How preferential voting and party ideology shape campaign-focus in proportional electoral systems
2026-08-31
While electoral systems shape candidates’ incentives to cultivate personal reputations, institutional rules do not translate mechanically into campaign behaviour. We argue that both electoral institutions and ideological traditions shape campaign strategies: ideological traditions influence both the attractiveness of candidate-centred appeals and how strongly candidates respond to institutional incentives. We present the first large cross-national test of their joint influence, using data from 37 elections in 16 countries under proportional representation. We show that candidate-centred campaigning is more prevalent in open list systems, but that this institutional effect is not uniform. Candidates from leftleaning parties are more party-centred, and the personalising effect of open lists is weaker among them than among candidates from right leaning parties. These findings show that the consequences of electoral reform depend on the normative and strategic contexts in which parties operate.