Replication Data for: The Informational Role of Party Leader Changes on Voter Perceptions of Party Positions

According to spatial models of elections, citizen perceptions of party policy positions are a key determinant of voting choices. Yet recent scholarship from Europe suggests that voters do not adjust their perceptions to what parties advocate in their campaigns. We argue that voters develop a more accurate understanding of parties’ ideological position following a leadership change, and that is because a new leader increases the credibility of party policy offerings. Focusing on Western European parties in the 1979-2012 period, we show that having a new leader is a necessary condition for voters to more accurately perceive the left-right placements of opposition parties. For incumbent parties, on the other hand, voters do not use party platforms to form perceptions of party positions, regardless of whether the leader is new or veteran. Our results have important implications for models of party competition and democratic representation.