CSES Module 3: 2006-2011

CSES Module 3 focused on voters’ perceptions of, assessments of, and responses to the variety and quality of political choices in an election. The module asks to what degree political systems provide contestation between meaningful alternatives and how integrative is the structure of electoral competition. Voters’ understanding of the set of electoral choices they face is a central concern. The module enables scholars to ask how voters distinguish the parties, how contextual conditions enhance the degree to and ease with which they can make these distinctions, and the relative weights of different kinds of distinctions in shaping voting behavior in those varying contexts.