Regional And National Elections In Western Europe

Utilizing both historical and new research data, this book analyzes voting patterns for local and national elections in thirteen west European countries from 1945-2011. The result of rigorous and in-depth country studies, this book challenges the popular second-order model and presents an innovative framework to study regional voting patterns.

This book is the second of two studies which systematically explore territoriality of the vote in Europe. They investigate when and where voters treat regional elections differently from national contests and aim to increase our understanding of the dynamics of electoral competition, which have become increasingly multifarious and complex in many countries due to the establishment and strengthening of regional government. This volume brings together leading experts on elections who analyze differences between regional and national electoral outcomes in ten East European countries since 1990. Based on a common analytical framework, each chapter investigates congruence between regional and national elections and traces and explains second-order and regional election effects. The editors applied a similar analytical framework in Regional and National Elections in Western Europe (Palgrave, 2013) which focused on 13 West European countries, enabling the authors to compare regional electoral dynamics between Eastern and Western Europe and observe to what extent explanations for territorial heterogeneity in the vote in the West also apply to the East. This book will be of particular interest to advanced students and scholars in the fields of comparative politics, regional studies, Eastern-European politics, and democratization.

Voter turnout in Western Europe since 1945 [electronic resource] : a regional report.

No detailed description available for "National elections in Western Europe".

Regionalist parties matter. Over the past 40 years, they have played an ever-larger role in West European democracies. Because of their relevance and temporal persistence, their achievements have increasingly become visible not only in electoral arena, but also as regards holding office and policy-making. Enhancing our understanding of these different dimensions of success, this book analyses various types of regionalist party success. Beyond conventional perspectives, the focus of this book is also on how the dimensions of success are related to each other, and in particular to what extent electoral and office success – jointly or alternatively – contribute to policy success. Adopting a common theoretical framework and combining the in-depth knowledge of country experts, each chapter explores the evolution and impact of regionalist parties in regional or federal states, that is the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland. This allows for a comprehensive and comparative analysis of one of the main political challenges within West-European democracies.

This book looks at the organization and strategy of state-wide parties from across some of the most important multi-layered countries in Western Europe. The volume provides the first systematic attempt to study the strategy of state-wide parties on the basis of the comparative literature on issue voting.

The economic and political conditions that have led to the rise of radical right parties exist in similar form and intensity all over Europe. Yet, radical right parties have only been successful in a few countries. The Republikaner party's less than 2% of the vote is much lower than the National Front's high of 15% and the Freedom Party's 27% of the vote in national legislative elections. Why do such a small percentage of voters choose the radical right in Germany? Why is the radical right winning more seats in Austria than in France and Germany? The main argument in this book is that radical right parties will have difficulty attracting voters and winning seats in electoral systems that encourage strategic voting and/or strategic coordination by the mainstream parties. The analysis demonstrates that electoral systems and party strategy play a key role in the success of the radical right.

Utilizing both historical and new research data, this book analyzes voting patterns for local and national elections in thirteen west European countries from 1945-2011. The result of rigorous and in-depth country studies, this book challenges the popular second-order model and presents an innovative framework to study regional voting patterns.