The Impact of Leaders in Parliamentary and Presidential Regimes

Leaders have become the human face of election campaigns, while electorates have become dealigned. This has led to the suggestion that in parliamentary elections many voters now vote for the party leader they like best in much the same way that in presidential elections they vote for the candidate they like best. This chapter uses Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) project data to assess whether there is any systematic evidence to support this expectation for either all or some parliamentary elections. While leadership evaluations are relatively more important in parliamentary elections that take place where a two-party system is in place, and where a majoritarian electoral system is used, they are still far less important than they are in presidential contests.