Competing for the Same Value Segments: Explaining the Volatile Dutch Political Landscape

45 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2015

See all articles by Hester van Herk

Hester van Herk

VU University Amsterdam

Pieter Schoonees

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Patrick J. F. Groenen

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

Joost van Rosmalen

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Date Written: October 9, 2015

Abstract

Human values drive different kinds of abstract behaviour, while established value scales are pervasive in survey research. We focus on analyzing the relationship between human values and voting in elections, introducing a new methodology to analyze how value profiles relate to political support over time. To illustrate our procedure, we investigate the Dutch multi-party political system. Values measured using rating scales over five waves of the European Social Survey, spanning 2002 until 2010, are analysed. Whilst previous research have focused on values separately, we (1) relate all political parties participating in the election to human values using a segmentation approach in which value profiles are used instead of individual values; (2) compare voting over time; (3) include non-voters; and (4) adjust for individual differences in response style. The adjustment for response styles allow us to uncover valid insights into the relationship between values and voting. We find evidence that specific value profiles are related to voting for certain political parties and that non-voters can also be distinguished by unique value profiles.

Keywords: human values, response styles, politics, segmentation, biplots

Suggested Citation

van Herk, Hester and Schoonees, Pieter and Groenen, Patrick J. F. and van Rosmalen, Joost, Competing for the Same Value Segments: Explaining the Volatile Dutch Political Landscape (October 9, 2015). ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2015-012-MKT, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2672095 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2672095

Hester Van Herk (Contact Author)

VU University Amsterdam ( email )

De Boelelaan 1105
Amsterdam, ND North Holland 1081 HV
Netherlands

Pieter Schoonees

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Patrick J. F. Groenen

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam, NL 3062 PA
Netherlands

Joost Van Rosmalen

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

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