Political Parties Abroad. A New Arena for Electoral Politics

Abstract

This Special Issue contributes to the growing literature on parties abroad. Expansive citizenship has transformed and reinforced the civic and political links between emigrants and their home country. Political parties face the dilemma of engaging or not in this new arena for electoral politics and must consider how. However, until recently the literature on transnationalism and on party politics has surprisingly largely overlooked this issue. This introduction identifies the existing gaps in the literature, and stresses two main questions that remains largely unanswered, namely (1) why and how parties decide to campaign abroad, and(2) how voters abroad are receptive to these campaigns and operate their party choice in this specific context. The five articles offer a mix of case studies and comparative perspective, and quantitative and qualitative analyses. This case selection allows to explore the diversity of strategies adopted by political parties abroad in different settings, with different tools. The results illustrate the impact of local party branches and entrepreneurs' outreach and local campaigns on mobilisation, turnout, and the result of elections, but also show that emigrants' vote choice is influenced both by the context of their country of origin and of their country of residence.

To vote or not to vote in the homeland elections? Insights into voting abstention in Italy's constituency abroad

“…Specifically, macro-level factors favouring abstention among external voters include the geographical distribution of seats, lack of systems that provide for on-the-spot voting, lack of access to information, and pre-registration operations, to name just a few. Some other factors may increase turnout, such as the presence of emigrant institutions or geographical proximity between the home and host countries, whereas individual voter characteristics such as country of birth and length of residence abroad may have a demobilising effect (van Haute and Kernalegenn 2023, 375).…”