Why Did You Do That? Subjective Reasons for Voting at the 2009 Federal Election

Jan Eric Blumenstiel / Hans Rattinger, Why Did You Do That? Subjective Reasons for Voting at the 2009 Federal Election, pp. 251-275. The article deals with the question of whether self-reported reasons for vote choices can help to identify heterogeneous sub-electorates which place different weights on certain criteria in their voting decision. Based on the Michigan model, the respondents are coded into one out of ten groups according to their answers to open-ended questions about their voting motives. These groups differ in terms of political attitudes and electoral behavior just as expected. By including theoretically plausible interactions between group membership and the corresponding predictors we can significantly improve the explanatory power for all parties. Self-reported reasons for respondents' vote may not be an independent explanation of voting behavior, but they contribute to the refinement of existing models.