individual. However, social circles in modern societies are not as homogeneous as the Columbia School originally assumed. If an individual is in groups with contradicting or diffuse choice preferences, i.e. is subject to different social fields of force, a cross-pressure situation exists. This can lead to a decline in political interest. The voting decision is also more difficult. Either it will not be made until a later point in the election campaign or it will be omitted so that the individual does not vote.

In surveys, inconsistent social characteristics and attitudes that suggest cross pressure can also be an indication of incorrect answers to the questionnaire or falsified answers.

Various studies have shown cross-pressure situations internationally. In her analysis of the 2005 federal election, Elisabeth Noelle saw a cross-pressure situation among some voters as one of the reasons for the inaccurate results of the polling institutes . The supporters of one party were inclined to the top candidate of another. Another example of a cross-pressure situation came in the French presidential election in 2002 , when left voters had to vote for the conservative Jacques Chirac in the runoff election due to the surprising election success of right-wing extremist candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen . They had to weigh up between their party preference and the regime preference.

literature

  • Blomgren, Magnus. "Cross-pressure and political representation in Europe: A comparative study of MEPs and the intra-party arena." (2003).
  • Powell Jr, G. Bingham. "Political cleavage structure, cross-pressure processes, and partisanship: An empirical test of the theory." American Journal of Political Science (1976): 1-23.
  • Sperlich, Peter W. Conflict and harmony in human affairs: a study of cross-pressures and political behavior. Rand McNally, 1971.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Dieter Roth: Empirical election research: origin, theories, instruments and methods. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 3-53-115786-8 , p. 31.
  2. ↑ Jochen Groß: The prognosis of election results. Approaches and empirical performance . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17273-6 , p. 108 .
  3. ↑ Hans-Bernd Brosius , Friederike Koschel, Alexander Haas: Methods of empirical communication research: An introduction . 5th edition, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008. ISBN 978-3-531-16504-2 , p. 111.
  4. ↑ Elisabeth Noelle: There is a lack of trust . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung from September 21, 2005.
  5. ↑ Franz Urban Pappi, Thomas Gschwend: Party and coalition preferences of voters . In: Jürgen W. Falter, Oscar W. Gabriel, Bernhard Wessels: Elections and voters: analyzes on the occasion of the federal election 2002 . ISBN 3-531-14137-6 . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2005. P. 297 f.