Party-leader effects in Norway: A multi-methods approach

Recent research has failed to establish clear results on party leader effects. Strong effects on party popularity and support in PR systems has not been documented, while they do appear in majority systems. The mixed and even negative finding for PR systems may be linked to the methodology used in previous studies. In this article we use both a short-term panel from the 2001 Norwegian election survey and an experimental study conducted during the 2001 campaign. We find support for the existence of modest but robust effects of party leader popularity. The effects are limited to the most popular leaders and the moderately politically interested segment of the audience.