Elections Activate Partisanship across Countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 248-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHANE P. SINGH ◽  
JUDD R. THORNTON
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Party Attachment ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

It has long been argued that elections amplify partisan predispositions. We take advantage of the timing of the cross-national post-election surveys included in the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems to explore the effects that elections have on individuals’ attachments to political parties. Within these surveys, under the assumption that the dates on which respondents are interviewed are assigned independent of factors known to affect partisanship, we are able to identify the causal effects of election salience on partisan attachments. We find strong evidence that election salience increases the probability of one having a party attachment, increases the strength of attachments, and heightens the relationship between partisanship and evaluations of political actors. Empirical explorations of our identifying assumption bolster its validity. Our results substantiate the causal role that elections play in activating partisanship.

Party Finance and Perceived Party Responsiveness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Costa Lobo ◽  
Isabella Razzuoli
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Important Implication ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
The State ◽  
State Funding ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter investigates an important implication of the cartel party thesis: that parties’ shift from society towards the state has eroded voters’ sense of political efficacy. More precisely, it explores whether and to what extent parties’ financial dependence on the state shapes electors’ feelings about the responsiveness of parties. The authors do this by linking PPDB (Political Party Database) information with the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) data. The results of their analysis show that the relationship between level of state funding of parties and citizens’ perceptions of party responsiveness is positive, though not strong. This is contrary to the theoretical expectations suggested by the cartel thesis, in that electors voting for parties more dependent on the state are not more likely to have low feelings of political efficacy.

scholarly journals Who Responds? Voters, Parties and Issue Attention

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 633-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Klüver ◽  
Jae-Jae Spoon
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
National Election ◽  
Niche Parties ◽  
Election Manifestos ◽  
Issue Attention ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Election Studies

Do parties listen to their voters? This article addresses this important question by moving beyond position congruence to explore whether parties respond to voters’ issue priorities. It argues that political parties respond to voters in their election manifestos, but that their responsiveness varies across different party types: namely, that large parties are more responsive to voters’ policy priorities, while government parties listen less to voters’ issue demands. The study also posits that niche parties are not generally more responsive to voter demands, but that they are more responsive to the concerns of their supporters in their owned issue areas. To test these theoretical expectations, the study combines data from the Comparative Manifestos Project with data on voters’ policy priorities from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and various national election studies across eighteen European democracies in sixty-three elections from 1972–2011. Our findings have important implications for understanding political representation and democratic linkage.

A Gender Gap in Party Congruence and Responsiveness?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-198
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ferland
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Gender Representation ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractCongruence and responsiveness between the policy preferences of citizens and elites are considered key characteristics of democracy. Although these relationships between citizens and elites have been thoroughly examined, little attention has been devoted to differences in the representation of women and men in studies of congruence and responsiveness. Herein, I evaluate the presence of a gender gap both in terms of party congruence and party responsiveness with respect to the relationship between female and male supporters and the party they voted for. In addition, I examine whether the presence of elected women in parties decreases the gender gap in party congruence and responsiveness. My analyses of the data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and several national elections studies indicate that parties are generally as close and as responsive to the preferences of male supporters as to those of female supporters on the left–right ideological scale. However, the presence of elected women in parties favors women's representation and may thus reduce inequality in gender representation.

The Effects of Compulsory Voting on Political Parties

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-166
Author(s):  
Shane P. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Multilevel Analyses ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
The Comparative Study

Chapter 7 test the expectations about compulsory voting’s effects on political parties. Analyses shown in the first part of the chapter leverage data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the original survey data from Argentina. The results are somewhat perfunctory but suggest that parties may expend less effort mobilizing turnout under strict obligatory voting, especially of ideological moderates. The latter portion of the chapter presents multilevel analyses of data from the Comparative Manifestos Project. As anticipated in Chapter 6, it finds that mainstream parties de-emphasize ideologically salient issues in order to moderate their stances under enforced compulsory voting. It also finds some evidence that, as predicted, non-mainstream parties take more extreme positions where voters are compelled to the polls.

From Party Politics to Personalized Politics?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Rahat ◽  
Ofer Kenig
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Party Change ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Party Decline ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

The book examines two of the most prominent developments in contemporary democratic politics, party change and political personalization, and the relationship between them. It presents a broad-brush, cross-national comparison of these phenomena that covers around fifty years in twenty-six countries through the use of more than twenty indicators. It demonstrates that, behind a general trend of decline of political parties, there is much variance among countries. In some, party decline is moderate or even small, which may point to adaptation to the changing environments these parties operate in. In others, parties sharply decline. Most cases fall between these two poles. A clear general trend of personalization in politics is identified, but there are large differences among countries in its magnitude and manifestations. Surprisingly, the online world seems to supply parties with an opportunity to revive. When parties decline, personalization increases. Yet these are far from being perfect zero-sum relationships, which leaves room for the possibility that other political actors may step in when parties decline and that, in some cases, personalization may not hurt parties; it may even strengthen them. Personalization is a big challenge to parties. But parties were, are, and will remain a solution to the problem of collective action, of channeling personal energies to the benefit of the group. Thus they can cope with personalization and even use it to their advantage.

Political Parties and Political Systems: The Concept of Linkage Revisited

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 808-810
Author(s):  
Robert MacDermid
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Alternative Organizations ◽  
Linkage Relationships

Political Parties and Political Systems: The Concept of Linkage Revisited, Andrea Römmele, David M. Farrell, Piero Ignazi, eds., Westport CN: Praeger/Greenwood, 2005, pp. x, 181.This is a book of nine short essays that develop and extend the ideas of linkage theory. The nature of the relationship between citizens and the state, through political parties and other organizations, has been a focus of study in a range of democratic regimes at least since de Tocqueville. Kay Lawson has dedicated a career to the study and classification of linkage relationships and to developing theories about how citizens and subjects are linked to the state. Lawson's best-known works included The Comparative Study of Political Parties (1976), Political Parties and Linkage: A Comparative Perspective (1980), When Parties Fail: Emerging Alternative Organizations (co-edited with Peter H. Merkl, 1988), and How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (1994).. This volume does not claim to be a festschrift but it celebrates, applies and extends her work.

scholarly journals Cross-National Surveys and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Karp ◽  
Jack Vowles
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Survey Research ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Cross National

This chapter examines the development of cross-national survey research in political science and the challenges that it brings. Cross-national surveys have proliferated across the globe and arguably now form one of the most important frontiers in the development of survey research in political science. Cross-national comparison allows researchers to investigate the importance of institutional and cultural contexts that shape public opinion and political behavior. The chapter traces the development of such instruments for the purposes of comparative analysis in political science, in the context of more general developments in polling and survey research. As an example, it focuses on the case of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), an international collaboration active since 1996, examining the development of the project and evaluating issues such as cross-cultural equivalence in questionnaire design, survey mode and response rates, and case selection.

scholarly journals Demokracja w recesji? Diagnozy i projekty naprawcze

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 81-102
Author(s):  
Irena Pańków
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Party Change ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Party Decline ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

Democracy in a recession? Diagnosis and repair projects The essay examines two of the most prominent developments in contemporary democratic politics, party change and political personalization, and the relationship between them. It presents a broad-brush, cross-national comparison of these phenomena that covers around fifty years in twenty-six countries through the use of more than twenty indicators. It demonstrates that, behind a general trend of decline of political parties, there is much variance among countries. In some, party decline is moderate or even small, which may point to adaptation to the changing environments these parties operate in. In others, parties sharply decline. Most cases fall between these two poles. A clear general trend of personalization in politics is identified, but there are large differences among countries in its magnitude and manifestations. Surprisingly, the online world seems to supply parties with an opportunity to revive. When parties decline, personalization increases. Yet these are far from being perfect zero-sum relationships, which leaves room for the possibility that other political actors may step in when parties decline and that, in some cases, personalization may not hurt parties; it may even strengthen them. Personalization is a big challenge to parties. But parties were, are, and will remain a solution to the problem of collective action, of channeling personal energies to the benefit of the group. Thus they can cope with personalization and even use it to their advantage.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Geslani
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Indian Religion

The introduction reviews the historiographic problem of the relation between fire sacrifice (yajña) and image worship (pūjā), which have traditionally been seen as opposing ritual structures serving to undergird the distinction of “Vedic” and “Hindu.” Against such an icono- and theocentric approach, it proposes a history of the priesthood in relation to royal power, centering on the relationship between the royal chaplain (purohita) and astrologer (sāṃvatsara) as a crucial, unexplored development in early Indian religion. In order to capture these historical developments, it outlines a method for the comparative study of ritual forms over time.

The New Progressive Dilemma through the Lens of Comparative Welfare State and Party Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Spies
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Attitudinal Change ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Expenditures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

The chapter summarizes the New Progressive Dilemma (NPD) debate, identifying three arguments from comparative welfare state and party research likely to be relevant to the relationship between immigration and welfare state retrenchment: public opinion, welfare institutions, and political parties. Alignment of anti-immigrant sentiments and welfare support varies considerably between countries, especially between the US and Europe, leading to different party incentives vis-à-vis welfare state retrenchment. The chapter introduces insights from comparative welfare state and party research to the debate, discussing inter alia, political parties in terms of welfare retrenchment, immigrants as a voter group, and cross-national variation of existing welfare institutions. It addresses the complex debates around attitudinal change caused by immigration, levels of welfare support, voting behavior, and social expenditures. Combining these strands of literature, a common theoretical framework is developed that is subsequently applied to both the US and Western European context.

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