Voters objecive´s and the incumbent's accountability in 1993 Spanish national elections

Abstract

In this paper, it is argued that elections per se do not guarantee the accountability of governments to citizens. An argument is put forward according to which, when citizens display a negative identification with the challenger, governments may avoid to be accountable to citizens by means of herestitical maneuvers. In order to illustrate the argument, an especially relevant test case is analyzed: the 1993 Spanish National Elections. More specifically, the empirical analysis consists of the study of the electoral behavior of a group of voters who, in spite of their negative evaluation of the government performance, and however their initial declared voting intention, they finally voted for the party in office. The empirical results show how the government avoided to be accountable by means of herestetical maneuvers.