The 2020 regional elections in Italy: sub-national politics in the year of the pandemic

Abstract This article examines the differences between Russian voting at federal elections and regional legislature elections, both combined and conducted independently. The authors analyse these differences, their character and their dynamics as an important characteristic of the nationalisation of the party system. They also test hypotheses about a higher level of oppositional voting and competitiveness in subnational elections, in accordance with the theory of second-order elections, as well as the strategic nature of voting at federal elections, by contrast with expressive voting during subnational campaigns. The empirical study is based on calculating the differences in votes for leading Russian parties at subnational elections and at federal elections (simultaneous, preceding and following) from 2003, when mandatory voting on party lists was widespread among the regions, to 2019. The level of competitiveness is measured in a similar way, by calculating the effective number of parties. The study indicates a low level of autonomy of regional party systems, in many ways caused by the fact that the law made it impossible to create regional parties, and then also by the 2005 ban on creation of regional blocs. The strong connection between federal and regional elections in Russia clearly underlines the fluid and asynchronic nature of its electoral dynamics, where subnational elections typically predetermine the results of the following federal campaigns. At the same time, the formal success of the nationalisation of the party system, achieved by increasing the homogeneity of voting at the 2016 and 2018 federal elections, is not reflected by the opposing process of desynchronisation between federal and regional elections after Putin’s third-term election. There is also a clear rise in the scale of the differences between the two. At the same time, the study demonstrates the potential presence in Russia of features common to subnational elections in many countries: their greater support for the opposition and presence of affective voting. However, there is a clear exception to this trend during the period of maximum mobilisation of the loyal electorate at the subnational elections immediately following the accession of Crimea in 2014–2015, and such tendencies are generally restrained by the conditions of electoral authoritarianism.

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Elezioni in Italia - Regionali 2010: cambia la cornice del voto, il centrodestra conquista posizioni di governo, alla prova del territorio il "sistema 2008" scricchiola

Quaderni dell'Osservatorio elettorale QOE - IJES ◽

10.36253/qoe-9723 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 64 (2) ◽

pp. 141-162

Author(s):

Aldo Di Virgilio

Keyword(s):

Regional Elections

Review of Italian elections - Regional elections of 2010 Calendario, offerta, regole di voto: elezioni regionali diverse dalle altreLa partecipazione: si vota molto meno e con un voto un po' meno personalizzatoLa competizione per il governo: vince il centro-destra, la capacità di attrazione degli eletti è in caloIl voto ai partiti e gli equilibri all'interno delle coalizioni

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Educating Monks

10.21313/hawaii/9780824866488.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Thomas A. Borchert

Keyword(s):

High Schools ◽

Southeast Asia ◽

Minority Group ◽

Junior High Schools ◽

Educational Institutions ◽

The Political ◽

Theravada Buddhism ◽

National Politics ◽

Reform Era ◽

And Training

Educating Monks examines the education and training of novices and young Buddhist monks of a Tai minority group on China’s Southwest border. The Buddhists of this region, the Dai-lue, are Chinese citizens but practice Theravada Buddhism and have long-standing ties to the Theravāda communities of Southeast Asia. The book shows how Dai-lue Buddhists train their young men in village temples, monastic junior high schools and in transnational monastic educational institutions, as well as the political context of redeveloping Buddhism during the Reform era in China. While the book focuses on the educational settings in which these young boys are trained, it also argues that in order to understand how a monk is made, it is necessary to examine local agenda, national politics and transnational Buddhist networks.

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Urbanicity, City Delegations, and Two-Dimensional Liberalism

10.1093/oso/9780190668877.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas K. Ogorzalek

Keyword(s):

National Level ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Political Order ◽

Two Dimensional ◽

Local Institutions ◽

Horizontal Integration ◽

National Politics ◽

United Front ◽

Strategies For Success

This theoretical chapter develops the argument that the conditions of cities—large, densely populated, heterogeneous communities—generate distinctive governance demands supporting (1) market interventions and (2) group pluralism. Together, these positions constitute the two dimensions of progressive liberalism. Because of the nature of federalism, such policies are often best pursued at higher levels of government, which means that cities must present a united front in support of city-friendly politics. Such unity is far from assured on the national level, however, because of deep divisions between and within cities that undermine cohesive representation. Strategies for success are enhanced by local institutions of horizontal integration developed to address the governance demands of urbanicity, the effects of which are felt both locally and nationally in the development of cohesive city delegations and a unified urban political order capable of contending with other interests and geographical constituencies in national politics.

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The Cities on the Hill

10.1093/oso/9780190668877.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Thomas K. Ogorzalek

Keyword(s):

Civil Rights ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Political Order ◽

Social Difference ◽

National Politics ◽

Wide Range ◽

Invaluable Tool ◽

Urban Rural ◽

The Hill ◽

The New Deal

Recent electoral cycles have drawn attention to an urban–rural divide at the heart of American politics. This book traces the origins of red and blue America. The urbanicity divide began with the creation of an urban political order that united leaders from major cities and changed the Democratic Party during the New Deal era. These cities, despite being the site of serious, complex conflicts at home, are remarkably cohesive in national politics because members of city delegations represent their city as well as their district. Even though their constituents often don’t see eye-to-eye on important issues, members of these city delegations represent a united city position known as progressive liberalism. Using a wide range of congressional evidence and a unique dataset measuring the urbanicity of U.S. House districts over time, this book argues that city cohesion, an invaluable tool used by cities to address their urgent governance needs through higher levels of government, is fostered by local institutions developed to provide local political order. Crucially, these integrative institutions also helped foster the development of civil rights liberalism by linking constituencies that were not natural allies in support of group pluralism and racial equality. This in turn led to the departure from the coalition of the Southern Democrats, and to our contemporary political environment. The urban combination of diversity and liberalism—supported by institutions that make allies out of rivals—teaches us lessons for governing in a world increasingly characterized by deep social difference and political fragmentation.

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Euroscepticism and the Future of European Integration

10.1093/oso/9780198793380.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 105

Author(s):

Catherine E. De Vries

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

European Integration ◽

Public Support ◽

The European Union ◽

Political Systems ◽

National Politics ◽

Public Preferences ◽

Novel Theory ◽

The Eu

The European Union (EU) is facing one of the rockiest periods in its existence. At no time in its history has it looked so economically fragile, so insecure about how to protect its borders, so divided over how to tackle the crisis of legitimacy facing its institutions, and so under assault by Eurosceptic parties. The unprecedented levels of integration in recent decades have led to increased public contestation, yet at the same the EU is more reliant on public support for its continued legitimacy than ever before. This book examines the role of public opinion in the European integration process. It develops a novel theory of public opinion that stresses the deep interconnectedness between people’s views about European and national politics. It suggests that public opinion cannot simply be characterized as either Eurosceptic or not, but rather that it consists of different types. This is important because these types coincide with fundamentally different views about the way the EU should be reformed and which policy priorities should be pursued. These types also have very different consequences for behaviour in elections and referendums. Euroscepticism is such a diverse phenomenon because the Eurozone crisis has exacerbated the structural imbalances within the EU. As the economic and political fates of member states have diverged, people’s experiences with and evaluations of the EU and national political systems have also grown further apart. The heterogeneity in public preferences that this book has uncovered makes a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing Euroscepticism unlikely to be successful.

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