Staying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties
Why are some small parties successful whereas others wither away? Despite the voluminous literature on parties and party families, we have a limited understanding of what explains small party success. Most studies tend to emphasize the role of social cleavages and electoral systems. Instead, we prop...
| Asıl Yazarlar: | , , |
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| Materyal Türü: | Journal article |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
Cambridge University Press
2015
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| _version_ | 1826305658116374528 |
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| author | Dinas, E Riera, P Roussias, N |
| author_facet | Dinas, E Riera, P Roussias, N |
| author_sort | Dinas, E |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Why are some small parties successful whereas others wither away? Despite the voluminous literature on parties and party families, we have a limited understanding of what explains small party success. Most studies tend to emphasize the role of social cleavages and electoral systems. Instead, we propose a new institutional explanation that treats entering parliament as a key resource for small parties. Parliamentary entrance signals organizational capacity and candidates’ appeal, and reduces uncertainty about parties’ ideological profile. Taking advantage of the discontinuities generated by thresholds of representation, we estimate the causal effect of entering parliament on the future vote shares of small parties. We use a new data set that covers all post-WWII democracies with a national threshold of representation. Results indicate that presence in parliament increases parties’ vote share in the next election. Importantly, entering parliament is more important for parties in new democracies, where party branding is weak and the need for signaling is high. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:36:10Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:f7b511a3-5fbf-48c4-aee4-3d688f669b5f |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:36:10Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:f7b511a3-5fbf-48c4-aee4-3d688f669b5f2022-03-27T12:44:43ZStaying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small partiesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:f7b511a3-5fbf-48c4-aee4-3d688f669b5fSymplectic Elements at OxfordCambridge University Press2015Dinas, ERiera, PRoussias, NWhy are some small parties successful whereas others wither away? Despite the voluminous literature on parties and party families, we have a limited understanding of what explains small party success. Most studies tend to emphasize the role of social cleavages and electoral systems. Instead, we propose a new institutional explanation that treats entering parliament as a key resource for small parties. Parliamentary entrance signals organizational capacity and candidates’ appeal, and reduces uncertainty about parties’ ideological profile. Taking advantage of the discontinuities generated by thresholds of representation, we estimate the causal effect of entering parliament on the future vote shares of small parties. We use a new data set that covers all post-WWII democracies with a national threshold of representation. Results indicate that presence in parliament increases parties’ vote share in the next election. Importantly, entering parliament is more important for parties in new democracies, where party branding is weak and the need for signaling is high. |
| spellingShingle | Dinas, E Riera, P Roussias, N Staying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties |
| title | Staying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties |
| title_full | Staying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties |
| title_fullStr | Staying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties |
| title_full_unstemmed | Staying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties |
| title_short | Staying in the first league: parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties |
| title_sort | staying in the first league parliamentary representation and the electoral success of small parties |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dinase stayinginthefirstleagueparliamentaryrepresentationandtheelectoralsuccessofsmallparties AT rierap stayinginthefirstleagueparliamentaryrepresentationandtheelectoralsuccessofsmallparties AT roussiasn stayinginthefirstleagueparliamentaryrepresentationandtheelectoralsuccessofsmallparties |