Economic crises and the nationalisation of politics Articles
Overview
published in
publication date
- November 2017
start page
- 777
end page
- 800
issue
- 4
volume
- 56
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
full text
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0304-4130
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1475-6765
abstract
-
The literature on party system nationalisation has yet to provide a better understanding of the
impact of short-term factors upon the nationalisation of politics. This article helps to fill this literature
gap by analysing the effect of economic conditions on party system nationalisation. The argument is that
economic crises will decrease levels of nationalisation by amplifying territorial variation in preferences
for redistribution, limiting political parties" capacity to coordinate divergent interests across districts and
triggering the emergence of new political forces.Data on 47 countries for the 1960–2011 period confirm this
hypothesis and show that lower economic growth during the years prior to the election is associated with a
decrease in levels of party system nationalisation in the next election. The result is robust to variation in the
specification of the econometric model and to the use of different measures of nationalisation. Results also
show that federal institutions increase the impact of economic conditions on the nationalisation of politics,
whereas any moderating effect of electoral system proportionality on the economy is not found.
Classification
subjects
- Politics
keywords
- economic crises; party system nationalisation; federalism; electoral systems