Party Government and Voters

This chapter focuses on the extent to which voters fulfil the requirements of the ‘party government model’ to be represented meaningfully. The main requirements are that (1) a single ideological dimension structures their attitudes; (2) voters know the positions of parties on this dimension; and (3) this dimension structures their party choice. The main obstacle to representation is that there is little structure in public opinion. The largest differences exist between countries, but we observe surprisingly little change over time and only small differences between generations. The over-time changes are in the direction of less ideological structuration, which is not good news from the perspective of representation.