Parties In Spain Research Articles

The Analysis on Obstacles to Rise of Far-Right Parties in Spain

The Analysis on Obstacles to Rise of Far-Right Parties in Spain

Mathematical Modeling of the Propagation of Democratic Support of Extreme Ideologies in Spain: Causes, Effects, and Recommendations for Its Stop

This paper deals with the construction of a discrete population mathematical model for the short-term forecast until January 2016 of the electoral support of extreme ideology parties in Spain. Firstly, the nontrivial concept of extreme ideology is stated. Then, the electoral register is split in three subpopulations: supporters of extremist parties, abstentions/blank voters, and supporters of establishment parties. The model takes into account the following variables: economy measured throughout the Spanish unemployment rate; demography quantified in terms of birth and death rates and emigration; sociopolitical situation measured by the Spanish poverty indicator, trust on the Government labor indicator (GLI), and the indicator of political trust. By considering the dynamic subpopulations transits built throughout data obtained from public and private prestigious institutions and sociopolitical analysis, a system of difference equations models the electoral population behavior in Spain allowing us to compute the expected electoral support in the time horizon of January 2016. Sensitivity analysis versus uncertain parameters is performed in order to improve the reliability of the model results.

La nacionalización electoral de los partidos políticos en España

Este estudio se centra en la nacionalización de los partidos en Españaentendida como la homogeneidad en los apoyos electorales que consigueun partido en las circunscripciones de una elección nacional. La primeraparte del artículo presenta una descripción de la evolución de la nacionalizacióndesde 1977 hasta la actualidad y muestra cómo el sistema departidos español está cada vez más nacionalizado pese a sus diferenciasentre partidos. En la segunda parte se busca explicar sus determinantes. Elanálisis indica que los votos que reciba el partido a nivel nacional incrementanla nacionalización de los partidos. La antigüedad solo potencia lanacionalización si el partido es de ámbito estatal mientras que para lospartidos subnacionales esta variable tiene un efecto negativo, apuntando aun trade-off entre ambos grupos. Finalmente, la distancia en el ejeizquierda-derecha reduce la homogeneidad electoral de los partidosnacionales mientras que las elecciones fundacionales no tienen efecto.

Exploring the relationships between media and political parties through web hyperlink analysis: The case of Spain

The study focuses on the web presence of the main Spanish media and seeks to determine whether hyperlink analysis of media and political parties can provide insight into their political orientation. The research included all major national media and political parties in Spain. Inlink and co-link data about these organizations were collected and analyzed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) and other statistical methods. In the MDS map, media are clustered based on their political orientation. There are significantly more co-links between media and parties with the same political orientation than there are between those with different political orientations. Findings from the study suggest the potential of using link analysis to gain new insights into the interactions among media and political parties. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

El desconcierto educativo

After de failure of educacional pact 2010, we ask ourselves about the differences between educational policies of the most important politics parties in Spain: P.P. (Patido Popular) u P.S.O.E. (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol). Specially we interested about the educational proposals of P.P. (Partido Popular). In the analysis emphasize the repetition of two main proposals for action and practise of educational policies of the right-wing Spanish. These proposals are ownership and freedon of choice of school. Thinking in the theoretical justifications of a political exponent and important reference of P.P. about educational policy, Francisco Lopez Ruperez –current president of Community School Board of Madrid-, we propose an exercise of exploration of future possibilities, comparing the results expected by the author after the implementation of state subsidy of private school with indications that the practice has left to is to date. So that we analyze the study of Dr. Ana Villarroya Planas (it was made in 2000), about the effects of application of state subsidy of private school in Spain.

Why mobilize support online? The paradox of party behaviour online

The internet offers opportunities for political mobilization that parties are under-exploiting. Drawing on the rational choice approach to party behaviour, this paper builds an argument for why this is the case. I argue that if parties are not using new media to mobilize support, it is because the benefits of using it are uncertain while there are very certain costs – communicational and organizational – involved in the decision. I also argue that party characteristics shape incentives to use the internet for political mobilization and hence help to account for observed differences in party behaviour online. Using evidence from parties in Spain and Catalonia, the study finds that parties that are large, in opposition, non-programmatic, and non-bureaucratic tend to have greater incentives to use the internet for political mobilization, both because they expect to get the largest benefits and to pay the minimum costs from online mobilization.

Endogenizing legislative candidate selection procedures in nascent democracies: evidence from Spain and Chile

This article contributes to filling a gap in the resurgent literature on legislative candidate selection procedures by analysing the adoption of such procedures in nascent democracies. We contend that within transitional systems distinct contexts constrain choice and bargaining for candidate selection procedures in different ways, and condition the adoption of legislative candidate selection procedures by parties. In particular we posit that the relative levels of uncertainty about the installation and continuance of democracy, strategic complexity of the electoral system, and party leadership autonomy, create incentives for the adoption of more or less inclusive candidate selection procedures. We evaluate our propositions based on evidence from the relevant political parties in Spain and Chile.

Political Determinants of Regional Financing: The Case of Spain

We contribute to the literature on the political determinants of regional financing by analyzing the case of Spain, a largely decentralized country. Using a dynamic panel data model, we argue that the rise in relative bargaining power of regional parties in Spain can partly explain the increase in budgetary allocations to regions observed during the period 1986–2006. In particular, our results show that the rise in parliamentary representation of the nationalist Catalonian party, measured by the Banzhaf voting power index, has been a significant factor in ensuring increasing financial resources to regional governments. In addition, the traditional hypotheses of the political economy literature on legislative apportionment are tested for the case of Spain, with no significant results observed. The overall distribution of regional financing in Spain seems to be in general well aligned with the basic economic principles of efficiency and equity recommended for such a system.

Measuring party organization: The vertical dimension of the multi-level organization of state-wide parties in Spain and the UK

Over the past few years, attention to the role of state-wide political parties in multi-level polities has increased in recognition of their linkage function between levels of government, as these parties compete in both state-wide and regional elections across their countries. This article presents a coding scheme designed to describe the relationship between central and regional levels of state-wide parties. It evaluates the involvement of the regional branches in central decision-making and their degree of autonomy in the management of regional party affairs. This coding scheme is applied to state-wide parties in Spain (the socialist PSOE and the conservative Partido Popular) and in the UK (Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats). It is an additional tool with which to analyse party organization and it facilitates the comparison of parties across regions and in different countries.

Party Competition in the Spanish Regions

Party politics in multi-level systems has become a growing research field in political science (see Hough et al, 2003; Hough and Jeffery, 2006), but has rarely focused on comparing structures of multi-level party competition. Regional party competition is particularly important in political systems where state decentralisation has significantly shifted the electoral and coalitional incentives available to party actors, whether statewide or non-statewide. This paper will compare structures of party competition in the Spanish regions, using three principal dimensions of analysis: electoral support for statewide parties in regional elections; patterns of coalition formation at regional level; and patterns of alternation in regional government. The paper finds that multi-level party competition in Spain displays 'vertical' (central-regional) and 'horizontal' (inter-regional) incongruence (Thorlakson, 2006; 2007). This incongruence has never undermined party competition at central level, due partly to the weakness of systemic linkages between regional and central party systems. The main exception is Catalonia, where systemic linkages with Spanish politics are so strong that all parties (statewide and non-statewide) have sought to pursue a strategy of coalitional congruence. Divergent patterns of regional party competition have encouraged some regional branches of statewide parties to become more autonomous from the central leadership, both in their electoral strategies and coalitional choices, while others have remained closely integrated with the central leadership. This has significantly reinforced the degree of internal asymmetry in the multi-level organisation of statewide parties in Spain.

Party Organization in a Multi-level System: Party Organizational Change in Spain and the UK

This article investigates the link between regionalization of the structure of government, regional elections and regionalism on the one hand, and the organization of state-wide political parties in Spain and the UK on the other. It particularly looks at two aspects of the relations between the central and regional levels of party organization: integration of the regional branches in central decision making and autonomy of the regional branches. It argues that the party factors are the most crucial elements explaining party change and that party leaders mediate between environmental changes and party organization. The parties' history and beliefs and the strength of the central leadership condition their ability or willingness to facilitate the emergence of meso-level elites. The institutional and electoral factors are facilitating factors that constitute additional motives for or against internal party decentralization.

The Role of (ETA) Violence in the Construction of Nationalism in Spain and the Basque Country

AbstractUsing the theoretical concepts of the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, the author discusses the different ways in which three political parties in Spain ‐ PP, PSOE and PNV ‐ construct their discourse in relation to the nation and violence. It is claimed that the PP has developed a discourse based on chains of equivalence, one of which has the nation as a nodal point and the other ‐ the (ETA) violence. These chains are not just political but also ethical constructions. The PSOE bases its discourse on the logic of difference, which attempts to expand the political field to include more and more elements, but sometimes fails to renegotiate some important concepts. The PNV is in a constant fluctuation between the sovereignist position of a permanent struggle to preserve the Basque identity and to liberate the Basque Country and the autonomist position where the logic of difference is employed and only violence is left aside.

The importance of electoral rules: Comparing the number of parties in Spain's Lower and Upper Houses

In this paper we study a coordination dilemma that appears in democracies where the Upper and Lower Houses are elected simultaneously using significantly different rules. How do party systems form when some parties are only viable in some districts of one of the chambers? Are party systems independent from one another, as Duvergerian theories expect, or dependent, as the literature on the interactive features of mixed electoral systems predict? Using the case of Spain, where all the possible incentive structures for electoral coordination are present, we test both theories. Our results point out that contamination effects matter, but they are not strong enough to make Duvergerian gravity disappear. Both effects are at play in Spanish elections.

Articles Originally Presented at the Eiss Conference on Federalism and Subsidiarity in Social Security in Rome, September 2004: Old-Age Benefits and Decentralisation: The Spanish Case in Comparative Perspective

The decentralisation of social security in general, and old-age pensions in particular, has been proposed by several nationalist parties in Spain. The purpose of this article is to analyse the rationality of this proposal, taking into account efficiency and equity issues. It is divided into four sections. The first introductory section reviews the most important literature on fiscal federalism, applying it to pensions. The second section analyses the division of competencies in Spanish old-age benefits, focusing specifically on legal aspects. The third describes the degree of decentralisation of public transfers for the elderly in several countries: Belgium, Canada, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. The final section evaluates the current Spanish system, considers the possibility of decentralisation in the light of economic efficiency, territorial equity and lessons learnt from other federal countries, and examines the evolution of the principal quantitative variables regarding the old-age pensions in the different Autonomous Regions.

Russian parties and the political internet

Russian parties and the political internet

Long‐range dependence in Spanish political opinion poll series

AbstractThis paper investigates the time series properties of partisanship for five political parties in Spain. It is found that pure fractional processes with a degree of integration, d, between 0.6 and 0.8 fit the time‐series behaviour of aggregate opinion polls for mainstream parties quite well, whereas values of d in the range of 0.3 to 0.6 are obtained for opinion polls related to smaller regional parties. Those results are in agreement with theories of political allegiance based on aggregation of heterogeneous voters with different degrees of commitment and pragmatism. Further, those models are found to be useful in forecasting the results of the last general elections in Spain. As a further contribution, new econometric techniques for estimation and testing of ARFIMA model are used to provide the previous evidence. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Andalusian teacher centres: in the political crossfire

This article analyses the background of teacher centres (CEPs) in Spain and presents the synthesis of conclusions drawn from the evaluation of such centres and continuous education in Andalusia (Spain), carried out according to the model of democratic evaluation defended by Barry McDonald. Three issues are dealt with: (a) the change of government policies concerning the running of teacher centres, from autonomy to control; (b) the changes in the way teachers' continuous education and advice strategies are understood; and (c) how teacher commitment to innovation and education reform evolved with time. All this takes place within the framework of political confrontations between the two main parties in Spain: the Socialists (PSOE) - who institutionalized the CEPs and created education reform, and who continue to govern in Andalusia - and the Conservatives (PP) - who are currently in power in central government and who neither supported educational reform nor the teacher centres. In this context, the analysis of the use of the CEPs as a political weapon in their confrontation is one of the main objectives of the evaluation.

Surviving the political consequences of neoliberal policies

In many countries in Latin America and also western Europe, leftist parties have succeeded in winning repeated re-election even though they have implemented neoliberal economic policies when in government. According to the existing literature, these parties should suffer electoral punishment since they are diverging from their traditional policy course and their electoral promises, and their neoliberal policies are potentially costly for their core support groups. Analysing the cases of left-of-centre parties in Spain and Costa Rica, this article argues that policy implementation strategies, together with strategic use of institutional rules, help to obfuscate the policies' impact, deflect blame, and make re-election possible. The reform of welfare and the way we live now: a critique of Giddens and the Third Way

Democracy without Associations: Transformation of the Party System and Social Cleavages in India

India's party system has undergone a profound transformation over the last decade. The Congress Party, a catch-all party that brought independence in 1947 and governed India for much of the period since then, no longer dominates the electoral scene. Political parties which draw support from particular caste and religious groups are now more powerful than ever before. Democracy Without Associations explains why religious and caste-based political parties come to dominate the electoral landscape in 1990s India and why catch-all parties have declined. Arguing that political parties and state policy can make some social divisions more salient than others and also determine how these divisions affect the political system, the author offers an explanation for the relationship between electoral competition and the politicization of social differences in India. He notes that the relationship between social cleavages and the party system is not axiomatic and that political parties can influence the links they have to social cleavages. The argument developed for India is also used to account for emergence of class-based parties in Spain and the electoral success of a religious party in Algeria.Democracy Without Associations will interest scholars and students of Indian politics, and party politics, as well as those interested in the impact of social divisions on the political system.Pradeep K. Chhibber is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Associate Director, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan.

Re-Entering Electoral Politics

This article examines change in the Greek and Spanish party systems between their pre- and post-authoritarian periods. While the Greek party system displayed substantial continuity, the Spanish system showed considerable change. We connect continuity in party structure with length of interruption of competitive electoral politics. Our argument relies on the idea of reputation to explain why Spanish party leaders were far less constrained in moving their parties along the policy space than their Greek counterparts. Political parties in Spain had less reputation for established policy positions than Greek parties. Our argument and its implications are formally derived from a model developed by Bowler. We evaluate some alternative explanations and conclude that reputation is a factor accounting for variation in party system change in these two cases. At the time of the transition party leaders were presented with different opportunities to redefine their respective parties' policy positions.