La decisión del elector:

Partidismo, racionalidad-economía y estructura social

Abstract

In this study we raise the need to analyse, from an all-embracing perspective, the decision of
voters. Up until now, the theory of electoral conduct offered partial explanations of how voters
position their final decision: party identification, rationalist view and the approaches raised by
the social structure.
Our aim is to specify a function of voting that contains these three approaches. In order to
do this, we must assume that voters can choose between a set of political options, and that the
decision observed reveals which is the alternative that proves to be most useful. Since there are
more than two parties, we are obliged to propose a multiple, discrete choice model. In accordance
with available information, we have specified a multinomial logit model.
Starting out from estimated voting functions, we have drawn up a decalogue of the vote in
Spanish democracy, with a view to synthesizing the principal features that have characterized the
electoral conduct of Spaniards throughout this period.