Regionalised Decentralisation: Regionalism, Voter-Party Proximity and Vote Choice

Recent research on electoral behaviour in multi-level countries suggests that citizens tend to vote for parties that are ideologically close to themselves on multiple issue-dimensions. More precisely, congruence between voters and parties on economic, social and decentralisation dimensions have all been shown to have an independent influence on vote choice. However, while the scholarship has explored the concept of multidimensional ideology and how it plays out in terms of vote choice, it has not looked at the relationship between voter-party proximity and regionalism. Specifically, regional distinctions may be of specific importance to understand attitudes to decentralisation. Canada is one case in which electoral processes lead to distinct regional dynamics. Thus, for example, regional ethnocultural differences or diverging levels of regional fiscal capacity may impact on citizens and parties’ positions on decentralisation. Therefore, this paper explores 1) potential regional differences in citizens and parties’ positons on decentralisation and 2) the effect of regionalised voter-party proximity on vote choice. To do so, we use data from the 2015 Canadian Election Studies as well as new data from the Canadian Expert Survey Project.