caa a22 4500 386343462 CHVBK 20180307111803.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198903 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/1956436 doi S0003055400082277 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/1956436 A Directional Theory of Issue Voting [Elektronische Daten] From Stokes's (1963) early critique on, it has been clear to empirical researchers that the traditional spatial theory of elections is seriously flawed. Yet fully a quarter century later, that theory remains the dominant paradigm for understanding mass-elite linkage in politics. We present an alternative spatial theory of elections that we argue has greater empirical verisimilitude. Based on the ideas of symbolic politics, the directional theory assumes that most people have a diffuse preference for a certain direction of policy-making and that people vary in the intensity with which they hold those preferences. We test the two competing theories at the individual level with National Election Study data and find the directional theory more strongly supported than the traditional spatial theory. We then develop the implications of the directional theory for candidate behavior and assess the predictions in light of evidence from the U.S. Congress. Copyright © American Political Science Association 1989 Rabinowitz George University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Macdonald Stuart Elaine University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 83/1(1989-03), 93-121 0003-0554 83:1<93 1989 83 PSR https://doi.org/10.2307/1956436 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/1956436 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rabinowitz George University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Macdonald Stuart Elaine University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 83/1(1989-03), 93-121 0003-0554 83:1<93 1989 83 PSR CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge