Coalition as a heuristic: voters’ perceptions of party positions in presidential multiparty democracies

Presidential democracies with multiparty systems are often characterized as challenging settings for voters to accurately place parties according to their ideological positions. In this study, we examine the role of coalitions as a heuristic tool in aiding this process. We argue that the central role of the president in coalition formation and operation, combined with the higher complexity of party systems, makes coalition information in these democracies more accessible and understandable primarily among sophisticated voters. Testing our hypotheses with data from three presidential multi-party democracies, we find that, as expected, sophisticated voters are more likely than less sophisticated voters to perceive parties in coalition with the president's party as ideologically closer to the party of the president. These findings challenge the common portrayal of voter perceptions of parties in these systems as lacking ideological clarity and coherence, and they enhance our understanding of how coalition governments influence these perceptions across different democratic contexts and levels of voter sophistication.