Abstract

Amid increasingly de-aligned electoral behaviour since the 1970s, several electoral contests in developed democracies have stood out as ‘earthquake elections’. However, since the original manifestations of these in Scandinavia, there has been little systematic analysis as to what exactly constitutes one. The present article re-examines the 1973 Danish ‘Jordskredsvalget’ and measures subsequent ‘earthquakes’ against it. It finds that not all dramatic elections necessarily qualify as ‘earthquakes’ and in particular, that the most recent apparent occurrence, in Ireland in 2011, actually disguised considerable stability within the party system.

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