Multilevel Democracy Research Articles

Party preferences for climate policy and the renewable energy transition in Spain’s multilevel democracy

The growing influence of regional governments in shaping climate policy and driving the renewable energy transition in multilevel democracies like Spain provides incentives for parties in favor of decentralization to emphasize these issues. Recent research has shown that such parties act as climate pioneers at the regional tier of government, driven by their desire to assert stronger subnational authority. To investigate these dynamics at the national level, this article examines the manifestos of the parties that won seats in the 2016, 2019, and 2023 Spanish national elections. The empirical findings suggest that parties are more likely to prioritize climate change and the renewable energy transition if they are pro-decentralization. By emphasizing how multilevel governance strengthens these priorities through party competition and the quest for regional autonomy, this article fills an important gap spanning decentralization and policy preferences related to climate and renewable energy.

Explaining Deviant Voting in Subnational Elections: The Case of Local Council Elections in Germany

Elections in multi-level systems are challenging for voters because they are supposed to hold political representatives accountable in a complex system of responsibilities. Therefore, when casting their votes in elections at different levels of government, level-specific factors should be of relevance for voters when making voting decisions. We compare deviant voting behaviour in two specific types of local democracy, namely those where institutional and political factors cluster differently. While local candidate-oriented democracies are characterised by candidate-centred voting systems and local party systems with low degrees of nationalisation, local party-oriented democracies are characterised by closed list systems and local party systems that show high degrees of nationalisation. Using individual and aggregate data on local elections in Germany from 2014, we show that voters in local candidate-oriented democracies seem to be more affected by local factors when casting their votes. However, we also show that our results depend on the respective measurement strategies for deviant voting, as local vote intention in free list systems may be measured in alternative ways. The paper makes a significant contribution to the understanding of deviant and local voting behaviour in multi-level democracies with different voting systems.

The effects of election timing on national and subnational turnout in Canada

ABSTRACT Where a considerable volume of work has been spent looking at the effects of voter fatigue in multi-level democracies, few work has looked at Canada as a unique case. Leveraging the specificity of the Canadian federation – level-specific party systems and electoral cycles – we show that there exists a strong and significant voter fatigue effect such that electoral turnout is lower in early, ‘snap’ elections and increases as does the time in weeks between elections, wherever the level at play. This is particularly important given that the stochastic nature of provincial and federal elections in Canada induces Canadians to go to the polls frequently – perhaps in part explaining the country’s turnout decline since the mid-1940s.

The deteriorating legislative role of the legislature in multilevel democracies. Case of Poland

ABSTRACT Poland is a case of a state in which the role of legislative bodies in the political system has been gradually reduced at the various levels – national, regional, and local. Recently, this process has been related to executive aggrandisement observed in Poland, but the roots of this phenomenon can be traced back to the political transformation of this country observed after 1989. At the national level, the deteriorating legislative role of parliament manifests itself in four general processes: (1) The executive power treats the Sejm (lower chamber) as a subordinate institution. This involves formally introducing laws forced by the government in the form of proposals written by members of parliament (MPs) (as a way to shorten the legislative process and limit public consultations required by law); (2) Speeding up of parliamentary works – the Sejm is treated as a voting machine and not as a forum where debates and discussion take place; (3) Public consultations are superficial and the regulatory assessment impact is minimal; (4) The influence of the opposition on legislative processes is reduced to almost zero. Similar processes can be observed at the regional and local levels. The subnational legislative bodies are often under the control of executives. Instances of voting with no or limited discussions (favouring the governing majority) can be sometimes observed during the sessions of local and regional councils. This paper analyses the weakening of the legislative function in Poland at different levels, using a qualitative approach and data from desk research, media analysis, in-depth individual interviews and focus group interviews.

The Strategic State: Making It Work in Multi-level Democracies

The Strategic State: Making It Work in Multi-level Democracies

The imperfect legitimacy of judicial umpires in European multilevel democracies

AbstractJudicial institutions have become the standard solution to umpire multilevel polities across much of the European continent. However, such arrangement is not free from complexities. This paper analyses the problems associated with the construction of legitimacy regarding constitutional courts in European multilevel democracies. In these polities, constitutional courts tend to rely on three different forms of legitimacy, which are embedded into their institutional design: democratic, multilevel; and technocratic. However, these forms of legitimacy are in tension, often undermining one another when combined. Furthermore, this tension is exploited by political actors to attack the courts, resulting in reputational costs for these institutions.

Career models in the new tripolar order. Political profiles of the Italian MPs after 2022 general elections

The 2022 general elections confirmed the instability of the Italian political system and in its shift from a bipolar to a tripolar competition dynamic. The article explores similarities and differences among MPs elected in 2022 during such electoral turmoil, aiming to understand their profiles and career paths. Specifically, the research investigates whether certain elements such as gender and affiliation with an organisational thick or thin party may influence the MPs’ career models. We run a multinomial logistic regression to test the effects on multilevel career patterns by relying on an original dataset which comprises the socio-economic and political characteristics of the current MPS and their career trajectories for a total of 588 observations. Our findings show that women are often newcomers, and they are more likely to display an alternative career model. They struggle to fully capitalize on the opportunities offered by multilevel democracy, both before and after attaining their position as MPs. Furthermore, MPs belonging to a party with a strong organisation are more likely to develop unidirectional and integrated models, indicating their ability to navigate the multilevel context with well-planned and structured career paths.

COVID-19 and European Multi-Level Democracy.

COVID-19 and European Multi-Level Democracy.

Multilevel Democracy: How Local Institutions and Civil Society Shape the Modern State. By Jefferey M. Sellers, Anders Lidström, and Yooil Bae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 396p. $120.00 cloth.

Multilevel Democracy: How Local Institutions and Civil Society Shape the Modern State. By Jefferey M. Sellers, Anders Lidström, and Yooil Bae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 396p. $120.00 cloth. - Volume 19 Issue 2

Jefferey M. Sellers, Anders Lidström and Yooil Bae: Multilevel Democracy: How Local Institutions and Civil Society Shape the Modern State

Jefferey M. Sellers, Anders Lidström and Yooil Bae: Multilevel Democracy: How Local Institutions and Civil Society Shape the Modern State

Vertical linkages between regional and national electoral arenas and their impact on multilevel democracy

ABSTRACT By adopting a multilevel system perspective, we derive three insights from the analyses on regional elections presented in this third annual review of regional elections. First, we argue that Poland, South Korea and the USA can be conceived as aggregated bipolar party systems where competition at the nationwide level revolves around two parties whereas single parties dominate in the regions. Second, drawing on the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Kenya, and Nigeria, we claim that the integration of multilevel party systems (also) depends on the extent of collaboration between parties from the national and regional electoral arenas. Third, significant vote-switching revealed by election surveys held in Denmark and Sweden poses a significant challenge for theories on regional voting. We conclude by considering the wider implications of these three insights for multilevel democracy.

Electoral Behaviour in a European Union under Stress

Is electoral behaviour affected by the current challenges of the EU and, if it is, through which channels and mechanisms? This study offers a cross-national analysis together with a broad understanding of both the crisis phenomenon and electoral behaviour. To investigate this research question appropriately, we first distinguish at the most general level between the two main behavioural alternatives at play when it comes to electoral behaviour, namely abstention and vote choice. Second, and no less important, we differentiate between the mechanisms that mediate the relationship between the ‘EU under stress’ and electoral behaviour, namely egocentric and sociotropic economic voting motivations. Drawing on data from the European Election Study 2014, our article provides important insights into the study of electoral behaviour in an EU under stress. First, we are able to show that the multiple crises that have hit the EU have the potential to determine both turnout and the decision to vote for a Eurosceptic party. Second, different mechanisms are in play for each of the two behavioural alternatives: Turnout is clearly related to egocentric determinants and thus depends on individuals’ personal exposure to the financial crisis. Conversely, the decision to vote for a Eurosceptic party is based on a different mechanism. Voters—without necessarily being personally affected by the crisis—have a higher propensity to vote for a Eurosceptic party if they perceive their country to be threatened by such an EU under stress. These findings add to a better understanding of the EU’s multi-level democracy.

Who are "the people" in the German Constitution? A critique of , and contribution to , the debate about the right of foreigners to vote in multilevel democracies

ABSTRACT Democracy means power to the people, but it is not always clear who belongs to "the people". The question has become pertinent in the age of migration where large groups of foreigners permanently reside outside their countries of nationality. The economic, cultural, and political integration of these foreigners is one of the pressing problems faced by democratic States in both the developed and developing worlds. One question is : whether resident non-citizens should be granted the right to vote. The answer to this question depends on who belongs to "the people". In federal and quasi-federal States with multiple levels of government the further question arises : whether "the people" is a homogenous concept that applies uniformly across all levels of government. This article contributes to the debate about the right of foreigners to vote in democratic States with multiple levels of government, such as, South Africa and Kenya. It does so by discussing the German response to the problems mentioned above. The dominant view of the German Federal Constitutional Court since the 1990s has been that "the people" only includes "German citizens" , and that attempts by lower levels of government to extend the right to vote to foreigners from Africa and elsewhere are unconstitutional. In this article I explore and critique this conventional view. I then present a positive case for the extension of voting rights to resident non-citizens under the German Constitution. Many of the arguments would apply with equal force to the debate about the right to vote of foreigners in African multi-level democracies, such as, South Africa and Kenya. Keywords: Denizenship, Citizenship, Voting rights, Nationality law, Multi-level government, The people, Foreigners, Residents, Affected persons principle, Democracy.

Dimensions of political conflict and party positions in multi-level democracies: evidence from the Local Manifesto Project

Partisan conflicts have been frequently analysed in comparative political science research. Yet little is known about the dimensions of political conflict at the local level in multi-level democracies. This article contributes to the literature on the estimation and analysis of party positions by first presenting a new dataset of more than 800 local party manifestos in Germany that allows for a systematic analysis of the dimensions of political conflict at the German local level. Secondly, it is demonstrated that (semi-)automatic content analysis of these texts offers a promising approach for gaining new insights into local party positions. Thirdly, the empirical analysis of German local party manifestos shows that partisan conflicts are not only structured along the left–right dimension but also along a dimension which distinguishes between parties addressing ‘local’ and ‘national’ issues to a varying degree in their manifestos, due to the different behaviour of established and populist parties.

Introduction: multilevel democracy in the European Union and the innovations of the Lisbon Treaty

The Lisbon Treaty contained three institutional innovations that were designed to make the European Union (EU) more democratic: the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (OLP), the Early Warning Mechanism (EWM) for national parliaments, and the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). This short article sets the stage for a symposium that assesses whether the three mechanisms have indeed contributed to the EU’s democratization. It situates OLP, EWM, and ECI in the EU’s system of multilevel democracy and raises the question of whether the mechanisms address the institutional and societal factors that cause the EU’s democratic deficit.

Passage to bicameralism: Lisbon’s ordinary legislative procedure at ten

In the system of multilevel democracy emerging from the Lisbon Treaty, the ordinary legislative procedure (OLP) embodies the idea that it is possible to have democratic law-making in a polity characterized by a plurality of organized demoi. This article takes stock of this idea by examining what role democratic aspirations played in the invention of the OLP and how this procedure has affected EU policy-making processes, legislative outputs, and political participation in critical new areas of market regulation. Though the OLP is no silver bullet for EU democracy, it embeds the EU policy-making process in a rule-based logic. Its democratic effects are intimately bound up with the evolving institutions of the so-called legislative trilogues.

Passing the buck? Responsibility attribution and cognitive bias in multilevel democracies

This paper explores the effect of national partisanship and Euroscepticism on individuals’ causal responsibility attribution in European multilevel democracies. It is particularly focused on the average differences in responsibility attribution in federal and non-federal states, as well as in countries belonging to different European Union enlargement waves. Using a pooled dataset of the 2004, 2009, and 2014 European Election Studies, results show that when poor economic outcomes are at stake, partisans of the national incumbent in federal states are more likely to assign responsibility to regional governments following a blame-attribution logic, while this logic is absent in non-federal states. Likewise, Eurosceptic individuals are more likely to assign responsibility to European authorities when they hold negative views of the economy and they belong to countries that have been European Union members for a longer period.

Assessing democratic representation in multi-level democracies

This article introduces the special issue ‘Assessing democratic representation in multi-level democracies’ from a conceptual perspective. It adapts Powell’s chain of responsiveness – as a model of the democratic process on the national level – to the context of multi-level systems and discusses conditions that might facilitate or hamper responsiveness in regional democracies. The theoretical reasoning identifies added complexity, multiple actors sharing the same label and cross-level interdependent decisions as the key challenges to multi-level democracy. Empirical illustrations focus on the first stage of the representation process. Here voters should form rational policy preferences and take informed voting decisions, and parties are expected to offer coherent policy platforms that are tailored to the specifics of the regional level. While the analysis of party manifesto data suggests that regional parties cover regional issues, and strategic incentives to focus on other levels appear limited, survey-based information illustrates the cognitive burden of multi-level democracy on voters. In combination with a synopsis of the other contributions assembled in this issue, the findings suggest that information, responsibility and accountability problems may be particular obstacles to responsiveness in multi-level systems.

Pass the Buck If You Can: How Partisan Competition Triggers Attribution Bias in Multilevel Democracies

Voters’ ability to hold politicians accountable has been shown to be limited in systems of multilevel government. The existence of multiple tiers of government blurs the lines of responsibility, making it more difficult for voters to assign credit or blame for policy performance. However, much less is known about how the vertical division of responsibility affects citizens’ propensity to rationalize responsibility attributions on the basis of group attachment. While these two processes have similar observable implications, they imply markedly different micro-mechanisms. Using experimental and observational data, this paper examines how the partisan division of power moderates the impact of voters’ partisanship and feelings of territorial attachment on attributions of responsibility for the regional economy. Our analyses show that partisan-based attribution bias varies systematically with the partisan context, such that it only emerges in regions where a party other than the national incumbent controls the regional government. We also find that responsibility judgments are rationalized on the basis of territorial identities only when a regional nationalist party is in control of the regional government. Our results contribute to explaining the contextual variations in the strength of regional economic voting and more generally to understanding one of the mechanisms through which low clarity of responsibility reduces government accountability.

Intersectionality and its journeys: from counterhegemonic feminist theories to law of european multilevel democracy

Democratization processes imply questioning the discriminatory effects of law and politics, and challenging exclusionary legal categories and political institutions. Intersectionality was born as a tool for critical legal analysis and allowed identifying the multiplicity of interactions generated by social exclusion on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, national origin, (dis)ability and socioeconomic status, shedding light on the complexity of the mechanisms of power and privilege in social relations. In the last twenty-five years, intersectionality gained increasing popularity in the Anglophone academia, but it had uneven diffusion in the different socio-political contexts. The goal of this article is to identify the challenges of using intersectionality in the multilevel context of the European Union. To this end, the first part of this article addresses the conceptual origins of intersectionality, providing a genealogy that connects it with counterhegemonic feminist theories. In the second part, intersectionality is put in the American socio-legal context of the 70s where it originated in connection with the movement of Critical Legal Studies. Finally, considering the challenges involved in transposing into the legal framework of European Union a concept that traveled from another legal system, the third part of the article offers an overview of the recent development of European Union law as an example of the advancements and challenges that the introduction of intersectionality can suppose for democratic societies. The final goal of this study is to contribute to the broader debate on the implementation of intersectionality in the multilevel European democracy.