Browsing by Author "Lindgren, Elina"

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Campaigning in Poetry, Governing in Prose: Pre- and Post-Election Effects of Election Pledge Rhetoric
(2017-12-18) Lindgren, Elina
In election campaigns, parties often use value-laden words such as freedom and competitiveness, to reach out to voters with their election pledges and policy proposals. While it is well known that the presence of such words in election pledges can impact voters’ support for policy proposals, we know less about what makes these words effective. In her dissertation, Elina Lindgren presents and tests a linguistic explanation of how value-laden words can affect, not only the extent to which voters appreciate a policy proposal, but also how they perceive the actual content of the policy. Through a series of survey experiments, she shows that the presence of words such as freedom and competitiveness in election pledges can elicit substantive beliefs about policies that go beyond the actual content of the proposals outlined in the pledges. This, in turn, may lead to (mis)interpretations of how the policies and their future outcomes align with the voters’ policy preferences. Lindgren also shows how these interpretations can make it more difficult for politicians to meet the voters’ expectations of the election pledges post-election, and how they may lead to perceptions that the pledges have been broken. These results raise questions about the well-being of a central part of a representative democracy. If value-laden words in election pledges can create expectations of policy proposals beyond what is actually being pledged, it may become more difficult for voters to predict which parties will best represent their policy preferences – something that is crucial to a representative democracy.
Campaigning with poetry, governing on prose - Experimental analyses of the effects of persuasive strategies in election campaigns, on fluctuation in political trust pre- and post-elections
(2012-04-25) Lindgren, Elina; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
What accounts for fluctuation in political trust pre- and post-elections? The dynamic process of increased fluctuation in political trust around elections has been studied before, but the effects of persuasive strategies on this process have not yet been analyzed. In these theses I offer a theory to account for this process: that the fluctuation increases if parties´ use persuasive strategies in election campaigns. Six hypotheses are put forward as arguments for the theory: H1) Parties´ use of persuasive strategies pre-election generates more political support and trust than parties´ use of non-persuasive strategies. H2) Negative information in media leads to losses of support and trust post-election. H3) Negative information in media causes higher losses if persuasive strategies were used pre-election. H4) Parties´ use of persuasive strategies post-election reduces losses of support and trust. H5) Effects of persuasive strategies post-election are weaker than the effects of persuasive strategies pre-election. H6) Effects of persuasive strategies post-election are weaker if persuasive strategies have been used pre-election. These hypotheses reinforce the main hypothesis: H7) Fluctuation in political support and trust increases around elections, if political parties use persuasive strategies in the election campaign. The results support four of the six first hypotheses, but disaffirm that persuasive strategies cause higher losses post-election, and that effects of persuasive strategies post-election are weaker if the strategies have been used pre-election. The empirical findings support the main hypothesis, that persuasive strategies increase fluctuation in support and trust pre- and post-election.