What Voters Want:
Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Thailand
Dr Allen Hicken
Associate Professor of Political Science
Research Associate Professor at the Center for Political Studies, and
the Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Research Associate Professor at the Center for Political Studies, and
the Center for Southeast Asian Studies
University of Michigan
Date:17 November 2014 (Monday)
Time:4 pm – 5:30 pm
Venue:G5-131, AC1, City University of Hong Kong
Abstract
Two of the most prominent forces in current Thai politics are the monarchy and protest movements. Yet we know very little about how these two forces shape electoral politics and influence voter behavior. In this paper we present some of the results from a unique survey experiment conducted in the days prior to the 2011 election. We seek to answer the following questions. Do appeals to the monarchy by candidates help their electoral chances? Is invoking the monarchy a winning electoral strategy? Does this differ by party, or by region? We also examine how candidates association with either the yellow or red shirt protests affects voter evaluation of those candidates.
Short Bio
Allen Hicken is Associate Professor of Political Science, a Research Associate Professor at the Center for Political Studies, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan. He studies political parties, institutions, political economy, and policy making in developing countries, with a focus on Southeast Asia. He has carried out research in Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Cambodia and is the author of a book on parties and elections in Thailand and the Philippines, entitled, Building Party Systems in Developing Democracies, by Cambridge University Press. He is the editor of Politics of Modern Southeast Asia: Critical Issues in Modern Politics, (Routledge) and coeditor of Party and Party System Institutionalization in Asia (Cambridge). His articles have appeared in American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of East Asian Studies, Asian Survey, and Electoral Studies. He is currently a Fulbright Research Fellow and Visiting Researcher at Thammasat University in Thailand.
