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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Racial, ethnic or rational voters? Splitting tickets in South Africa
Author:McLaughlin, Eric S.ISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies
Volume:35
Issue:1
Pages:23-41
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:voting
group identity
ethnicity
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589340802113030
Abstract:Many scholars worried that political liberalization in South Africa would open the door to widespread racial and ethnic conflict or that elections would be little more than a 'racial/ethnic census'. After South Africa's third successful democratic election in 2004, ideas about the extent to which South African voters cast their votes on the basis of ascribed racial or ethnic identities remained controversial. This paper offers a new way to assess competing hypotheses about the micro-foundations of South African vote choice: by studying the correlates of a strategic voting behaviour, split-ticket voting, where voters vote for a different party nationally and provincially. This is accomplished by analysing data from a 1997 survey in which respondents participated in a 'mock election'. The results show that ascribed identities do certainly play a role in predicting strategic voting in South Africa but that they are far from being the only important predictors. This research shows that strategic voting in South Africa is driven at least as much by political sophistication and political ideology as by loyalty to any racial, ethnic, or regional identity. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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