61 research outputs found
Replication Data for: Adapt or Perish. How parties respond to party system saturation in 21 Western democracies, 1945-2011
No full textThis study examines whether and how parties adapt to party system saturation. A party system is oversaturated when a higher effective number of parties contests elections than predicted. Previous research has shown that parties are more likely to exit when party systems are oversaturated. We ex-amine whether parties will adapt by increasing the nicheness of their policy platform, by forming electoral alliances, or by merging. Based on time series analyses of 522 parties, 357 elections in 21 established Western democracies between 1945 and 2011, we find that parties are more likely to enter and less likely to leave electoral alliances if party system saturation increases. Additionally, a small share of older parties will merge. Hence, there are limits regarding the adaptive capacities of parties to their environments, which has important implications for the literature on party (system) change and models of electoral competition
Replication Data for: Adapt or Perish. How parties respond to party system saturation in 21 Western democracies, 1945-2011
No full textThis study examines whether and how parties adapt to party system saturation. A party system is oversaturated when a higher effective number of parties contests elections than predicted. Previous research has shown that parties are more likely to exit when party systems are oversaturated. We ex-amine whether parties will adapt by increasing the nicheness of their policy platform, by forming electoral alliances, or by merging. Based on time series analyses of 522 parties, 357 elections in 21 established Western democracies between 1945 and 2011, we find that parties are more likely to enter and less likely to leave electoral alliances if party system saturation increases. Additionally, a small share of older parties will merge. Hence, there are limits regarding the adaptive capacities of parties to their environments, which has important implications for the literature on party (system) change and models of electoral competition
Replication Data for: Past the saturation point: Why voters switch from mainstream to niche parties and vice-versa
No full textWhen do voters switch from mainstream to niche parties and vice-versa? To understand these switches, we focus on the saturation of the party system. We theorize that when a par-ty system is oversaturated – i.e. when a higher effective number of parties contests elections than predicted based on socio-political contextual characteristics (the system’s ‘carrying capacity’) it becomes increasingly likely that: (1) mainstream party voters defect to niche par-ties; and (2) niche party voters refrain from switching to mainstream parties. Based on vote-switching patterns in 15 countries and 53 elections, we find that oversaturation increases shifts from mainstream to niche parties. Further analyses show that this holds for shifts from mainstream to radical left and right parties, but not for shifts to green parties. This has important consequences for research on vote switching, the electoral consequences of policy differentiation and the competition between niche and mainstream parties
Supplemental Material - Contagion From Abroad. How Party Entry in Western Europe is Influenced by Party Family Members Abroad, 1961–2016
No full textSupplemental Material for Contagion From Abroad. How Party Entry in Western Europe is Influenced by Party Family Members Abroad, 1961-2016 by Marc van de Wardt, Jean-Benoit Pilet, Gijs Schumacher, and Arjen van Witteloostuijn in Comparative Political Studies</p
Replication Data for: Contagion from abroad. How party entry in Western Europe is influenced by party family members abroad, 1961-2016
No full textNew parties are a key mechanism behind party system innovation as voters are offered new choices. To explain party entry (i.e., participation in a lower house election for the first time), the state-of-the-art has typically focused on domestic determinants. This, however, assumes that party entry takes place in an international vacuum. Building on the policy diffusion literature, we explore how party family members abroad influence party entry in the focal country. Based on a new dataset on the evolution of each party family in 17 Western European party systems between 1961 and 2016, including 2191 new parties, our mixed-methods approach combining spatial econometric models with pathway case analysis demonstrates that party entry is influenced by the entry and electoral success of their party family abroad. This has important implications for the literature on party entry and the international diffusion of policy platforms
Why governing parties change their platforms more frequently than those in opposition
No full textFollowing an election, are parties that enter government more likely to alter their electoral platform than parties in opposition? Gijs Schumacher, Marc van de Wardt, Barbara Vis and Michael Baggesen Klitgaard present findings from data on party programmes going back to 1945. Their research indicates that, contrary to expectations, parties in government are more likely to alter their programme than parties in opposition, but that this effect depends on the extent to which parties aspire to hold office in the next election
Colourless politics? An examination of party selectors’ openness to ethnic minority candidates in Flemish local politics
No full textPolitical parties are pivotal gatekeepers shaping ethnic minorities’ political under-representation. By providing resources, networks and legitimacy to their candidates, parties give them a tremendous advantage compared to candidates running as independents. Nevertheless, scholars still know little about what hinders the selection of ethnic minority candidates. This disser- tation taps into this topic by drawing on two survey experiments and an ex- amination of real-life candidate lists. First, addressing the role of individual selectors’ socio-demographic profile, this study shows that the presence of ethnic minority co-selectors is crucial if parties want to compose more ethnically diverse candidate lists. Second, this study provides a nuanced discussion of how party selectors’ ethnic biases can deteriorate the selec- tion prospects of ethnic minority aspirants. Third, this dissertation illustrates how party selectors become more willing to include ethnic minority can- didates on their list if the diversifying strategies of their competitors have proven to be electorally beneficial or when such strategies are framed as being responsive to prevalent democratic norms. As such, this dissertation offers an important contribution to the scholarly debate about the barriers of ethnic minorities’ proportional representation
CORRIGENDUM - Adapt or Perish? How Parties Respond to Party System Saturation in 21 Western Democracies, 1945-2011
No full textThe authors apologise for the misspelling of Arjen van Witteloostuijn’s affiliation in their article. It should read as follows: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.</p
Going above and beyond? A comparative case study of the multilevel organisation of national political parties in the EU polity
No full textExplaining the effective number of parties : beyond the standard model
No full textThis study casts new light on the conditions determining the effective number of parties in elections. The state-of-the-art mostly considers the interaction between the permissiveness of the electoral system and social heterogeneity, labelled the standard model. This study argues that we should move beyond the standard model and also consider voters’ short term ideological preferences as well as the diversity of issues on the party system agenda. Moreover, the effects of these variables are expected to be conditioned by electoral system permissiveness. The hypotheses are examined on the basis of a longitudinal dataset containing information on 696 elections that took place in 79 countries between 1945 and 2011. Importantly, the hypotheses could only be confirmed on institutionalized party systems
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