The matrix aims at creating a typology of the four dominant categories of voting in democratic systems. It derives from a comparative diachronic analysis of electoral behaviors. Three of these types have been mainstream reference in the literature: the ideological vote, the issue vote, and the exchange vote (Parisi and Pasquino 1977). The fourth category - the populist/charismatic vote - can be seen as the emerging feature of electoral behavior in many Western - and non-Western - countries. The ULQ describes mass parties or integration parties, which yield a sense of identification and loyalty toward the party through ideological socialization. In the LLQ, the concept of policy refers to all the public policies that a given party wants to implement, after winning the election. The type of vote which arises from this quadrant is "opinion voting" or "issue voting" based on a rational evaluation of policy alternatives in the parties' manifestos. The LRQ refers to "exchange vote" (give-and-take vote). Party leaders, as well as individual candidates, stipulate informal agreements to provide benefits in exchange for votes, often through clientelist networks. Last, the URQ refers to the populist or charismatic vote. The personalization of politics, favored by widespread use of television and new media, has been mainly a consequence of the "end of ideologies" and the crisis of the mass party, often leading to the rise of "personal parties" (Calise 2000). This new type of voting is, then, based on a new kind of identification, no longer with the party but with the leaders.
Luigi Di Gregorio