Mobilizing party activism: A field experiment with party members and sympathizers

Electoral mobilization and persuasion are often characterized as two-stage processes, where parties activate their core supporters, who then mobilize persuade larger shares of the electorate. While there is a lot research on second stage this process, wider electorate by party activists, little causally identified evidence whether elites can encourage campaign activism among members sympathizers. To address question, we conducted randomized field experiment in cooperation with Swiss Social Democratic Party context 2015 cantonal elections Ticino. The consisted administration telephone calls to strong supporters party, while self-reported attitudes towards were measured two-wave online panel survey. Against expectations, record null effects various measures activism, including relatives, friends. results raise questions about omitted variable bias observational studies that consistently report large positive contact