When voters with high political knowledge change their votes, it is usually to ideologically similar parties

Electoral volatility has been much discussed of late, with the rise of small parties leading to switches from across the political spectrum. While much research has taken place into the extent of vote switching, rather less has taken place into the ideological ‘distance’ between the parties that are switched between. Ruth Dassonneville and Yves Dejaeghere have done so, and found that voters with a higher level of political knowledge and sophistication switch to parties with a similar ideological profile to the ones they desert.