Poverty Attributions and Voting Choices in the 2023 Swiss National Elections

Abstract Is poverty a relevant issue for Swiss electoral politics and political behavior? In this paper we answer that question by showing that citizens’ agreement with different causal attributions of poverty matters for their voting decisions. Of highest relevance is the difference between an “individual blame” explanation (i.e., the poor are lazy) and a “social blame” explanation (i.e., poverty arises from social injustice), which has various consequences for voting in favor of left, centrist, liberal, and radical right parties. Using data from the 2023 Selects panel survey, we show that poverty attributions are robustly associated with voting, and that these associations tend to be larger among more knowledgeable and involved voters. Finally, we show important nuances within the right camp, as social blame is negatively associated with voting for the Liberal Party, but not with voting for radical right parties.