Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: One of the most widely examined properties of party systems is the counting of the number of parties. Research has posited that the number of parties affects the representation of social cleavages in voting behavior, election turnout, patterns of political conflict, and other party system effects. This article argues that research typically counts the quantity of parties, and often the more important property is the quality of party competition—the polarization of political parties within a party system. We begin by discussing the concept of party system polarization in the research literature; and why polarization is important to study. Second, we provide a new measurement of party system polarization based on party positions in the two waves of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES). This includes more than fifty separate elections, spanning more than three dozen nations from the established and developing democracies. Third, and most important, we compare party fractionalization and party polarization as influences on the strength of cleavage and ideological alignments in voting choice, and as predictors of turnout levels. The results indicate that party polarization is theoretically and empirically more related to the behavioral outcomes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The provision of alternative sets of policy options is an essential feature of representative democracy. Yet while recent contributions to the literature have advanced our understanding of the causes and nature of party systems, we know very little about how the key actors in representative democracies—the citizens themselves—think about the menu of policy choice. From the citizens’ perspective, what affects the diversity of policy proposals? Are citizen perceptions of policy choice driven by institutional factors, societal factors, or individual attributes? Do factors which explain actual policy choice also capture variation in mass perceptions of this choice? This paper presents the first cross-national study of perceptions of policy choice. Analyses of macro- and micro-level data from 25 democracies find institutional factors identified by previous research—in particular, electoral rules—matter for the actual dispersion of policy offerings. Incentives provided by institutions, however, have no robust connection to perceptions of policy dispersion. Instead, public perceptions are shaped in large part by biases arising from social heterogeneity and by partisan attachments. By uncovering a disconnect between actual and perceived range of policy offerings, results of this research carry implications for future work on policy responsiveness, political parties’ optimal strategies, and the consequences of electoral rules.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The main argument of this paper is that the level of institutionalization is a critical dimension for understanding party systems. Until the mid-1990s, the literature on parties and party systems neglected this fact, as most work on these subjects implicitly assumed a high level of institutionalization of the party system. Yet without focusing on institutionalization, it is impossible to account for important characteristics of party systems in most post-1978 democracies and semi-democracies. Voters, parties, and party systems in most post-1978 competitive regimes are qualitatively different from those of the advanced industrial democracies.
We focus on the first two dimensions of party system institutionalization that Mainwaring and Scully (1995) and Mainwaring (1999: 22-39) developed: the stability of interparty competition and the depth of party roots (or anchoring) in society. In these two dimensions, there are persistent and large differences in institutionalization between most post-1978 democracies and semi-democracies and the advanced industrial democracies. Most of the advanced industrial democracies exhibit far greater stability in interparty competition than most post-1978 democracies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Party system change, particularly the transformation of the core components of a party system, is likely to have significant implications for the nature and endurance of democratic contestation. Until recently, much of the research on party system change has focused either on fluctations within an existing party system structure, without examining transformations in the structure itself, or has focused on individual parties within a system, without explaining dynamics at the system level. This paper contributes to an emerging body of research that explores the fundamental changes in political contestation that result from significant structural changes in systems of political parties. Specifically, the paper examines the radical changes in the Venezuelan party system that produced the 1998 collapse of the country’s formerly stable 2.5-party system. Using 30 years of public opinion data together with content analysis of both legislation and news coverage, this paper examines the factors that contributed to the collapse of the party system. The analysis here indicates that the policy responsiveness provided by the traditional party system failed as the parties neglected substantive representation of Venezuelans’ major policy concerns. Other components of the project demonstrate that further aspects of representation also failed as the party system neglected the incoporation of significant emerging groups into the system and became increasingly reliant upon a decaying clientelistic network.

Publication Type: Proceeding