Authors

Andreea Stancea¹; Aurelian Muntean¹;  ¹ National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Romania

Discussion

The importance of economic conditions on election outcomes is well established. This paper supplements the standard approach to economic voting by assessing government support from a highly debated perspective of European space: Core countries and Periphery countries (Central Eastern European and Southern countries). The paper reveals that the economic conditions perceived by voters in the future are expected to differently affect incumbent government support at the country, NUTS1, and NUTS2 levels. This paper finds that, contrary to Core countries' electors, voters in periphery countries are keener to support the incumbent governments if the economic outputs are positive. This paper concludes that positive economic expectations are strongly and positively associated with incumbent government support, regardless of previous vote choice, while negative economic expectations are strongly and negatively associated with government support. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that the level of party attachment or the ideological orientation of electors does not have a stronger influence on incumbent government support than economic expectations do.