Loyalty and Disloyalty in the Mexican Party System

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (03) ◽  
pp. 93-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann P. Kerevel
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Party System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Party Switching ◽  
Using Data

AbstractWhy do politicians in Mexico switch parties? The party-switching literature suggests that politicians generally switch parties for office-seeking or policy-seeking motives, whereas literature on the Mexican party system suggests that switching may be related to party system realignment during the democratic transition. Using data on party switching across the political careers of politicians who served as federal deputies between 1997 and 2009, this study argues that party switching in Mexico can primarily be explained by the office-seeking behavior of ambitious politicians. Only in rare instances do politicians switch parties because of policy disagreements, and party system realignment fails to explain a large number of party switches. This article also suggests that the ban on consecutive re-election encourages party switching; after every term in office, Mexican politicians have the opportunity to re-evaluate their party affiliation to continue their careers.

scholarly journals The Career Length and Service of Female Policymakers in the US House of Representatives

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Praino ◽  
Daniel Stockemer
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Career Length ◽  
The Us ◽  
Using Data

Various studies have outlined the institutional (e.g. the existence of quota laws and the electoral system type of a country) and non-institutional factors (e.g. the political culture of a country) that account for variation in women’s representation, in general, and, in more detail, the low representation of women in the US Congress. However, no study has, so far, compared the Congressional career paths of men and women in order to understand whether this gender gap in representation stems from a difference in terms of the duration and importance of the careers of male and female policymakers. Using data on all US House elections between 1972 and 2012, we provide such an analysis, evaluating whether or not the political careers of women in the US House of Representatives are different from the political careers of their male counterparts. Our findings indicate that the congressional careers of men and women are alike and, if anything, women may even have a small edge over their male colleagues.

scholarly journals Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Constitution assembly of the Kingdoms of Serb, Croats and Slovenes and the transformation of social splits into political divisions

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-90
Author(s):  
Amir Ahmetović ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
People's Party ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs

Based on the available literature, social division is defined as a measure that separates community members into groups. When it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its population who spoke the same language and shared the same territory, the confessional (millet) division from the time of Turkish rule, as a fundamental social fact on the basis of which the Serbian and Croatian national identity of the Bosnian Catholic and the Orthodox population remained in Bosnia and Herzegovina even after the departure of the Austro-Hungarian administration in 1918. Historical confessional and ethnic divisions that developed in the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian periods became the key and only basis for political and party gatherings and are important for today's Bosnia and Herzegovina segmented society. The paper attempts to examine the applicability of the analytical framework (theory) of Lipset and Rokan (formulated in the 1960s) on social divisions in the case of the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in 1920? Elements for the answer can be offered by the analysis of the relationship between the ethno-confessional affiliation of citizens, on the one hand, party affiliation, on the other and their acceptance of certain political attitudes and values on the third side. If there is a significant interrelation, it could be concluded that at least indirectly the lines of social divisions condition the party-political division. The political system, of course, is not just a simple reflex of social divisions. One should first try to find the answer to the initial questions: what are the key lines of social divisions? How do they overlap and intersect? How and under what conditions does the transformation of social divisions into a party system take place? The previously stated social divisions passed through the filter of political entrepreneurs and returned as a political offer in which the specific interests and motives of (ethnic) political entrepreneurs were included and incorporated. After the end of the First World War, ethnic, confessional and cultural divisions were (and still are) very present in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The key lines of division in the ethnic, confessional and cultural spheres, their development and predominantly multipolar (four-polar) character through changes in the forms and breadth of interest and political organization have influenced political options (divisions) and further complicating and strengthening B&H political splits. The concept of cleavage is a mediating concept between the concept of social stratification and its impact on political grouping and political institutions and the political concept that emphasizes the reciprocal influence of political institutions and decisions on changes in social structure. Thanks to political mobilization in ethno-confessional, cultural and class divisions, then the "history of collective memory" and inherited ethno-confessional conflicts, mass political party movements were formed very quickly in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an integral part of the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs ( Yugoslav Muslim organization, Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav Democratic Party, Croatian Farmers' Party, Croatian People's Party, Farmers' Union, People's Radical Party ...). The lines of social divisions overlap with ethnic divisions (Yugoslav Muslim Organization, Croatian Farmers' Party, Croatian People's Party, Farmers' Union, People's Radical Party ...) but also intersect them so that several ethnic groups can coexist within the same party-political framework (Communist Party of Yugoslavia). The significant, even crucial influence of party affiliation and identification on the adoption of certain attitudes speaks of the strong feedback of the parties and even of some kind of created party identity. The paper discusses the first elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina organized during the Kingdom of SCS and the formation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's political spectrum on the basic lines of social divisions.

Validating and Improving Voting Advice Applications: Estimating Party Positions Using Candidate Surveys

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis Andreadis ◽  
Heiko Giebler
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Additional Source ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Voting Advice Applications

AbstractLocating political parties correctly regarding different policy issues is not just crucial for research on parties, party competition, and many similar fields but also for the electorate. For the latter, it has become more and more important as the relevance of voting advice applications (VAA) has increased and as their main usage is to compare citizens’ policy preferences to the offer of political parties. However, if party positions are not adequately assigned, citizens are provided with suboptimal information which decreases the citizens’ capacities to make rational electoral decision. VAA designers follow different approaches to determining party positions. In this paper, we look beyond most common sources like electoral manifestos and expert judgments by using surveys of electoral candidates to validate and improve VAAs. We argue that by using positions derived from candidate surveys we get the information by the source itself, but at the same time we overcome most of the disadvantages of the other methods. Using data for the 2014 European Parliament election both in Greece and Germany, we show that while positions taken from the VAAs and from the candidate surveys do match more often than not, we also find substantive differences and even opposing positions. Moreover, these occasional differences have already rather severe consequences looking at calculated overlaps between citizens and parties as well as representations of the political competition space and party system polarization. These differences seem to be more pronounced in Greece. We conclude that candidate surveys are indeed a valid additional source to validate and improve VAAs.

Populist Parties in Lithuania: Curious Case of Party Order and Justice and its Leadership

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mindaugas Jurkynas
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Leadership Selection ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Selection Rules ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The Face

AbstractThe article discusses conceptualisation of populism, Lithuania’s party system and electoral dynamics and their relation to the sustainability of populist parties. Special attention is given to Party Order and Justice, a former populist and protest party, and its leadership, namely to the issues related to scope and competencies of a leader’s intra-partisan power, leadership selection rules and history, development of leaders’ political careers and their electoral activity. The L ithuanian party system now exhibits moderate fragmentation without centrifugal tendencies. Voter volatility is still relatively high, yet the share of new parties has dropped to zero. The protest and populist parties in Lithuania went into the margins of political establishment. Popularity of the Order and Justice party has long been connected to the formerly impeached president Rolandas Paksas. His long-term leadership in the face of plummeting electoral support and an emphasis on his political martyrdom resulted in poor electoral performances, ensuing internal squabbles and his departure. Party Order and Justice’s internal regulations, however, remained favourable to strong leadership.

The Inclusion Calculation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melody E. Valdini
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rational Action ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Large N ◽  
Gender Quota ◽  
Open The Doors

Power-holders and gate-keepers in political parties and governments continue to be primarily men. How are they responding to the increasing numbers of women who are seeking leadership roles in politics? Are they angels who embrace equality and fling open the doors to power? Are they devils who block women at every turn? Are they powerless against the increasing tide of feminism and inadvertently succumbing to the push for power from women? Most likely, these male elites are primarily concerned with maintaining their own power, which drives their reaction to women’s political inclusion. The Inclusion Calculation examines women’s inclusion from the perspective of men in power and offers a novel approach to understanding differences in women’s descriptive representation. The book argues that with declining legitimacy it is valuable for male elites to “strategically feminize,” associating themselves or their party with women, because citizens will interpret the increased presence of women as meaning that the party or government is becoming more honest, cooperative, and democratic. Using a combination of case studies from Latin America, Europe, and Africa, as well as large-N analyses, the book provides evidence that male elites are more likely to increase the number of women candidates on party lists or adopt a gender quota when “feminizing” is advantageous to the political careers of men. Women’s exclusion from government, then, is not a product of their own lack of effort or ability but rather a rational action of men in power to keep their power.

Institutions and Political Support

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Bowler
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Expectation ◽  
Using Data

This chapter analyzes to what extent variation in political institutions affects political support. The chapter observes that the existing research is not always clear on which institutions should produce what kind of effect, although a general expectation is that institutional arrangements improve political support when they give citizens an increased sense of connection to the political process. In general then, we should expect institutions that strengthen the quality of representation to strengthen political support. This general expectation is specified in six hypotheses that are tested using data from the ESS 2012. The chapter demonstrates that electoral systems that provide voters with more choice about candidates, multiparty governments, and “responsive” legislatures, correlate positively with political support. However, compared to other macro-level factors and individual characteristics, the effects of political institutions on political support are modest. The chapter concludes that the prospects for institutional reform to strengthen political support are limited.

Back to the Westminster model? The Brexit process and the UK political system

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212096737
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Baldini ◽  
Edoardo Bressanelli ◽  
Emanuele Massetti
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Westminster Model ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Quantitative Indicators ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the impact of Brexit on the British political system. By critically engaging with the conceptualisation of the Westminster model proposed by Arend Lijphart, it analyses the strains of Brexit on three dimensions developed from from Lijphart’s framework: elections and the party system, executive– legislative dynamics and the relationship between central and devolved administrations. Supplementing quantitative indicators with an in-depth qualitative analysis, the article shows that the process of Brexit has ultimately reaffirmed, with some important caveats, key features of the Westminster model: the resilience of the two-party system, executive dominance over Parliament and the unitary character of the political system. Inheriting a context marked by the progressive weakening of key majoritarian features of the political system, the Brexit process has brought back some of the traditional executive power-hoarding dynamics. Yet, this prevailing trend has created strains and resistances that keep the political process open to different developments.

Frozen Negotiations: The Peace Process in Chiapas

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raúúl Beníítez Manaut ◽  
Andrew Selee ◽  
Cynthia J. Arnson
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
Better Than

Mexico's democratic transition has helped reduce, if not eliminate, the threat of renewed armed conflict in Chiapas. However, absent more active measures from the government and the Ejéército Zapatista de Liberacióón Nacional (EZLN) to seek a permanent peace agreement and come to terms with the legacies of the past, the conflict will linger on in an unstable déétente, which we term ““armed peace.”” While this situation is far better than the open hostilities of the past, it also belies the promise of a fully democratic society in which all citizens are equally included in the political process. La transicióón democráática en Mééxico ha contribuido a reducir, si no eliminar, la posibilidad de que el conflicto armado en Chiapas se reanude. Sin embargo, sin esfuerzos mas activos por parte del gobierno y del Ejéército Zapatista de Liberacióón Nacional (EZLN) para buscar un acuerdo de paz permanente y saldar cuentas con el pasado, el conflicto permaneceráá en un estado inestable que llamamos ““paz armada””. Aunque esta situacióón es mucho mejor que las tensiones y agresiones del pasado, no cumple los requisitos de una sociedad plenamente democráática en que todos los ciudadanos participan en condiciones de igualdad en el proceso políítico.

Designing Electoral Institutions: STV Systems and Their Consequences

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Farrell ◽  
Malcolm Mackerras ◽  
Ian McAllister
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Party System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Generic Type ◽  
Single Transferable Vote ◽  
Party Strategies

Although championed by advocates of proportional representation, the single transferable vote form of PR has been used consistently in only a small number of countries – principally Australia, Ireland and Malta. This paper examines the origins and development of STV and its implications for the political systems that use it. The results show that STV varies so widely in its form and application, differing on no less than five major characteristics, that it is impossible to identify any single generic type. These differences are also reflected in the party strategies that are used to maximize the vote under STV. A regression analysis of the various types of STV shows that Malta is the most proportional system, followed by Ireland and Tasmania. Ireland has the largest party system among the countries that use STV, net of other factors.

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