Are politics local? : the two dimensions of party nationalization around the world / Scott Morgenstern.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morgenstern, Scott, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political party organization.

Politics, Practical.

Party affiliation.

Representative government and representation.

Comparative government.

Physical Description:

xii, 299 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Summary:

"Are politics local? Why? Where? When? How do we measure local versus national politics? And what are the effects? This book provides answers to these questions, within an explicitly comparative framework, including both advanced and developing democracies. It does so by using a statistically-based and graphical account of party nationalization, providing methodology and data for legislative elections covering scores of parties across dozens of countries. The book divides party nationalization into two dimensions - static and dynamic - to capture different aspects of localism, both with important implications for representation. Static nationalization measures the consistency in a party's support across the country and thus shows whether parties are able to encompass local concerns into their platforms. Dynamic nationalization, in turn, measures the consistency among the districts in over-time change in electoral results, under the presumption that where districts differ in their electoral responses, local factors must drive politics. Each of the two dimensions, in sum, considers representation from the perspective of the mix of national versus local politics"-- Provided by publisher.

"I operationalize "local politics" as the inverse of party nationalization, which I measure across two dimensions, termed static and dynamic, using analyses of district-level data from legislative elections. A central thesis is that together the two dimensions provide a window into the relative importance to voters of local versus national concerns, and thus explain much about representation, legislative elections, party strategy and organization, and parliamentary politics. To explore this and subordinate theories, the book uses the data to detail the levels of localism across the world, explores sources of the variation, and evaluates the impacts on electoral accountability and collaboration among legislators"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Part I. Describing, Measuring, and Comparing the Two Dimensions: 1. Dimensions of party nationalization: static and dynamic; 2. A typology of party nationalization; 3. Measuring static and dynamic nationalization; 4. Applying the model: patterns of static and dynamic nationalization; Part II. Explaining Party Nationalization; 5. Explaining static and dynamic nationalization; 6. Institutions, ethnic heterogeneity and party nationalization: a statistical analysis; Part III. Implications: Nationalization as an Explanatory Variable: 7. Regionalism, accountability, and party nationalization; 8. The role of party nationalization on party unity and retrospective voting; 9. The role of party nationalization on collective action and dissent among co-partisan legislators: roll call voting and bill co-sponsorship; Part IV. Conclusion: 10. Summary and Conclusions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781108415132

110841513X

OCLC:

987687775