Inside the party’s mind: why and how parties are strategically unresponsive to their voters’ preferences

Research shows that parties are not always responsive to their voters’ preferences. Our understanding about why and how parties sometimes intentionally cross their voters' preferences predominantly stems from theoretical accounts of party behaviour and observational studies that try to deduce considerations and strategies from party behaviour. This study aims to add novel, direct insights to this literature by interviewing nineteen party leaders and ministers in Belgium to see what argumentations they spontaneously come up with when asked to reflect on party decisions they intentionally took against the will of their voters. Reflecting on why and how they took these initiatives, we add to the literature on party responsiveness (identifying four reasons why parties ignore their voters’ preferences) and blame avoidance strategies (identifying the role of anticipated electoral sanctions and different strategies parties invoke to contain these potential losses). In short, the current study identifies the conditions under which parties deliberately pursue ideas that are not endorsed by their voters by means of in-depth interviews with key party decision-makers.