Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Understanding party unity is important. Knowing the degree of party unity in a parliament is a key to understanding the legislature itself. The aim of this paper is to facilitate comparative research by discussing the name, definition and measurement of party unity, and to exemplify with various up to date measurements from the Danish parliament. Party unity is a suitable term for the degree to which party group members act as one (externally). An analysis of Danish party unity illustrates questions one can ask about the measurement of party unity. Party unity figures in Denmark are very high and this general picture appears to be robust.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper I develop a theory explaining the variation in successor party performance following the collapse of single-party authoritarianism in 28 countries. I argue that there are three sets of factors affecting successor party performance in competitive elections – historical legacies, political institutions, and party adaptation tactics to democratic conditions. My preliminary results on a partial data set indicate that party tactics such as name changes, organizational centralization, and ideological moderation improve successor parties’ electoral performance.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper analyses Italian parties’ manifestos for national and European elections from 1979 to 1999 with the ‘Wordscore’-programme in order to gauge whether parties positions with regard to the European Union have changed and the salience of European Union has increased. Results indicate that, although there is no sign of increased salience, the leading Italian political parties have repositioned themselves in their attitudes towards the European Union indicating that the European political space matters for national parties.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Many scholars acknowledge that right-wing extremism pose a threat to democratic norms and institutions, but the existing research does not tell us enough about the effects of the newly emerged extreme right-wing parties (ERPs) on the politics established democracies. Drawing on party literature and spatial theories of party competition, as well as the empirical data collected as a part of the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) project, this study examines how the ERPs have influenced the political agenda of the established parties in Western Europe. Specifically, I argue that the rising electoral strength of the ERPs alone is not a sufficient indicator of the influence of right-wing extremism on democratic politics. Instead, ideologically rightward movements of the established parties should be taken into account in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of how rising right-wing extremism has structured the political agenda of contemporary democracies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The development of post-communist party system is explained either by actorless, structural explanations or choice theoretic accounts focusing on the external actions of parties (linkage with voters, strategic interaction with other parties). Little attention has heretofore been paid to the international actions of parties or what we call the affiliation calculus of political actors. We try that the organizational weakness of post-communist parties make it crucial to focus on the internal, organizational choices of parties.