Balancing Political and Religious Allegiance: Impact of Political Cross-Pressures on Kenya’s 2010 Constitutional Referendum
Abstract
How do voters behave when their preferred political parties and equally trusted social
cleavages present them with diametrically opposed electoral choices?
Do they
adopt
the
choice
offered
by
the
party, or th
at offered
by th
e
social cleavage,
or do they
remain neutral
?
Cross
pressure studies typically evade these questions by assuming that political parties form on the
basis of, and therefore reflect rather than compete with,
dominant social cleavages. Yet, during
Kenya’s 2010 national constitutional referendum, the
mainstream churches
entered into direct
contest with
major
political parties by
urging voters to oppose the proposed new constitution,
against the latter’s campaig
n for its adoption.
This study focuses on
the
cross
pressure
generated by
this referendum,
and finds that such
political cross
pressures reduce the
likelihood of political participation and promotes voter attitudinal ambivalence
URI
http://profiles.uonbi.ac.ke/patrick_asingo/publications/balancing-political-and-religious-allegiance-impact-political-cross-preshttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/45069
Citation
Asingo, PO. Submitted. Balancing Political and Religious Allegiance: Impact of Political Cross-Pressures on Kenya’s 2010 Constitutional Referendum. Hekima Journal .Publisher
University of Nairobi, Department of political science