Intra-party ideological heterogeneity: Are candidates agents of their parties?

Party cohesion is a necessary condition for parties functioning as a mechanism of democratic accountability. However, if candidates represent a wide range of policy views, the concept of programmatic party representation may be weakened. This work analyses the extent to which candidates may be considered agents of their parties by focusing on the degree of intra-party ideological heterogeneity, i.e., the extent to which candidates’ preferences diverge from the party line. In particular, we focus on the features that may account for variations in candidates’ accountability to their own party by examining the effects of electoral rules, candidates’ selection methods and electoral vulnerability. To assess our theoretical claims, we use data from the Comparative Candidates Survey. Overall, we find that candidate pools show a remarkable degree of policy preferences’ homogeneity. Our results also show that different voting systems encourage candidates to distinguish themselves ideologically or, alternatively, to stick to the party line.