¶ … partisanship has on the vote choice of individuals during an election. For purposes of this study, the term partisanship will be defined as an individual having either a personal or professional commitment to a particular political party, faction, cause, or person. This definition of the term is meant to distinguish it from the term vote choice, which can be defined as the decision an individual makes when determining which candidate is worth choosing during an election and which can usually, but not necessarily always, be affected by partisan views.
The two terms of partisanship and vote choice could be measured in the following way. Partisanship could be measured by asking respondents the following question in the survey: Which political party do you belong to? This would be followed by the listing of four choices which are: Democrat, Republican, Independent, and Neither. In order to measure the term vote choice, respondents would be asked about which presidential candidate they voted for during the 2004 national elections.
The reason why this measurement instrument is a valid measure of partisanship is because it possesses face validity. This means that the instrument, which in this case is the question regarding political party affiliation, is able to measure the concept, which in this case is the term partisanship, that it is meant for. This is because the question is directly related to the concept's meaning which states that partisanship involves commitment to, among other things, a particular political party. A second reason why this instrument can be used towards measuring the concept of partisanship is because it also possesses construct validity.
The two concepts known as partisanship and vote choice are indeed related to one another by way of it being understood that partisanship often influences the way individuals make their choices during elections. Both the measures of each of the two concepts can be found to also be related to each other by way of the fact that the measure involving political party affiliation can serve as an indicator towards demonstrating how voters made their choices during an election.
One particular hypothesis that could be studied here is one that states that individuals who possess strong partisan ties to a certain political party will be most likely to vote for the candidates from their parties, even if they do not necessarily agree with all the candidate's positions on different issues.
You’re 80% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.