ABSTRACT
Spanish political parties opt whether or not to form alliances with other parties for a number of reasons, one of which is the coalition preferences of their voters. This work explores to what extent party preferences and ideological proximity on the two main dimensions of political competition in Spain affect voters' coalition preferences. Using survey data from 2009, we find that voters' coalition preferences are greatly affected hyideological proximity, especially on the left-right axis, whereas decentralisation preferences are much more salient for the supporters of regionalist parties. However, this general pattern varies depending on the coalition being assessed.
