Abstract :
[en] Previous studies have almost consistently found differences between lower and higher educated voters regarding their policy congruence, the policy position agreement between voters and their party. This study analyses the role of a campaign herein. Based on novel panel evidence with an extensive battery of policy statements, combined with a survey of party leaders using the same items, we find that, more than the lowly educated, the highly educated profit from the campaign to increase their policy congruence. The reason for the increased inequality is that the later switch parties more often during the campaign than the former. Our evidence also suggests that the higher educated switch parties because this may increase their policy congruence. In sum, the campaign produces a Matthew effect. Those already having a higher policy congruence increase their congruence even further, while those with a lower congruence to start with, do not make any significant progress.
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