{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/104999"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/104999","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Information and identities in dynamic electoral environments","abstract":"\"Electoral environments in democracies are complex. One of the key tools voters use to simplify the information environment in elections is the party-label heuristic. However, party labels themselves change and with considerable frequency. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the consequences of party-label changes for voters’ information, partisan identities, and corresponding behavior. As a result, this dissertation makes a series of contributions to our understanding of voter decision-making and partisanship. First, I create an original dataset of party-name changes across 43 democracies from 1990-2017, allowing scholars to quantify instances of party relabeling. Second, using these data paired with electoral surveys, I demonstrate that party relabeling limits the information voters have about the party, alters their voting considerations, and is associated with decreased levels of partisanship to such parties. Third, using a case study in Germany, I demonstrate that changes as innocuous and a party relabeling itself alters how that party’s followers see themselves, other parties, and even limits their willingness to engage with political actors. Fourth, I use the same case in Germany to highlight that parties can opt for new names that include informative signals, thereby improving voters’ knowledge about them. Finally, I contend that voters may come to rely on different heuristics when party labels are no longer reliable information shortcuts, pointing to party leaders as an alternative heuristic. In doing so, I develop two new measures to capture how voters view the \"\"typicality\"\" of party leaders vis-a-vis the party and the level of attachment voters express toward leaders over the party, expanding our extant understanding of partisanship and personalization.\"","abstract_html":""Electoral environments in democracies are complex. One of the key tools voters use to simplify the information environment in elections is the party-label heuristic. However, party labels themselves change and with considerable frequency. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the consequences of party-label changes for voters’ information, partisan identities, and corresponding behavior. As a result, this dissertation makes a series of contributions to our understanding of voter decision-making and partisanship. First, I create an original dataset of party-name changes across 43 democracies from 1990-2017, allowing scholars to quantify instances of party relabeling. Second, using these data paired with electoral surveys, I demonstrate that party relabeling limits the information voters have about the party, alters their voting considerations, and is associated with decreased levels of partisanship to such parties. Third, using a case study in Germany, I demonstrate that changes as innocuous and a party relabeling itself alters how that party’s followers see themselves, other parties, and even limits their willingness to engage with political actors. Fourth, I use the same case in Germany to highlight that parties can opt for new names that include informative signals, thereby improving voters’ knowledge about them. Finally, I contend that voters may come to rely on different heuristics when party labels are no longer reliable information shortcuts, pointing to party leaders as an alternative heuristic. In doing so, I develop two new measures to capture how voters view the ""typicality"" of party leaders vis-a-vis the party and the level of attachment voters express toward leaders over the party, expanding our extant understanding of partisanship and personalization."","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Waeiss, Charla S."],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Political Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Gaines, Brian J.","Canache, Damarys","Kuklinski, James","Livny, Avital"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-08-23T20:35:48Z","date_published":"2019-08-23T20:35:48Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:44Z","subjects":["partisanship, heuristics, social identities, elections"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Charla Waeiss"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104999","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Gaines, Brian J.","Canache, Damarys","Kuklinski, James","Livny, Avital"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Waeiss, Charla S."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019-08-23T20:35:48Z","2021-08-24T09:15:10Z","2019-04-10","2019-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["partisanship, heuristics, social identities, elections"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Charla Waeiss"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104999"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["\"Electoral environments in democracies are complex. One of the key tools voters use to simplify the information environment in elections is the party-label heuristic. However, party labels themselves change and with considerable frequency. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the consequences of party-label changes for voters’ information, partisan identities, and corresponding behavior. As a result, this dissertation makes a series of contributions to our understanding of voter decision-making and partisanship. First, I create an original dataset of party-name changes across 43 democracies from 1990-2017, allowing scholars to quantify instances of party relabeling. Second, using these data paired with electoral surveys, I demonstrate that party relabeling limits the information voters have about the party, alters their voting considerations, and is associated with decreased levels of partisanship to such parties. Third, using a case study in Germany, I demonstrate that changes as innocuous and a party relabeling itself alters how that party’s followers see themselves, other parties, and even limits their willingness to engage with political actors. Fourth, I use the same case in Germany to highlight that parties can opt for new names that include informative signals, thereby improving voters’ knowledge about them. Finally, I contend that voters may come to rely on different heuristics when party labels are no longer reliable information shortcuts, pointing to party leaders as an alternative heuristic. In doing so, I develop two new measures to capture how voters view the \"\"typicality\"\" of party leaders vis-a-vis the party and the level of attachment voters express toward leaders over the party, expanding our extant understanding of partisanship and personalization.\"","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01","The student, Charla Waeiss, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-09 at 17:05.","The student, Charla Waeiss, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-04-09 at 17:11.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-04-10 at 10:00.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13539 on 2019-08-22 at 15:05:43","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:35:48Z (GMT). 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One of the key tools voters use to simplify the information environment in elections is the party-label heuristic. However, party labels themselves change and with considerable frequency. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the consequences of party-label changes for voters’ information, partisan identities, and corresponding behavior. As a result, this dissertation makes a series of contributions to our understanding of voter decision-making and partisanship. First, I create an original dataset of party-name changes across 43 democracies from 1990-2017, allowing scholars to quantify instances of party relabeling. Second, using these data paired with electoral surveys, I demonstrate that party relabeling limits the information voters have about the party, alters their voting considerations, and is associated with decreased levels of partisanship to such parties. Third, using a case study in Germany, I demonstrate that changes as innocuous and a party relabeling itself alters how that party’s followers see themselves, other parties, and even limits their willingness to engage with political actors. Fourth, I use the same case in Germany to highlight that parties can opt for new names that include informative signals, thereby improving voters’ knowledge about them. Finally, I contend that voters may come to rely on different heuristics when party labels are no longer reliable information shortcuts, pointing to party leaders as an alternative heuristic. In doing so, I develop two new measures to capture how voters view the \"\"typicality\"\" of party leaders vis-a-vis the party and the level of attachment voters express toward leaders over the party, expanding our extant understanding of partisanship and personalization.\"","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01","The student, Charla Waeiss, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-09 at 17:05.","The student, Charla Waeiss, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-04-09 at 17:11.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-04-10 at 10:00.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13539 on 2019-08-22 at 15:05:43","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:35:48Z (GMT). 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