filiation in voting behavior.
The spatial theory indicates that people vote the way they do because a particular candidate or issue shares the same "point in space" as their personal opinion (Rabinowitz & Macdonald, 1989, p. 93). Rabinowitz & Macdonald have supplemented this perspective with their "directional theory" of voting behavior. This theory holds that people have diffuse (as opposed to specific) preferences for a certain direction in policy-making and that they vary in the intensity to which they hold those preferences (p. 93). Thus, again, support is given for the view that people vote the way they do because they perceive their choices to be in alignment with their pre-established views.
Bowler (1990) has indicated that party affiliation is an important aspect in voting decisions. In particular, voters appear to have an aversion to "movement" or position changes among the candidates of their chosen party. This is a condition that Bowler refers to as being "uncertainty averse" (p. 63). Brown & Woods (1991) have taken these various theories a step further and have developed a comprehensive theory which takes both national and local influences into account. According to these researchers, national forces (such as partisanship and presidential evaluation) must be combined with local events (such as comparative evaluation of candidates) in order to arrive at a full picture of voting behavior. Thus, Brown & Woods consider party affiliation to be an important factor; yet, it is just one of many factors involved in a mixture of influences.
A somewhat different point of view on the issue is provided by McAllister & Studlar (1991). These authors argue for the effect of opinion polls in influencing voting
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