Towards a Theory of Political Development in Multi-Level Systems

2020 ◽  
pp. 190-204
Author(s):  
Lori Thorlakson
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Social Cleavages ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Institutional Influences ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Impact

Integrated and independent politics are useful concepts for understanding the forms of competitive linkages among subnational jurisdictions and between the subnational and federal levels. The forms of linkage that generate integrated politics are varied, with some forms of linkage rooted in the structures of party systems or the organizational structures of parties. Other forms are more fluid, and reflected in attitudes and behaviours of parties and voters or shifts in electoral support. The stronger role for federal institutional influences in these more fluid linkage outcomes helps us to develop a more nuanced theory that can refine the impact of federal institutions. While social cleavages and the electoral system are strong drivers of party system structures and nationalization, federal institutions shape the more fluid aspects of integration. Fiscal centralization, while important, is not a necessary condition of integrated politics. Administrative interdependence can generate integrated politics even alongside decentralization.

Party System Linkage

2020 ◽  
pp. 102-131
Author(s):  
Lori Thorlakson
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
System Level ◽  
Fiscal Centralization ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Subnational Elections ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Social Cleavage ◽  
Cleavage Structure

This chapter examines two forms of integrated politics at the party system level, party system congruence and party system nationalization. Drawing on data from over 2,220 subnational elections in seven multi-level systems, it assesses three forms of party system congruence across the units of a multi-level system: similarity of the number of parties, electoral support, and similarity of the magnitude and direction of the electoral swing. Using the index of cumulative regional inequality (CRI), it measures the territorial concentration of party systems. The analysis shows that fiscal centralization and administrative interdependence predict integrated politics in the form of more congruent patterns of electoral support. There are limits to the institutional explanation. The electoral system and social cleavage structure are important explanations of variation in party system structures and territorial concentration.

The Role of the Electoral System in Turkish Politics

1980 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hale
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Turkish Politics ◽  
Economic Background ◽  
The Impact

Over the last twenty years there have been several interesting attempts by scholars working both in Turkey and elsewhere to offer a critical examination of the workings of the competitive party system in Turkey, and to relate changes in the parliamentary arena to the tensions created in a rapidly developing society. This emphasis on the social and economic background to political change has tended to turn attention away from the constitutional and legal arrangements on which the proper functioning of parliamentary democracy also depends. What follows tries to assess the impact of one of these factors — the electoral system — on Turkish political development since 1950. It closes with some suggestions about the possible effects on Turkish politics of some hitherto untried systems of election.

scholarly journals The impact of using proportional representation system on the fragmentation of the party system in Algeria. Applied to the elections of the National People’s Assembly (1997–2017)

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Mahmoud Mahgoub
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Effective Number ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Representation System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of using proportional representation system on the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system within the period from 1997 to 2017, in which Algeria has experienced five legislative elections regularly every five years by testing a hypothesis about adopting the proportional representation system on the basis of the closed list during the foregoing legislative elections has obviously influenced the exacerbation of the Algerian party system’s fragmentation, compared to other factors. Design/methodology/approach The essence of the theoretical framework of this study is to address the effect of the electoral system as an independent variable on the party system as a dependent variable. The starting point for that framework is to reassess the “Duverger’s law,” which appeared since the early 1950s and has influenced the foregoing relationship, and then to review the literature on a new phase that tried to provide a more accurate mechanism for determining the number of parties and their relative weight, whether in terms of electoral votes or parliamentary seats. This means that researchers began to use a measure called the effective number of parties (ENP) for Laakso and Taagepera since 1979. The study elaborates the general concepts of the electoral system and the party system. It used Laakso, Taagepera index of the “ENP” to measure the phenomenon of fragmentation party during the five legislative elections from 1997 to 2017 in Algeria. Findings The results of the study reveal that the proportional representation electoral system – beside other factors – had clear impacts on the fragmentation of the Algerian party system by all standards, whether on the level of the apparent rise in the number of the parties represented in the Algerian parliament from 10 parties in 1997 election to 36 parties in 2017 election or according to the index of Laakso and Taagepera (ENP). The average number of effective number of electoral parties in the five elections was around 7.66, and the average number of effective number of parliamentary parties in the five elections was around 4.39, which puts Algeria in an advanced degree of the fragmentation of the party system. Originality/value This study about the phenomenon of the fragmentation of the party system, which is one of the new subjects in the field of comparative politics – globally and in the Arab world. Hence, the value of this study aims to shed light on this mysterious area of science, the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system during the period from 1997 to 2017.

The Slow Death of a Governing Party: The Erosion of Conservative Local Electoral Support in England 1979–97

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Rallings ◽  
Michael Thrasher ◽  
Ron Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Apparent Ability

This article first describes the decline in Conservative Party representation in local government over the period 1979–97. It then explores a number of factors to account for the nature and depth of that decline, including: differential abstention; the desertion of heartland voters; tactical voting at local level; and electoral bias. Clearly, the Conservatives' performance at local elections was worse than might have been expected given the party's overall electoral popularity. It appears that Conservative council candidates largely fell victim to the changing pattern of party competition and the apparent ability of rival parties to target seats more effectively. Furthermore, the impact of these factors was compounded by the operation of biases within the electoral system.

A Reply to J. A. A. Lovink, “On Analysing the Impact of the Electoral System on the Party System in Canada”

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan C. Cairns
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Previous Article ◽  
Systematic Bias ◽  
Relative Paucity ◽  
Respective Treatment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Resources

Analysis of the Canadian political system has suffered from a relative paucity of competing interpretations of the same phenomena. Too many interpretations of our polity have gone unchallenged, probably on the assumption that our scarce academic resources should not be wasted on internecine controversy while virgin fields remain untapped. Professor Lovink's article is a hopeful indication that this stage of disciplinary immaturity is ending. His sophisticated dissection of my previous article is a helpful contribution to the discussion of the effects of the electoral system on the party system. These comments, by concentrating on some of the problems raised by Lovink, are designed to contribute to a further clarification.Initially, it can be noted, that the disagreement between us is not over the data dealing with votes and seats, but with the interpretation to be given the data. It was perhaps in the very nature of a somewhat polemical article attacking the “conventional wisdom” that I stressed the effects as I saw, or deduced, them, and in the nature of Lovink's rejoinder that the possible effects are minimized.This difference is noteworthy in our respective treatment of the electoral system's systematic bias against Conservative Quebec voters. The data indicate that the ratio of 5.6 Liberals to 1 Conservative mp resulted from a ratio of 1.9 Liberals to 1 Conservative voter. This struck me as pregnant with consequences for the party system, some of which I tried to suggest.

scholarly journals The effects of district magnitude and social diversity on party system fragmentation in majoritarian systems

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-326
Author(s):  
Christopher D Raymond
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Social Diversity ◽  
Social Cleavages ◽  
District Magnitude ◽  
National Model ◽  
National Models ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cross National

Cross-national models of party system fragmentation hold that social diversity and district magnitude interact: higher levels of district magnitude allow for greater expression of social diversity that leads to higher levels of party system fragmentation. Most models, however, ignore differences between majoritarian and proportional electoral rules, which may significantly alter the impact of district magnitude, as well as the way in which district magnitude impacts the translation of social cleavages into party system fragmentation. Examining the case of Singapore suggests majoritarian multimember districts limit party system fragmentation, particularly by reducing the degree to which ethnic and religious diversity are translated into political parties. Applying these insights to a standard cross-national model of party system fragmentation, the results suggest that majoritarian multimember districts produce lower levels of party system fragmentation than proportional multimember districts.

scholarly journals The Death and Rebirth of a Party System, Peru 1978-2001

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 1210-1239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Kenney
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Party System ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Partial Recovery ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Social Cleavages ◽  
Large Size

This article evaluates structural, institutional, and actor-centered explanations of the collapse of the Peruvian party system around 1990 and its surprising partial recovery in 2001. It begins by describing the changes in the dependent variable, the emergence, collapse, and partial resurrection of the 1980s Peruvian party system. The next section examines the argument that the large size and rapid growth of the informal sector undermined the party system and led to its collapse. The author shows that the evidence does not support this argument. The article then examines changes in the electoral system. The author demonstrates that, contrary to theoretical expectations, the changes in the electoral system do not correlate with the observed changes in the party system. The final section shows that performance failure by political elites, including corruption in government, was more important than social cleavages or electoral institutions in the collapse and partial recovery of the party system.

Personal vote, spatial registration rules, and party system nationalization in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-Pin Su
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Party System ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Spatial Registration ◽  
Party Registration ◽  
The Impact

While many studies of party system nationalization examine the effects of various institutional factors, few take into account the impact of party formation cost. This paper aims to fill the empirical gap by focusing on the interactive effect of electoral systems and party registration rules. I argue that the effect of electoral systems on party system nationalization is conditional on spatial registration rules, a requirement that requires a party to collect signatures or organize local branches in a specified geographical manner to maintain the party’s legal status. Based on data for 97 legislative elections in 18 Latin American countries from 1978 to 2011, the empirical analysis demonstrates that a country with an electoral system that encourages a personal vote tends to have a much lower level of party system nationalization when that country does not have spatial registration requirements. The result is robust across different model specifications and estimation techniques.

Germany: From Stable Coalition Camps to New Complexity

2021 ◽  
pp. 247-283
Author(s):  
Marc Debus ◽  
Holger Döring ◽  
Alejandro Ecker
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
First Century ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Coalition Politics ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

This chapter aims at presenting the characteristics of cabinets in Germany, in particular for the cabinets formed since the beginning of the twenty-first century. The chapter covers two decades of coalition dynamics and an era that has led to significant changes in German politics in general and the German party system in particular. The electoral support for the two catch-all parties – Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) decreased in that time period, while the increased number of parliamentary parties and the increasing vote share for the smaller parties resulted in a more complex bargaining environment. We also discuss changes in the policy profiles of the parliamentary parties and how potential coalitions are discussed during election campaigns. The chapter provides first a brief overview on the institutional setting in which parties in Germany act and which influences the government-formation process, as well as the daily business of coalition governance. In a second step, we outline recent dynamics in the structure of the German party system. The final section summarizes the findings, considers if an overall trend in terms of changes in coalition governance exists in Germany, and discusses the impact of the parliamentary presence of a left- and a right-wing ‘pariah’ party—The Left and the Alternative for Germany—for coalition politics in Germany in the future.

Tied hands? Italian political parties and Europe

Modern Italy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolò Conti
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Disruptive Effect ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Italian political parties have been involved for almost three decades in a multi-level electoral game encompassing the election of national, supranational and local institutions. The content of the electoral competition has also changed to include not only nationwide, but also sub-national and supranational issues. This article analyses the interaction between Italian parties and the theme of European integration. The aim is to explore the role of contentious European Union matters in domestic electoral competition, specifically at the time of European elections. Such a role is important to understand to what extent the Italian parties politicise the EU issues during EP elections, and to determine the impact of such issues on the Italian party system and on its patterns of policy competition. In particular, the article will explore whether Europe as an issue has been internalised along the main patterns of party competition or has produced a disruptive effect and forms of realignment.

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