Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:06:24.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Developing a New Measure of Party Dominance: Definition, Operationalization and Application to 54 European Regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2018

Davide Vampa
Davide Vampa*
Affiliation:
Davide Vampa is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations in the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Party dominance is not clearly conceptualized and operationalized in the existing literature and has rarely been quantitatively assessed and explained. This study defines dominance as a combination of absolute dominance – the percentage of parliamentary seats won by the largest ruling party – and relative dominance, which takes into account the strength of its main competitor. Based on this definition, it would be possible to calculate an average score of party dominance over a defined period of time. The index developed here is applied to the main ruling parties in 54 regions from 1995 to 2015. Variation in regional party dominance during this period is then explained by considering dominance at the national level, differences in regional socioeconomic development and political legacies. In the last part of the article, individual party scores are aggregated by region. Association between this new aggregate score and regional quality of government is tested.

Keywords

dominancepolitical partiesregionsgovernmentoppositionindex
Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 88 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2018. Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abedi, A Schneider, S (2010) Big Fish in Small Ponds: A Comparison of Dominant Parties in the Canadian Provinces and German Länder . In Bogaards M and Boucek F (eds), Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons. London: Routledge: 77–97.Google Scholar
Argerberg, M (2017) Failed Expectations: Quality of Government and Support for Populist Parties in Europe. European Journal of Political Research 56, 578–600.Google Scholar
Bogaards, M (2004) Counting Parties and Identifying Dominant Party Systems in Africa. European Journal of Political Research 43, 173–197.Google Scholar
Bogaards, M Boucek, F (eds) (2010) Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bolleyer, N (2007) Small Parties: From Party Pledges to Government Policy. West European Politics 30, 121–147.Google Scholar
Bolleyer, N (2009) Intergovernmental Cooperation: Rational Choices in Federal Systems and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Börzel, T (2002) States and Regions in the European Union. Institutional Adaptation in Germany and Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bukowski, J (2002) A Space for Political Choice? Regional Development Policy in Andalucía and Catalonia. Regional and Federal Studies 12, 138–170.Google Scholar
Caramani, D Mény, Y (eds) (2005) Challenges to Consensual Politics: Democracy, Identity and Populist Protest in the Alpine Region. Brussels: P.I.E.-Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Caulier, J Dumont, P (2010) Measuring One-Party Dominance with Voting Power Indices. In Bogaards M and Boucek F (eds), Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons. London: Routledge: 45–59.Google Scholar
Charron, N, Dijkstra, L Lapuente, V (2014) Regional Governance Matters: Quality of Government within European Union Member States. Regional Studies 48, 68–90.Google Scholar
Duverger, M (1954) Political Parties: Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Fargion, V (1997) Geografia della cittadinanza sociale in Italia. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Gallagher, M (1991) Proportionality, Disproportionality and Electoral Systems. Electoral Studies 10, 33–51.Google Scholar
Goertz, G (2006) Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Haggard, S McCubbins, MD (2001) Presidents, Parliaments, and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hardeman, S Dijkstra, L (2014) The EU Regional Human Development Index. JRC Science and Policy Reports. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.Google Scholar
Hooghe, L, Marks, G Schakel, AH (2010) The Rise of Regional Authority: A Comparative Study of 42 Democracies. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Huo, J (2005) Party Dominance in 18 Countries: The Role of Party Dominance in the Transmission of Party Ideology. Canadian Journal of Political Science 38, 745–765.Google Scholar
Immergut, EM Abou-Chadi, T (2014) How Electoral Vulnerability Affects Pension Politics: Introducing a Concept, Measure and Empirical Application. European Journal of Political Research 53, 269–287.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R Welzel, C (2005) Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Inoguchi, T (1990) The Political Economy of Conservative Resurgence under Recession: Public Policies and Political Support in Japan, 1977–1983. In Pempel TJ (ed.), Uncommon Democracies: The One-Party Dominant Regimes. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 189–225.Google Scholar
Jeffery, C (2008) The Challenge of Territorial Politics. Policy and Politics 36, 545–557.Google Scholar
Keating, M (2013) Rescaling the European State: The Making of Territory and the Rise of the Meso. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Keating, M Loughlin, J (eds) (1997) The Political Economy of Regionalism. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Laakso, M Taagepera, R (1979) Effective Number of Parties: A Measure with Application to West Europe. Comparative Political Studies 12, 3–27.Google Scholar
Leonardi, R Wertman, DA (1989) Italian Christian Democracy: The Politics of Dominance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lieberman, E (2005) Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Research. American Political Science Review 99, 435–452.Google Scholar
Pempel, TJ (ed.) (1990) Uncommon Democracies: The One-Party Dominant Regimes. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, R (1993) Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sartori, G (1970) Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics. American Political Science Review 64, 1033–1053.Google Scholar
Sartori, G (1976) Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sharpe, LJ (ed.) (1993) The Rise of Meso Government in Europe. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Smith, G (2010) Hard and Soft Dominance: Assessing the Case of the Bavarian CSU. In Bogaards M and Boucek F (eds), Dominant Political Parties and Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons. London: Routledge: 98–108.Google Scholar
Strøm, K (1990) Minority Government and Majority Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taagepera, R (1999) Supplementing the Effective Number of Parties. Electoral Studies 18, 497–504.Google Scholar
Tabellini, G. (2005) Culture and Institutions: Economic Development in the Regions of Europe. Innocenzo Gasparino Institute for Economic Research (IGIER), Working Paper 292.Google Scholar
Tatham, M (2016) With, Without, or Against the State? How European Regions Play the Brussels Game. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tatham, M Thau, M (2014) The More the Merrier: Accounting for Regional Paradiplomats in Brussels. European Union Politics 15, 255–276.Google Scholar
Trigilia, C (1986) Small-Firm Development and Political Subcultures in Italy. European Sociological Review 2, 161–175.Google Scholar
Vampa, D (2009) The Death of Social Democracy: The Case of the Italian Democratic Party. Bulletin of Italian Politics 1, 347–370.Google Scholar
Vampa, D (2016) The Regional Politics of Welfare in Italy, Spain and Great Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Vassallo, S (2013) Il divario incolmabile: rappresentanza politica e rendimento istituzionale nelle regioni italiane. Bologna: il Mulino.Google Scholar