National Elections and the Autonomy of American State Party Systems

Past research on the relationship between income inequality and turnout has produced mixed results, with some studies suggesting that income inequality leads to lower turnout while other studies find little or no significant effects. In this article, we investigate the extent to which these mixed results are due to the contingent nature of inequality on turnout, which depends upon the nature of the policy options that are presented to the electorate. We test these expectations on data from national elections in 30 established democracies from 1965 through 2017 covering 300 elections. Regression analysis using country-level fixed effects reveals consistent evidence in favor of our hypotheses: Inequality tends to have a negative impact on turnout, especially in depolarized party systems, but as party system polarization increases the negative impact of inequality is mitigated.

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Registration, Turnout, and State Party Systems

Political Research Quarterly ◽

10.2307/449145 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 52 (3) ◽

pp. 463

Author(s):

Robert D. Brown ◽

Robert A. Jackson ◽

Gerald C. Wright

Keyword(s):

Party Systems ◽

State Party

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Relationship Between Regional and National Level of Electoral Competition and Parameters of Party System Structuring in the Countries of the Visegrad Group

Історико-політичні проблеми сучасного світу ◽

10.31861/mhpi2019.40.132-139 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 132-139

Author(s):

Oleksandra Cholovska

Keyword(s):

Party System ◽

Electoral Systems ◽

Electoral Competition ◽

Political Process ◽

National Level ◽

Party Systems ◽

National Elections ◽

Regional Elections ◽

The Impact ◽

Visegrad Group

The vast majority of party and electoral researches, including the countries of the Visegrad Group, focuses on the impact of elections and electoral systems on the institutionalization of parties and party systems, predominantly at the national level. However, the proposed article broadened this analysis mainly at the national level, in particular by analyzing regional elections and regional party systems. This is due to the fact that party-electoral interconnection is not one-tier, but instead is determined territorially, including territorial or administrative heterogeneity during elections. In other words, the study aims to show how region and regional elections (in the format of party system regionalization) affect the national political process, and, conversely, how national elections (in the format of party system nationalization) influence the regional political process in the context of the countries of the Visegrad Group. In this regard, the indicators of voter turnout, electoral volatility, influence of regional parties and coalitions, peculiarities and consequences of electoral blocsʼ and coalitionsʼ formation, parameters of territorial and socio-political cleavages and constructions of electoral systems and formulas were the directories of this relationship, both at national and regional levels, in the proposed study. Their use at the example of the Visegrad countries has made it possible to argue that the relationship between regional and national level of electoral competition and the parameters of the structuring of party systems in the analyzed region is largely reflected in nationalization processes at both national and regional level. Although it is theoretically found that such a relationship is bilateral and counter-dependent on the processes of regionalization of national elections and national electoral systems, or instead on nationalization of regional elections and regional party systems. Keywords: national elections, regional elections, party systems, nationalization and regionalization of party systems, the countries of the Visegrad Group.

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The Prospects for Contemporary Partisan Realignment

Political Science and Politics ◽

10.1017/s1049096500021302 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 18 (01) ◽

pp. 63-68

Author(s):

David W. Brady ◽

Patricia A. Hurley

Keyword(s):

Party Identification ◽

Party Systems ◽

Operational Definition ◽

National Elections ◽

Majority Party ◽

Partisan Realignment ◽

Partisan Identification ◽

Definition Of ◽

The University ◽

American Party

With the exception of 1976, all national elections since 1964 have generated commentary among both media analysts and political scientists about the possibility of realignment. Reports have varied from the straightforward—yes or no—to the contrived—realignment has been realized at the presidential but not the congressional level. In this essay, we outline our view of those factors that are necessary for a realignment, and we evaluate the 1984 elections with respect to those factors. Our focus in this analysis is on the tripartite structure of American party systems: party in the electorate, party in government, and party as organization. In addition, we discuss the policy consequences associated with realignments.Theories of RealignmentsSchlesinger (1984: 371) reminds us that “[the parts of parties] are treated as though each leads a life of its own with little attention to what if anything holds them together.” This admonition also holds for students of realignments. One school of thought, centering around the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center, focuses attention on party in the electorate. In this view, a realigning election is one in which the normal party vote shifts from one party to another, and because of the influence of individual partisan identification on electoral outcome, this new majority party dominates elections for a generation or more. This emphasis on the distribution of party identification in the electorate is beneficial in that it gives us an operational definition of realignment and allows us to assess both critical and secular (gradual) realignments.

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Zooming in on the ‘Europeanisation’ of national politics: A comparative analysis of six EU countries

Quaderni dell'Osservatorio elettorale QOE - IJES ◽

10.36253/qoe-9585 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 84 (1) ◽

pp. 3-29

Author(s):

Mariano Torcal ◽

Toni Rodón

Keyword(s):

Party Systems ◽

Vote Choice ◽

National Politics ◽

National Elections ◽

European Elections ◽

Eu Countries ◽

Eu Integration ◽

Individual Distance ◽

European Election ◽

The Eu

This article empirically revisits and tests the effect of individual distance from parties on the EU integration dimension and on the left–right dimension for vote choice in both national and European elections. This analysis is based on the unique European Election Study (EES) 2014 survey panel data from seven EU countries. Our findings show that in most countries the effect of individual distance on the EU integration dimension is positive and significant for both European and national elections. Yet the effect of this dimension is not uniform across all seven countries, revealing two scenarios: one in which it is only relevant for Eurosceptic voters and the other in which it is significant for voters of most parties in the system. The first is mainly related to the presence of a ‘hard’ Eurosceptic party in the party supply, but the second, which indicates a more advanced level of Europeanisation of party systems, is not explained by most current theoretical and empirical contributions. We conclude by proposing two additional explanations for this latter scenario in which the EU integration dimension is present for most voters in both type of elections, including those voting for the main parties. Our findings and further discussion have implications for the understanding of the Europeanisation of national politics and its relationship with vote choice.

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