scholarly journals Dancing with the Populist: New Parties, Electoral Rules and Italian Municipal Elections

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Bordignon ◽  
Tommaso Colussi
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Rules ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Municipal Elections

Electoral Rules and Democracy in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia McClintock
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Freedom House

During Latin America’s third democratic wave, a majority of countries adopted a runoff rule for the election of the president. This book is the first rigorous assessment of the implications of runoff versus plurality for democracy in the region. Despite previous scholarly skepticism about runoff, it has been positive for Latin America, and could be for the United States also. Primarily through qualitative analysis for each Latin American country, I explore why runoff is superior to plurality. Runoff opens the political arena to new parties but at the same time ensures that the president does not suffer a legitimacy deficit and is not at an ideological extreme. By contrast, in a region in which undemocratic political parties are common, the continuation of these parties is abetted by plurality; political exclusion provoked disillusionment and facilitated the emergence of presidents at ideological extremes. In regression analysis, runoff was statistically significant to superior levels of democracy. Between 1990 and 2016, Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy scores plummeted in countries with plurality but improved in countries with runoff. Plurality advocates’ primary concern is the larger number of political parties under runoff. Although a larger number of parties was not significant to inferior levels of democracy, a plethora of parties is problematic, leading to a paucity of legislative majorities and inchoate parties. To ameliorate the problem, I recommend not reductions in the 50% threshold but the scheduling of the legislative election after the first round or thresholds for entry into the legislature.

Ballot spoilage as a response to limitations on choice and influence

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882199025
Author(s):  
Patrick Cunha Silva ◽  
Brian F Crisp
Keyword(s):  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Proportional Systems ◽  
Reasoning Systems

Electoral systems vary in terms of the choice and influence they offer voters. Beyond selecting between parties, preferential systems allow for choices within parties. More proportional systems make it likely that influence over who determines the assembly’s majority will be distributed across relatively more voters. In response to systems that limit choice and influence, we hypothesize that voters will cast more blank, null, or spoiled ballots on purpose. We use a regression discontinuity opportunity in French municipal elections to test this hypothesis. An exogenously chosen and arbitrary cutpoint is used to determine the electoral rules municipalities use to select their assemblies. We find support for our reasoning—systems that do not allow intraparty preference votes and that lead to disproportional outcomes provoke vote spoilage. Rates of vote spoilage are frequently sufficient to change control over the assembly if those votes had instead been cast validly for the second-place party.

scholarly journals THE STUDY OF COMBINED ELECTIONS: REGIONAL AND MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-109
Author(s):  
Arkadiy Lyubarev
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Komi Republic ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Correlation And Regression Analysis ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Regional Elections ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

The paper analyzes the results of voting at the regional and municipal elections held simultaneously on September 13, 2020 on party lists in the cities of Syktyvkar and Vorkuta of the Komi Republic, the city of Kaluga of the Kaluga Region and in 12 districts of the Novosibirsk Region. The correlation and regression analysis methods are used to study the relationship between the results of political parties that participated only in regional elections and the difference in the results of other parties in municipal and regional elections. The reasons for the choice difference in regional and municipal elections are discussed: varying set of parties in the two ballots, arrangement of parties in the ballots, and attitude of voters to the candidates included in the lists of the same party in regional and municipal elections. It is shown that in different regions and even in different districts of the same region, the losses of the main parties are associated with voting for various small parties. The place of new parties ("New People", "For Truth", "Green Alternative", "Party of Direct Democracy") in the political spectrum of Russia is also discussed. The conclusion is made about the importance of the study of combined elections for political science.

Conclusion and the Future of Presidential-Election Rules

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia McClintock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Legislative Election

Runoff has been advantageous in Latin America and could be in the United States also. Amid the legitimacy deficits of the 2000 and 2016 elections in the United States, popular demand for change in electoral rules is strong. Although ranked-choice voting is the most common innovation in the United States, it is complex and relatively untested. By contrast, runoff has been tested in Latin America and shown to be successful. Runoff opened the electoral arena to new parties but, at the same time, assured that the president had majority support and was not at an ideological extreme. By contrast, plurality often facilitated political exclusion by dominant parties and exacerbated cynicism and polarization. Although the number of parties was larger under runoff, the concomitant problems can be ameliorated by such measures as the scheduling of the legislative election after the first round and raising the threshold for entry to the legislature.

Electoral rules, voter mobilization and the Islamist landslide in the Saudi municipal elections of 2005

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Jan Kraetzschmar
Keyword(s):  
Original Research ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Voter Mobilization ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Voting System ◽  
Electoral Mobilization

This paper examines the Saudi voting system and its effects on the first nationwide municipal elections held in the Kingdom in 2005. It argues that by encouraging electoral mobilization across districts, the voting system impacted on both the dynamics of the election campaign and its outcome. Drawing on original research conducted in the country, it is demonstrated that, as designed, the rules of the electoral game (1) made possible the formation of electoral alliances, whose presence on the ground gave the entire campaign a distinctly ideological flavour; and (2) facilitated the remarkable victories of Islamist candidates in municipalities across the Kingdom.

scholarly journals Electoral Rules and New Parties: Evidence from a Quasi‐experimental Design

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Lago
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Institutional Factor ◽  
Robust Estimate ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Impact

Electoral rules are a crucial institutional factor shaping the entry and success of new parties. However, testing how they affect voting behavior is problematic when using observational data in cross-national studies. As district magnitude is usually correlated with politically salient features affecting the likelihood of voting for new (and small) parties, the latent support of small parties differs across electoral systems. Using a quasi-experimental design in Spain focused on the district viability of a new party, Vox, in two elections held within 196 days, I provide a more robust estimate of the impact of electoral systems on the success of new parties. Strong evidence that the electoral system makes a difference for new parties has been identified: strategic considerations found in the districts where Vox was not successful prevented a significant number of voters from supporting the party.

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 AfD as a ‚Leaderless’ Right-Wing Populist Party. How the Leadership-Structure Dilemma Left an Imprint on the Party’s Leadership

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Gregor Zons ◽  
Anna Halstenbach
Keyword(s):  
Party Competition ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Leadership Structure ◽  
Consolidation Phase ◽  
Leadership Turnover ◽  
Party Institutionalization

AbstractDespite its right-wing populist character, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) shows no signs of a strong party leadership. We ascribe this state of the party leadership to the AfD’s institutionalization as a new party and show how organizational features interact with the skill set and goals of the party leaders. At the party level, we, firstly, outline the organizational change at the top of the party and the party leader selection rules. Secondly, we depict leadership turnover and competitiveness. At the leader level, we investigate the failure of Bernd Lucke, the key founder and one of the initial party leaders, as a manifestation of the leadership-structure dilemma of new parties. Embedded in a leadership team and faced with a growing extra-parliamentary party structure, Lucke tried to secure his initial autonomy and position of power by an attempt to become the sole party leader. His subsequent exit from the AfD laid bare the fact that he was not able to manage the challenges of the organizational consolidation phase, in which a new party needs a coordinator and consensus-builder. The AfD itself has proven its organizational autonomy from its initial leaders and its distaste for a strong and centralized party leadership. The barriers for the latter remain in place while, at the same time, the party institutionalization is still on-going, especially regarding its place in the German party competition.

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