Winning with equality: how left-wing parties attract votes but amplify electoral cleavages

Abstract:

Rising awareness about equal rights has opened a debate whether parties can balance emphasising both economic equality and equal rights as a successful electoral strategy. Using a novel dataset of 47,439 crowd-coded party manifesto statements and national election surveys from six countries (1970-2019) that allow us to analyze the electoral consequences of emphasising economic equality and equal rights, we examine how distinct equality concepts have affected party competition in Western democracies. Focusing on the electoral dynamics between center-left and postmaterialist left parties, we find that center-left parties benefit from incorporating both economic equality and equal rights in their platforms, whereas postmaterialist left parties gain support primarily by emphasising equal rights. Our analysis indicates that while such electoral strategies are successful, they exacerbate societal divisions. We contribute to the understanding of party competition, highlighting the intricate balance between economic equality and equal rights in the electoral strategies of left-wing parties.