Partisanship, Ideology, and Negative Voting

The analyses presented in this chapter show quite clearly that negative voting is inversely related to the strength of partisanship. The largest share of negative voters in each country is to be found among independents and leaners. The results also show that negative voters are less aligned ideologically with the party they voted for than positive voters. In other words, much like observed with partisanship, feelings of ideological closeness to the in-party tend to depress negative voting and foster positive voting.