Why so little strategy? District-level electoral entry in theory and practice

Autor:	Robert Weiner
Rok vydání:	2011
Předmět:	Single non-transferable vote System development Redistribution (election) Sociology and Political Science Public economics Political economy Political Science and International Relations Economics Electoral geography Party competition District level
Zdroj:	Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. 49:29-47
ISSN:	1743-9094 1466-2043
Popis:	General theories of electoral competition often assume that parties are ‘strategic’ – that parties pick their battles and pragmatically abandon unpromising districts. But most parties in district-based electoral systems contradict this assumption, running candidates nearly everywhere, with little apparent regard for their prospects. This gap between theory and practice has yet to receive focused attention. This article examines elections in Canada, Great Britain, Jamaica, the USA, and Japan to answer two basic-research questions: How prevalent is strategic electoral entry (in established democracies with simple-plurality or single non-transferable vote elections)? And how does one measure strategic entry in the first place? Although strategicness does vary somewhat across and within party systems, non-strategic entry proves most common. These results invite further research on why strategicness varies and how this variation shapes party system development.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::6b8f7e506893820038fdc84dc424812c https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2011.541110 Zobrazit plný text záznamu