Between autonomy and secession

Abstract

The literature on regionalist parties has traditionally focused on the origins of their electoral strength while their ideology remains an under-explored aspect of territorial party politics. This is surprising because for the question of whether decentralization 'accommodates' or 'empowers' regionalist pressure one needs to consider both. In this paper we single out the factors that increase the probability of adopting a radical (secessionist) as opposed to a moderate (autonomist) ideological stance, with a particular focus on the effect of decentralization. We make use of a large and original dataset, covering 11 countries, 49 regions, and 78 parties for the 1940s-2000s. Beyond the level of decentralization and decentralization reforms, we analyze the impact of two sets of factors: the first concerns regional identity and includes regional language, regional history and geographical remoteness; while the second concerns institutional/political variables which include voting systems, competition from statewide parties and from other regionalist parties, and office responsibility. We find that all variables matter for regionalist party ideology but with different effects across regional and national electoral arenas. We also find that level of decentralization and regional reform is significantly associated with radicalism, which suggests that policy success and accommodative strategies by statewide parties may lead to a polarization on the centre-periphery dimension.

Adaptation or inflexibility? Niche party responsiveness to policy competition, with evidence from regionalist parties

“…7. This analysis differs from Massetti and Schakel (2016), who examine a regionalist party's initial policy stance, not the factors behind policy position shifts. 8.…”

It is not me, it is you: The emergence of secessionist parties in Western democracies

“…To account for SWPs' incorporation of the centre-periphery cleavage, I rely on an indicator employed by Massetti and Schakel (2016). Massetti and Schakel (2016) operationalise statewide competition using data from the CMP.…”

Toward an Ever Looser Union? Investigating Diverging Trends in Public Opinion in Three Divided Societies

“…On the other hand, some argue that in the different communities, with their own media and education systems, different socialization processes will take place, leading to further divergence (Dupuy et al, 2021), and this can express itself in different political preferences, which might make it difficult to maintain the political status quo (Medeiros et al, 2022). The risk of instability is further increased because political elites at the regional level have a strong incentive to advocate for more autonomy for their own regions (Massetti and Schakel, 2016).…”