Staff Profiles

Books

• Wheatley J, The changing shape of politics: Rethinking left and right in a new Britain, Palgrave Pivot (2019)
  ISBN: 9783030039394 eISBN: 9783030039400
  Abstract

  This book investigates whether politics in Britain in the twenty-first century is driven more by issues of culture and identity than by “left versus right” issues of wealth distribution. Drawing from a number of opinion surveys, it explores the shifting positions of voters on both economic matters and matters of culture and identity. It finds that between 2015 and 2017 support for Britain's main political parties became much more predicated on issues of culture and identity, reflecting a radical change in how parties attract voters. In the longer-term, it suggests that issues of culture and identity have become more salient overall, possibly because of the oft-cited divide between winners and losers of globalisation. The book ends by speculating on why politics has become more polarised on these issues, rather than on the economic fallout of globalisation, and suggests that an explanation is to be found in changing forms of political communication between voters and politicians.
  

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• Wheatley, J, Georgia from national awakening to Rose Revolution: delayed transition in the former Soviet Union [ebook], Routledge (2017)
  ISBN: 9781138259164 eISBN: 9781351933896
  Abstract https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351933896
• Wheatley J, Mendez F, Ed., Patterns of Constitutional Design: The Role of Citizens and Elites in Constitution-making, Ashgate (2013)
  ISBN: 9781409460886 eISBN: 9781409460893
  Abstract https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317083054
  To what extent does the constitution-making process matter? By focusing on three central aspects of constitution-making; the nature of the constitution-making body, how it reaches decisions and the way in which a new constitution is legitimized and by examining a wide range of case studies, this international collection from expert contributors provides answers to this crucial question. Bridging the gap between law and political science this book draws together divergent research on the role of constitution making in conflict resolution, constitutional law and democratization and employs a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to unfold and explore the political frameworks of the states affected. Comparative analysis is used to investigate potential causal chains between constitution-making processes and their outcomes in terms of stability, conflict resolution and democracy. By focusing on both procedure and context, the book explores the impact of constitution-making procedures in new and established states and unions in Europe, South America and Africa.

Journal articles

• Wheatley JM, 'The politics of culture and identity in post-communist states: A new political cleavage in Georgia?'
  Europe-Asia Studies x (2020)
  ISSN: 0966-8136
  Abstract

  The role of ideology in political competition in the former Soviet Union is under researched. This paper uses public opinion data to identify and investigate patterns of political competition in Georgia. I find voters’ preferences on a range of issues to be underpinned by a latent cultural dimension of political ideology that concerns how citizens view the relationship between the Georgian nation and the rest of the world. I go on to present evidence that this dimension is, at least to some extent, both embedded in social structure and reflected in voting patterns. 
  

  Website 
• Wheatley J, Mendez F, 'Reconceptualising dimensions of political competition in Europe: A demand side approach'
  British Journal of Political Science 51 (1) (2019) pp.40-59
  ISSN: 0007-1234 eISSN: 1469-2112
  Abstract

  Scholars seeking to understand political competition in Europe have proposed various models of political dimensionality. While most scholars draw on data from the supply side of politics (political parties), demand side (voter) studies remain few. In this paper we compare the two approaches. The main difference is that while supply side approaches suggest a single model of dimensionality that can be applied to all EU countries, demand side approaches suggest a greater degree of divergence. In particular, the bundle of issues commonly identified by supply side studies as TAN/GAL not only fail to form a coherent dimension when viewed from a demand side perspective, but incorporate issues of EU integration in some (northern European) cases, but not in others.

  
  
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• Gemenis, K, Mendez F, Wheatley J, 'Helping Citizens to Locate Political Parties in the Policy Space: a Dataset for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament'
  Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences 4 (1) (2019) pp.13-26
  ISSN: 2452-3666
  Abstract

  The authors present a dataset that contains the positions of 231 political parties across 28 countries on 30 policy issues that were considered salient for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament. The party position estimates were originally used in a voter information tool which compared the policy preferences of citizens to those of political parties. The paper discusses the estimation method in the context of the literature on estimating party positions, outlines the coding methodology, and introduces the value of the dataset for third-party users interested in studying political participation and representation.

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• Garry J, Tilly J, Matthews N, Mendez F, Wheatley J, 'Does receiving advice from Voter Advice Applications (VAAs) affect public opinion in deeply divided societies? Evidence from a field experiment in Northern Ireland'
  Party Politics 25 (6) (2018) pp.854-861
  ISSN: 1354-0688 eISSN: 1460-3683
  Abstract

  Despite the global growth in the use of Voter Advice Applications (VAAs), which advise users on how similar their own policy views are to the policy positions of the political parties, there have been few field experiments that isolate the causal effects of VAA use on party support. Nor has there been much investigation of how VAAs may help to ameliorate ethnically based voting divisions by refocusing voter attention on other issues. This article draws on evidence from a field experiment in the deeply divided context of Northern Ireland. We find that at the individual level party preferences are somewhat more closely related to voter ideology after the provision of advice. Yet, at the aggregate level, we find no evidence that advice leads to weaker ethno-national structuring of party support. These results suggest that while receiving advice from VAAs has some impact on users’ party preferences, there is no observable overall impact on support levels for the ethno-national blocs in Northern Ireland.
  

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• Garry J, Matthews N, Wheatley J, 'Dimensionality of Policy Space in Consociational Northern Ireland'
  Political Studies 65 (2) (2017) pp.493-511
  ISSN: 0032-3217 eISSN: 1467-9248
  Abstract A criticism of consociational power sharing as an institutional response to violent conflict is that it buttresses rather than ameliorates the underlying (linguistic, religious or ethno-national) divide, hence prohibiting the emergence of new dimensions of political competition (such as economic left-right or moral liberal-conservative dimensions) that are characteristic of 'normal' societies. We test this argument in the context of the illustrative Northern Ireland case, using data from expert coding of party policy documents and opinion data derived from two Voter Advice Applications (VAAs). We find evidence for a moral liberal-conservative dimension of politics in addition to the ethno-national dimension. Hence, we caution against assuming that consociational polities are uni-dimensional.
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• Wheatley J, 'Cleavage Structures and Dimensions of Ideology in English Politics: Evidence From Voting Advice Application Data'
  Policy and Internet 8 (4) (2016) pp.457-477
  ISSN: 1944-2866 eISSN: 1944-2866
  Abstract The Left–Right dimension is the most common way of conceptualizing ideological difference. It is based on the traditional cleavage in society between capital and labor. But in an ever more globalized world, are the concepts of Left and Right as relevant today as they were half a century ago? Following Kriesi et al. (2006) this article argues that the cleavage that exists in many European societies between “winners” and “losers” of globalization has engendered a new ideological dimension that pits “cosmopolitans” against “communitarians” and that draws on cultural issues relating to identity, rather than economic issues. This argument is tested by identifying latent dimensions from opinion data generated by two Voting Advice Applications deployed in England in 2014 and 2015 and by mapping the positions of party supporters with respect to these dimensions. It is found that in England the political space is defined by two main ideological dimensions: an economic Left–Right dimension and a cultural communitarian–cosmopolitan dimension. Finally, supporters of the newly formed United Kingdom Independence Party are found to be located near the communitarian pole of the cultural dimension.Website 
• Wheatley J, 'Restructuring the policy space in England: The end of the Left–Right paradigm?'
  British Politics 10 (3) (2015) pp.268-285
  ISSN: 1746-918X eISSN: 1746-9198
  Abstract Political scientists often talk about ‘ideological dimensions’ that aggregate related policy issues into a single latent construct. Applying factor analysis and Mokken Scale Analysis to opinion data generated from a Voting Advice Application deployed in England in the run-up to the European parliamentary elections, I show how individual issues may be aggregated into two principal dimensions: an economic dimension that separates Left and Right in terms of the economy and a cultural communitarian–cosmopolitan dimension. I also identify a third (libertarian–authoritarian) dimension, but this appears to aggregate very few issues. By positioning party supporters on a two-dimensional map defined by the two principal dimensions, I show that United Kingdom Independence Party supporters are situated very near the ‘communitarian’ pole of the cultural communitarian–cosmopolitan dimension. Finally, I show that overall, the communitarian–cosmopolitan dimension forms a rather more coherent scale than the Left–Right dimension and this tendency is even more marked among younger voters and voters with little interest in politics. Overall, this would appear to show that the notion of (economic) Left and Right is losing its salience in English politics.Website 
• Wheatley J, 'Identifying Latent Policy Dimensions from Public Opinion Data: An Inductive Approach'
  Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 25 (2) (2014) pp.215-233
  ISSN: 1745-7289 eISSN: 1745-7297
  Abstract A common way of classifying policy dimensions is by means of a two-dimensional model, based on one economic (Left/Right) dimension and one liberal–conservative dimension that Marks et al. (2006) refer to as Tan/Gal. However, as Lipet and Rokkan (1967) note, voter alignments developed in different ways in different European countries, so the dimensions that define the respective policy spaces may vary from country to country. In this paper, I test the two-dimensional model on opinion data from four European territories using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and go on to develop alternative “better fit” models using a combination of exploratory factor analysis and CFA. I find that the two-dimensional model is appropriate in some but not all the cases and suggest that a more context-sensitive approach is needed to identify the dimensionality of the policy space.Website 
• Wheatley J, Carman C, Mendez F, Mitchell, J, 'The dimensionality of the Scottish political space: Results from an experiment on the 2011 Holyrood elections'
  Party Politics 20 (6) (2014) pp.864-878
  ISSN: 1354-0688 eISSN: 1460-3683
  Abstract This article introduces Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) as a data-generating tool that can be used to measure the positions of party supporters in multidimensional policy space. It begins with an overview of the state of the art as regards methods for locating parties on a common policy space, in terms of how data are gathered and also in terms of how policy dimensions are identified and measured. We then use a dimension reduction technique to identify latent policy dimensions from a dataset obtained from a VAA carried out in Scotland in 2011. These dimensions are used to map the policy positions of supporters of five Scottish political parties. We argue that this tool allows more leverage on understanding the relative locations of parties ‘in the electorate’ in multidimensional policy space.Website 

Book chapters

• Wheatley J, 'A Problem or a Solution? The Referendum as a Mechanism for Citizens’ Participation in Constitution Making' in Ruth SP, Welp Y, Whitehead, L (ed.), Let the People Rule? Direct Democracy in the Twenty-First Century, ECPR Press (2016)
  ISBN: 9781785522574
  Website