The Origins and Strengths of Regional Parties

Abstract

Traditional explanations of the origins of regional parties as the products of regionally-based social cleavages cannot fully account for the variation in regional party strength both within and across countries. This unexplained variance can be explained, however, by looking at institutions, and in particular, political decentralization. This argument is tested with a statistical analysis of thirty-seven democracies around the world from 1945 to 2002. The analysis shows that political decentralization increases the strength of regional parties in national legislatures, independent of the strength of regional cleavages, as well as of various features of a country's political system, such as fiscal decentralization, presidentialism, electoral proportionality, cross-regional voting laws and the sequencing of executive and legislative elections.

Country-level variables and imagined national communities within EU-15 countries

“…Different authors have analyzed the effects of sub-state elections in forcing nation-wide political parties to "regionalize" their structure and tactics, in Spain (Pallárés and Keating, 2003;Libbrecht et al, 2011), as well as in other countries (Houten, 2009;Hopkin and Bradbury, 2006;Chhibber and Kollman, 2004;Brancati, 2008). Thus, whether it is due to the political manipulation of regional political elites or to the regionalization of welfare regimes (Mota, 1998: 5;Díez, 1999;Martínez-Herrera, 2002: 424-6;McEwen and Moreno, 2005), decentralization has been related to the development of regional identities at the cost of state-wide national identities .…”

La nación en España un instrumento de medida cualitativo para una cuestión compleja

“…This process has been parallel to the electoral consolidation of Non-State-Wide Parties (NSWP) in regions where they were previously not significant. Several scholars have shown that multi-level contexts generate competition between the central and regional levels of parties, forcing them to modify their structures and tactics, in order to regionalise them both in the case of Spain (Pallarés and Keating, 2003;Libbrecht, Maddens and Swenden, 2011), as well as for other countries (Houten, 2009;Hopkin and Bradbury, 2006;Chhibber and Kollman, 2004;Brancati, 2008). The evidence collected in this study indicates that "the process of institutionalisation [of the Autonomous Regions] has required producing new symbols and political reference points in the Autonomous Regions that have generated new political 1 The research project entitled "Negotiating Spain: The shifting boundaries between 'nation', 'nationality' and 'region' " on which this paper is based was possible thanks to the funding from the European Commission (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, Grant Agreement Number 621761).…”

“…We are also grateful for the contributions made to this study, or to previous versions, by Enrique Martín Criado, the participants in the GT1 Methodology coordinated by Joan Miquel Verd at the XII Spanish Sociology Conference held in Gijón in July 2016, and this journal's anonymous reviewers. loyalties and collective identities" (Mota Consejero, 1998: 5;2008). These affective links among the political community in the Autonomous Regions have been mainly developed through the articulation of dual identities.…”

“…Se observa, sin embargo, un desarrollo sostenido en el tiempo del Estado de las autonomías encaminado a otorgar mayores niveles de autogobierno a las CC. AA., que solo en parte estaba previsto por los constituyentes, pero que acabó por crear su propia dinámica y una cultura política de descentralización (Pallarés y Keating, 2003; Libbrecht, Maddens y Swenden, 2011; Mota Consejero, 1998: 5;2008). La situación no parece, sin embargo, llegar a una situación estable de armonía y la provisionalidad se ha convertido en un rasgo definitorio (Núñez Seixas, 2010).…”

“…Este proceso ha sido paralelo a la consolidación electoral de partidos de ámbito no estatal (PANE) en regiones donde anteriormente esta dimensión no era significativa. Diversos autores han demostrado, tanto para el caso de España (Pallarés y Keating, 2003; Libbrecht, Maddens y Swenden, 2011) como para otros países, que los contextos multinivel generan competencia entre los niveles centrales y regionales de los partidos, forzándolos a modificar sus estructuras y sus tácticas, regionalizándolas (Houten, 2009; Hopkin y Bradbury, 2006; Chhibber y Kollman, 2004;Brancati, 2008). La evidencia con la que contamos indica que entre la ciudadanía, «el proceso de institucionalización [de las comunidades autónomas] ha requerido la producción de nuevos sím-bolos y referentes políticos comunitarios que han generado nuevas lealtades políticas e identidades colectivas» (Mota Consejero, 1 El proyecto de investigación «Negotiating Spain: The shifting boundaries between "nation", "nationality" and "region"» en que se basa esta nota ha sido posible gracias a la financiación de la Comisión Europea (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, Grant Agreement Number 621761).…”