Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2010, 46(3): 375-400 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2010.46.3.03

Party System Nationalisation and Non-uniform Vote Switching. Evidence from the Czech Republic

Pat Lyons, Lukáš Linek
Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague

National rather than regional party systems are the norm in most democratic states. This has been interpreted as meaning that most voters view inter-party competition in the same way. With a high level of party system nationalisation the relative proportion of electoral support attracted by parties across all constituencies tends to be very similar although the absolute level of party support changes across elections. Sociological and institutional explanations have been used to account for party system nationalisation. Both of these explanations have generally made causal inferences using aggregate data. The link between party system nationalisation and the individual voter has not been examined in the same detail. Here this link is explored using an ecological inference analysis of vote switching. This research, using the Czech Republic as a case study, shows that the presence of high party system nationalisation evident across a pair of elections may be associated with nonuniform electoral swings. These results demonstrate that evidence of party system nationalisation should not be taken to mean that all voters view electoral choices in the same way.

Keywords: party system nationalisation, vote switching, ecological inference, Czech Republic

Published: June 1, 2010  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Lyons, P., & Linek, L. (2010). Party System Nationalisation and Non-uniform Vote Switching. Evidence from the Czech Republic. Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 46(3), 375-400. doi: 10.13060/00380288.2010.46.3.03
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Achen, C. H. and W. Philips Shively. 1995. Cross-level Inference. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
    2. Alemán, E. and M. Kellam. 2008. 'The Nationalization of Electoral Change in the Americas.' Electoral Studies 27 (2): 193-212. Go to original source...
    3. Blondel, J., P. Svensson and R. Sinnott. 1998. People and Parliament in the European Union: Democracy, Participation and Legitimacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Go to original source...
    4. Bochsler, D. 2010. 'Measuring Party Nationalisation: a New Gini-based Indicator that Corrects for the Number of Parties.' Electoral Studies 29 (1): 155-168. Go to original source...
    5. Campbell, A. 1960. 'Surge and Decline: a Study of Electoral Change.' Public Opinion Quarterly 24: 397-418. Go to original source...
    6. Campbell, A., P. E. Converse, W. E. Miller and D. E. Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
    7. Caramani, D. 2004. The Nationalisation of Politics: the Formation of National Electorates and Party Systems in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    8. Carrubba, C. and R. J. Timpone. 2005. 'Explaining Vote Switching across First- and Second-order Elections. Evidence from Europe.' Comparative Political Studies 38 (3): 260-281. Go to original source...
    9. Chhibber, P. and K. Kollman. 1998. 'Party Aggregation and the Number of Parties in India and the United States.' American Political Science Review 92 (2): 329-342. Go to original source...
    10. Chhibber, P. and K. Kollman. 2004. The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India and the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    11. Claggett, W., W. Flanigan and N. Zingale. 1984. 'Nationalization of the American Electorate.' American Political Science Review 78 (1): 77-91. Go to original source...
    12. Converse, P. E. 1966. 'The Concept of a Normal Vote.' Pp. 9-39 in Elections and the Political Order, edited by A. Campbell, W. E. Miller and D. E. Stokes. New York: Wiley.
    13. Cox, G. W. 1997. Making Votes Count. New York: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    14. Cox, G. W. 1999. 'Electoral Rules and Electoral Coordination.' American Review of Political Science 2: 145-161. Go to original source...
    15. Ferree, K. E. 2010 (in print). 'The Social Origins of Electoral Volatility in Africa.' British Journal of Political Science. Go to original source...
    16. Hicken, A. 2009. Building Party Systems in Developing Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    17. Jones, M. P. and S. Mainwaring. 2003. 'The Nationalization of Parties and Party Systems: An Empirical Measure and Application to the Americas.' Party Politics 9 (2): 139-166. Go to original source...
    18. King, G. 1997. A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    19. Kouba, K. 2007. 'Prostorová analýza českého stranického systému. Institucionalizace a prostorové režimy' (Spatial Analysis of the Czech Party System: Institutionalisation and Spatial Regimes). Sociologický časopis/Czech Sociological Review 43 (5): 1017-1037. Go to original source...
    20. Lebeda, T., L. Linek, P. Lyons and K. Vlachová. 2007. 'Závěr: Co rozhodlo volby do Poslanecké sněmovny v roce 2006 a co jsme se dozvěděli o volebním chování v ČR?' (Conclusion: What Decided the Parliamentary Elections in 2006 and What We Learned about Voting Behaviour in the Czech Republic). Pp. 203-214 in Voliči a volby 2006, edited by T. Lebeda, L. Linek, P. Lyons, K. Vlachová et al. Prague: Sociologický ústav AV ČR.
    21. Linek, Lukáš. 2009. 'Jak měřit stranickou identifikaci?' (How to Measure Party Identification) Data a výzkum - SDA Info 3 (2): 187-210.
    22. Linek, L. and P. Lyons. 2007. 'What Can Ecological Inference Tell Us about the SecondOrder-Election-Thesis in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.' Pp. 327-369 in European Elections after Eastern Enlargement: Preliminary Results from the European Election Study 2004, edited by M. Marsh, S. Mikhaylov and H. Schmitt. Mannheim: University of Mannheim, MZES.
    23. Lipset, S. M. and S. Rokkan. 1967. 'Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments.' Pp. 1-64 in Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-national Perspectives, edited by S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan. New York: The Free Press.
    24. Lyons, P. 2008. 'Ekologické usuzovaní: explorace metody latentní struktury za využití volebních dat z ČR' (Ecological Inference: Exploring Latent Structure Methods Using Election Data from the Czech Republic). Data a výkum - SDA Info 2 (1): 49-76.
    25. Manow, P. 2005. 'National Vote Intention and European Voting Behaviour, 1979-2004: Second Order Election Effects, Election Timing, Government Approval and the Europeanization of European Elections.' Discussion Paper 05/11. Köln, Germany: Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftforchung (MPIfG).
    26. Morgenstern, S. and R. F. Potthoff. 2005. 'The Components of Elections: District Heterogeneity, District-Time Effects, and Volatility.' Electoral Studies 24: 17-40. Go to original source...
    27. Morgenstern, S. and S. M. Swindle. 2005. 'Are Politics Local? An Analysis of Voting Patterns in 23 Democracies.' Comparative Political Studies 38 (2): 143-170. Go to original source...
    28. O'Laughlin, J. 2003. 'Spatial Analysis in Political Geography.' Pp. 30-46 in A Companion to Political Geography, edited by J. Agnew, K. Mitchell and G. Ó Tuathail. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Go to original source...
    29. Park, W. 2008. 'Ecological Inference and the Aggregate Analysis of Elections.' PhD dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
    30. Reif, K. and H. Schmitt. 1980. 'Nine Second-Order National Elections - a Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of European Election Results.' European Journal of Political Research 8 (1): 3-44. Go to original source...
    31. Reif, K. 1984. 'National Electoral Cycles and European Elections 1979 and 1984.' Electoral Studies 3: 244-255. Go to original source...
    32. Rokkan, S. 1970. Citizens, Elections, Parties: Approaches to the Comparative Study of the Processes of Development. New York: David McKay Co.
    33. Samuels, D. J. 2000. 'The Gubernatorial Coattails Effect: Federalism and Congressional Elections in Brazil.' Journal of Politics 62: 240-253. Go to original source...
    34. Stokes, D. E. 1967. 'Parties and the Nationalization of Electoral Forces.' Pp. 182-202 in The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development, edited by W. N. Chambers and W. D. Burnham. New York: Oxford University Press.
    35. Thomsen, S. R. 1987. Danish Elections 1920-1979: A Logit Approach to Ecological Analysis and Inference. Arrhus: Politica.
    36. Thomsen, S. R. 1998. 'Impact of National Politics on Local Elections in Scandinavia.' Scandinavian Political Studies 21 (4): 325-345 Go to original source...
    37. Thomsen, S. R. 1999. 'Ecological Inference with the Multiple Logit Model.' Working Paper, February 1999, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Universitetsparken, DK-8000, Denmark.
    38. Thomsen, S. R., S. Berglund and I. Wörlund. 1991. 'Assessing the Validity of the Logit Method for Ecological Inference.' European Journal of Political Research 19: 441-477. Go to original source...
    39. Tiemann, G. 2005. The Nationalization of East European Party Systems. Frankfurt-an-derOder: Frankfurter Institut für Transformationsstudien.
    40. van der Eijk, C. and M. N. Franklin. 1996. Choosing Europe? The European Electorate and National Politics in the Face of Union. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Go to original source...
    41. Vertz, L., J. Frendreis and J. Gibson. 1987. 'Nationalization of the Electorate in the United States.' American Political Science Review 81: 961-966. Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content