Publication details

Active and passive : two ways party systems influence electoral outcomes

Authors

NEMČOK Miroslav

Year of publication 2019
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source European Political Science Review
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Citation
Web článek - open access
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1755773919000250
Keywords party systems; electoral systems; polarization; choice set size; theoretical framework
Attached files
Description Parties can not only actively adjust the electoral rules to reach more favourable outcomes, as is most often recognized in political science, but they also passively create an environment that systematically influences electoral competition. This link is theorized and included in the wider framework capturing the mutual dependence of electoral systems and party systems. The impact of passive influence is successfully tested on one out of two factors closely related to party systems: choice set size (i.e., number of options provided to voters) and degree of ideological polarization. The research utilizes established datasets (i.e., Constituency-Level Elections Archive, Party System Polarization Index, Chapel Hill Expert Survey, and Manifesto Project Database) and via regression analysis with clustered robust standard errors concludes that the choice set size constitutes an attribute with passive influence over electoral systems. Thus, it must be reflected when outcomes of electoral systems are estimated or compared across various contexts.
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