Sincere or Strategic Voting
When you cast your vote, which side are you on?
Many individuals want to use the opportunity to have a say in the course of the country in elections, which are the basic building block of democracy. We know very well from election periods that many of us are surrounded by people who take action with the belief that their vote will change the outcome of the election, which is called pivotal in economics. The approach voters use during the voting process is one of the important factors affecting the outcome of the election. In this context, the concepts of strategic and sincere voting come to the fore.
Sincere Voting
In this voting model, voters ideally vote directly for the candidate or party they support, in other words, their favorite and preferred candidate. People who vote sincerely for the candidate who matches their own ideas, ideology and values, so what is important here is that they reflect their heart's choice at the ballot box.
Strategic Voting
Let's consider an example to better understand this concept. Let's assume there are 3 candidates, A, B and C, and you will vote for one of them. In fact, it means that while candidate A is the candidate you find most suitable, you vote for candidate B because his chance of winning is lower than candidate B and because you do not like candidate C at all (in other words, to prevent him from winning). In other words, in this way of voting, voters tend to vote for the candidate with a higher winning potential, rather than the candidate they directly support.
When elections are held in more than one round, as in the case of the presidential election, people may vote sincerely in the first round because they believe that the election will always go to the second round and that this will give them an advantage over other candidates. However, in single-round elections, such as the municipal elections held in Turkey, people tend to vote more strategically. He/she may want to vote for the candidate he finds close to him without thinking about anything else.
If you would like to get more information on this subject, you can take a look at Fujiwara's article in the link below.
https://www.princeton.edu/~fujiwara/papers/duverger_site.pdf
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Cover Photo: https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/first_among_equals