Party Mobilization and Electoral Systems Articles uri icon

publication date

  • January 2019

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 24

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 54

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0017-257X

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1477-7053

abstract

  • How party strategies vary by electoral system remains largely unexplored in election studies. Using qualitative and quantitative data from Spanish national and European elections, we test how party strategies diverge between districted electoral systems and systems using a single national district. We use the number of visits to districts by the party leaders to determine if targeted party strategies are driven by district magnitude, the share of the population entitled to vote in every district, the number of districts or the strength of parties' local organizations. Our results show that only the frequency of visits to districts by large parties are clearly affected by electoral systems and, more specifically, by the number of districts and district population.

keywords

  • party strategies; mobilization; electoral systems; party competition; district magnitude; vote; election; britain