The Stability of Representation: A Cross‐national Analysis of Party Policy Dispersion

Abney, Ronni; Morrison, Andrea; Stradiotto, Gary A.

doi:10.1080/00344890701464413

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Party‐system polarization has a significant effect on a wide array of policy issues, ranging from political stability (Sartori ) and cabinet survival (Warwick ) to the effectiveness of policymaking (Tsebelis ) and political representation (Abney, Morrison, and Stradiotto ; Huber and Powell ). Additionally, polarization may have a strong negative effect on economic performance and growth (Frye ) and increase the risk of social tension and violent conflict within and between nation‐states (Esteban and Schneider ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Electoral Rule Disproportionality and Platform Polarization

Matakos

Troumpounis

Xefteris

2015

American J Political Sci

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Despite common perception, existing theoretical literature lacks a complete formal argument regarding the relationship between the electoral rule disproportionality and platform polarization. In this article, we build a model that incorporates the disproportionality of the electoral system in a standard Downsian electoral competition setup with mainly, but not necessarily purely, policy-motivated parties. We first show that in equilibrium, platform polarization is decreasing in the level of the electoral rule disproportionality. We then argue that the number of parties has a positive effect on platform polarization when polarization is measured by the distance between the two most distant platforms. This effect does not hold when polarization is measured by the widely used Dalton index. Constructing a data set covering more than 300 elections, our main theoretical findings are empirically supported, pointing toward the electoral rule disproportionality as a major determinant of polarization.

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confidence: 99%

Electoral Rule Disproportionality and Platform Polarization

Matakos

Troumpounis

Xefteris

2015

American J Political Sci

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“…Campaign platforms offer a valuable public statement of the ideological positioning of a party and have been a widely utilized resource by the existing literature (see Clare, 2010;Abney et al, 2007;Marion and Oliver, 2010). The data source for this analysis will be the CMP data set on the PC and Reform/Alliance platforms for the 1993, 1997 and 2000 Canadian federal elections, and on the CPC platforms for the federal elections (Volkens et al, 2014.…”

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confidence: 99%

Maintaining Party Unity: Analyzing the Conservative Party of Canada’s Integration of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance Parties

Thompson¹

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ii Federal conservative parties in Canada have long been plagued by several persistent cleavages and internal conflict. This conflict has hindered the party electorally and contributed to a splintering of right-wing votes between competing right-wing parties in the 1990s. The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) formed from a merger of the Progressive Conservative (PC) party and the Canadian Alliance in 2003. This analysis explores how the new party was able to maintain unity and prevent the long-standing cleavages from disrupting the party. The comparative literature on party factions is utilized to guide the analysis as the new party contained faction like elements. Policy issues and personnel/patronage distribution are stressed as significant considerations by the comparative literature as well literature on the PCs internal fighting. The analysis thus focuses on how the CPC approached these areas to understand how the party maintained unity. For policy, the campaign platforms, Question Period performance and government sponsored bills of the CPC are examined followed by an analysis of their first four policy conventions. With regards to personnel and patronage, Governor in Council and Senate appointments are analyzed, followed by the new party's candidate nomination process and Stephen Harper's appointments to cabinet. The findings reveal a careful and concentrated effort by party leadership, particularly Harper, at managing both areas to ensure that members from each of the predecessor parties were motivated to remain in the new party. Harper's role in maintaining party unity is substantial, and the findings indicate that the centralization of power under the Prime Minister can have a positive impact. The findings also situate the CPC relative to its predecessor parties, uncovering in detail where the new party bears resemblance and differs from its predecessors.

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Missing Links in Party-System Polarization: How Institutions and Voters Matter

Curini¹,

Hino²

2012

The Journal of Politics

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The Stability of Representation: A Cross‐national Analysis of Party Policy Dispersion

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

Electoral Rule Disproportionality and Platform Polarization

Electoral Rule Disproportionality and Platform Polarization

Maintaining Party Unity: Analyzing the Conservative Party of Canada’s Integration of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance Parties

Missing Links in Party-System Polarization: How Institutions and Voters Matter

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