Party Composition Research Articles

Immigration Policy with Partisan Parties

This paper analyzes the political economy of immigration when the salient electoral issue is the level of immigrants and the relevant immigration policy is the expenditure in immigration control. We consider that immigration affects voters’ welfare through economic and non economic factors. We model political competition a la Wittman with the ideology of parties endogenously determined at equilibrium. Numerical simulations provide the levels of immigration proposed by the two parties and the composition of parties’ constituencies. At equilibrium, parties propose different levels of immigration, located to the left and to the right of the median voter’s ideal point. We find that improvements in the efficacy of immigration control increases the probability of victory of the party proposing a tighter immigration policy and decreases the disparity in parties’ policy proposals.

Party Rules, OK: Voting in the House of Commons on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which passed through the Westminster Parliament in 2007–08, demonstrated the dominance of party, even when the whips are removed and MPs are given a free vote. The party composition of the Commons determined the passage of the Bill and there is evidence that on abortion the dominance of party is becoming stronger still. There was also a gendered dimension to the voting, but even on abortion—the archetypical womens issue—the gender dimension came a poor second to the strength of party in determining the outcome of the vote.

The influence of presidential heads of state on government formation in European democracies: Empirical evidence

AbstractTheories of coalition politics have paid little attention to the role of presidential heads of state in the government‐formation process. This article investigates the influence of presidents on the two most important features of government‐formation outcomes: the identity of the party of the prime minister and the party composition of the coalition. Substantial evidence is found that presidents in European democracies have managed to induce their preferred governments from the potential alternatives. The results also suggest that parliament‐selected presidents and popularly elected presidents have different mechanisms of influence on these outcomes. The investigation sheds new light on the government‐formation process in semi‐presidential as well as in pure parliamentary systems.

The Politics of Public Spending in Post-Communist Countries

A growing body of literature documents that under the economic and social pressures accompanying the post-communist transformations, governments in Central and Eastern European countries have been forced to change their spending habits. However, because most of these findings are based only on case studies or comparisons of a very small number of countries, it is difficult to observe to what extent the post-communist countries' development patterns share commonalities or develop in unique ways. This article explores in a quantitative comparative framework the effects of government composition, globalization, political institutions, and socioeconomic factors on total public, public social, and public education expenditures in twelve nation states. The authors find that the party composition of government has the most robust effect, in that left incumbency is positively correlated with total public and social expenditures. This result indicates that in this sense, post-communist countries are similar to Western democratic ones. The authors find only mixed results regarding the effects of globalization on public spending. This might suggest that globalization does not have a direct effect on the spending policies of these countries, but rather is mediated by domestic contexts.

Government Formation in Multi-Level Settings

It is generally assumed that in multi-level political systems political actors desire to form regional coalitions that match the party composition of the coalition governing at the central level, and that where this matching attempt does not occur it is because a possible new coalition formula for the central level is being tested at the regional one. This article shows that the congruence of party composition of government coalitions across levels is in itself neither desirable nor undesirable for regional political actors. Its strategic potential is mediated by three other factors: the institutional setting regulating the intensity of cross-level intergovernmental cooperation in policy-making, the type of party in question and its respective relative bargaining weight at both levels of government. Empirical evidence from four Spanish regional government-formation cases supports this argument.

A Comparison of Ecolodge Patrons' Characteristics and Motivations Based on Price Levels: A Case Study of Belize

Ecolodges are an increasingly popular accommodation form. This study determined the demographic and trip characteristics, as well as the travel motivations of ecolodge patrons at three different price levels: budget, mid-price and upscale. Six ecolodges were studied in the Cayo District of Belize. Of 480 questionnaires distributed at the ecolodges, 331 valid surveys were returned (68.9% response rate). The clients of the Belizean ecolodges had some demographic characteristics similar to those of ecotourists found in other studies: middle-aged, highly educated, and employed with high levels of income. This study found consistency amongst the three groups in the most important travel attraction motives, with tropical forests and wilderness/undisturbed nature ranked highest by all groups. The study also showed consistency amongst the three groups with regards to travel social motives, with learn and explore nature the top-ranked social motive by all groups. The study found significant differences amongst the price levels on many variables, including: age, country of residence, education, employment status, income, party composition, trip length, length of stay at the ecolodge and level of ecolodge experience. There were important differences found in travel motivations and the importance of ecolodge attributes. The mid-price group was the hardest to please; they wanted a lower price, yet desired the quality, services and programmes of the upscale group.

A structural theory of the vacation

This paper presents a structural theory of the vacation incorporating five premises: (1) vacations have structure, (2) many vacationers seek structure to their vacation experiences, (3) three alternate macrostructures exist amongst vacations, (4) vacation microstructure consists of a composite of elements chosen by the vacationer, and (5) vacation macrostructure impacts on microstructure decision-making. The paper identifies three vacation macrostructures – stay-put vacations, arranged touring vacations, and freewheeling touring vacations. The timing of the vacationer's choice of microelements of the vacation, including their choices in travel routes and places of accommodation, is inherently different for each of the three macrostructures. An empirical study identifies these three macrostructures amongst the trips undertaken by a representative sample of Swiss households. The study also observes differences between the three macrostructures in destinations chosen, duration of vacations, levels of vacation expenditure, composition of travel parties, choices of transport mode, and motives for travel. By understanding how tourists structure their vacations, tourism operators may be better able to create value in tourists' vacation experiences.

Sexual Differences in Chimpanzee Sociality

Scientists usually attribute sexual differences in sociality to sex-specific dispersal patterns and the availability of kin within the social group. In most primates, the dispersing sex, which has fewer kin around, is the less social sex. Chimpanzees fit well into the pattern, with highly social philopatric males and generally solitary dispersing females. However, researchers in West Africa have long suggested that female chimpanzees can be highly social. We investigated whether chimpanzees in the Taï Forest (Côte d’Ivoire) exhibit the expected sexual differences in 3 social parameters: dyadic association, party composition, and grooming interactions. Though we found a significant sexual difference in each of the 3 parameters, with males being more social than females, the actual values do not reveal striking differences between the sexes and do not support the notion of female chimpanzees as asocial: females had dyadic association indices comparable to mixed-sex dyads, spent ca. 82% of their time together with other adult chimpanzees, and had a comparable number of grooming partners. Further, female associations can be among the strongest bonds within the community, indicating that both sexes can have strongly favored association partners. The findings are in contrast to reports on East African chimpanzees, the females of which are mainly solitary and rarely interact with other females. Our results suggest that researchers cannot generally regard chimpanzee females as asocial and need to redefine models deriving patterns of sociality from dispersal patterns to integrate the possibility of high female sociality in male philopatric systems.

Europe's party-political centre of gravity, 1957–2003

Europe's ‘political space’, its dimensionality and its impact on European policies have received increased academic attention lately. Yet, one very basic element of this political space, the party composition of EU member states' governments, has never been studied in a systematic way in the rich literature on European integration. In this paper we explain why the EU literature should pay more attention to the analysis of Europe's party-political ‘centre of gravity’. We give a systematic overview of the party composition of member governments from 1957 to 2003. This includes analyses of how the support for integration, the left/right political conviction, and the ideological homogeneity or heterogeneity of the member states affected the Council over the course of time. We draw on expert surveys, the data of the Comparative Manifesto Project, and data about government composition.

Religion and Politics in the Howard Decade

The interaction between religion and politics is varied, complex and often heated. It involves constitutional issues, voting behaviour, party composition and electoral competition, faith-based public administration, advocacy and lobbying by churches, mutual criticism by churches and the state, and the public presentation of religious values. This article is a comprehensive mapping and discussion of a range of the major religion and politics issues in Australia since the election of the Howard government in 1996. This has been a decade in which religion has had a higher political profile than at any time since the 1950s Labor Split. One feature has been the rise to prominence of Catholics in the Coalition parties, whereas they featured heavily on the other side during the Labor Split. It is a more intellectually interesting decade than the 1950s because the influence of religion has crossed denominational and faith boundaries from the mainstream Christian churches to the newer Evangelical Christian churches and to non-Christian religions such as Islam. The overall impact of religious intervention appears to have favoured the Coalition parties, but many unanswered questions remain about the motivation and impact of these developments, and there are numerous opportunities for further research.

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) modify grouping and vocal behaviour in response to location-specific risk

Abstract Chimpanzees have hostile intergroup relations and are reported to use two strategies to reduce risk in the territory periphery: travelling in larger subgroups ('parties'), and travelling silently. We examined data from the Kanyawara chimpanzee community, Kibale National Park, Uganda to test for evidence of these strategies. We compared behaviour in the territory core with two potentially dangerous contexts: the periphery and croplands. Parties that visited the periphery had over twice as many adult males as parties that remained in the core. Analysis of vocal production rate of 249 parties revealed that, controlling for time of day and party composition, chimpanzees produced fewer pant-hoot calls in croplands than in the core. Pant-hoot production varied in different sectors of the periphery, being reduced in three sectors, unchanged in one, and increased in one. Focal follows of 12 males found results similar to party follows, but with rank-related individual variation. Overall, these results indicate that chimpanzees have the ability to modify grouping and vocal behaviour to reduce risk in areas with a high risk of detection. However, rather than consistently remaining silent in the periphery, chimpanzees in this population sometimes increased their vocalization rate, perhaps to advertise territory ownership and coalition strength.

Elecciones Perú, 2006: complejidades y paradojas de una democracia aún vulnerable

This article offers a first approximation to the recent electoral process that took Alan Perez to his second presidency. This is a process for which is not possible to give concluding remarks, mostly because of how recent it is and the lack of information available. With the intention to inform, we make some reflections germane to the Peruvian political debate.The article describes the first and second rounds and the factors that help explain the results, especially Alan Garcia s victory of and the resulting party composition of Congress. In its closing section, the article advances some general conclusions about the process.

The private–public mix of healthcare: evidence from a decentralised NHS country

Privatizations of public services are often driven by economic scarcity and changes in political leadership, in particular election victories for conservative or neoliberal political parties. Data from Norwegian counties on numbers of medical specialists in secondary care over a period of 11 years (1991-2001) allow us to analyse effects of economic, socioeconomic, and political factors on supply of both public and private specialists and the private-public mix. We find striking variations between the main explanatory factors related to public and private supply. Supply of public specialists is explained by counties' revenue levels and demographic factors and is not affected by the party composition of councils. The supply of private specialist medical services is negatively related to the proportion of elderly patients. The scarcity hypothesis is confirmed as lower county revenue levels increase both the absolute and relative proportions of private supply. Political composition of councils affects the private proportion of medical specialists as increased representation of conservatives leads to privatization.

Duration of Party Control in Parliamentary and Presidential Governments

Most of the previous work on political stability uses cabinet duration or leadership duration to measure stability. This study, however, focuses on another area of stability, namely the party control of the executive branch. This approach not only allows us to compare political durability in presidential and parliamentary systems directly, but it also, we believe, better reflects policy changes that stem from government party composition. Our analysis of longitudinal data from 65 democracies reveals that presidential and parliamentary governments create different patterns of government survival. Ruling parties in parliamentary systems encounter a declining hazard rate over time, whereas those in presidentialism face an increasing hazard rate in their survival. We explain this difference by focusing on how parliamentary and presidential systems create different incentive structures for political parties.

Most recent municipal electoral results

It analyzes the main trends of citizenry participation in the most recent Costa Rican municipal elections. The contribution describes the most salient results of such phenomenon in topics such as winning party, level of mobilization of voters, party composition of the organizations of political representation, the increase in party offer and the performance of canton groups. Its main mission is to contextualize what has happened recently in order to understand how these trends relate to what has happened in the past.

The Italian Regional Elections of April 2005: Does the Triumph of the Union Signal the End of the Berlusconi Era?

This article examines the Italian regional elections of April 2005. After briefly sketching the shaping of regional government over the past ten years, the article examines the regional/national intersection, the regional electoral results and national political perspectives. The most important features of the electoral offer (the choice of candidates for regional president and the party composition of the coalitions) are examined, together with how and where the Unione Democratica triumphed over the Casa delle Libertà. The article concludes by asking whether or not the outcome of the regional elections suggests that all is cut and dried with regard to the prospects for the 2006 general elections.

Catch Rates Relative to Angler Party Size with Implications for Monitoring Angler Success

AbstractAngler catch rates often are used to monitor angler success, assess the need for additional management actions, and evaluate the effectiveness of management practices. Potential linkages between catch rate and angler party size were examined to assess how party size might affect the use of catch rate as an index of angler success in recreational fisheries. Data representing 22,355 completed interviews conducted at access points in lakes and reservoirs throughout Mississippi during 1987–2003 were analyzed. Total party catch was not proportional to total party effort; thus, catch rate decreased as party size increased. Depending on the taxa targeted, the average catch rate per angler decreased 40–50% between parties of one and parties of two, although subsequent decreases were less substantial. Because party size accounted for a considerable portion of the variability in catch rate over time and space, failure to remove this variability weakens the manager's ability to detect differences or changes in catch rates. Therefore, the use of catch rates to monitor fisheries may be inappropriate unless party size is taken into account. Party size may influence the angler's ability to catch fish through a variety of processes, including partitioning a limited number of catchable fish among members of a party and party composition. When catch rates are used to estimate total catch rather than to index angler success, party size is not a concern.

Unity and Plurality in the French Right

This article looks at the changes that have occurred in the composition and cohesion of the moderate right parties under the Fifth Republic. From the Gaullist hegemony of the 1960s, the right has undergone a number of separations and splintering of its principal formations, which have affected its ability to compete effectively, particularly against a cohesive left. The formation of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire in 2002 ostensibly provides a unitary actor that can compete effectively against the left and counter the nuisance effect of the extreme right. However, within the party, there are still a number of ideological streams which, together with the personality clashes encouraged by the presidential succession, may threaten the cohesion of the party and its dominance of the right.

Paving the way for employment? The impact of the Luxembourg process on German labour market policies

The article analyses the impact of the European Employment Strategy on German policies. The Luxembourg Process contains concrete, quantitative objectives as well as relatively heterogeneous proposals that allow rather antithetical national policies. Nevertheless, it marks a specific European path, emphasising state–led activation strategies. Applying clear and verifiable criteria, we analyse the impact of the guidelines, the quantified objectives and the recommendations on German employment policies and find that they selectively influenced German policies, normally catalysing existing policies (‘intensifier effects’), but sometimes also inducing a policy change (‘steering effects’). The impact varies depending on the concreteness of the guidelines and the party composition of the government.

Constituencies and Preferences in International Bargaining

Previous formal models of two-level games, which try to determine whether a domestic ratification constraint provides an executive with bargaining leverage in international negotiations, pay little attention to the exact nature of the executive's constituency and the source of the constraint. The author uses a gametheoretic model to show that an executive with a national constituency such as a nationally elected president benefits by being constrained. An executive with a constituency distinct from that of the ratifying legislators, however, isworse off under greater constraints, when the constraintscome from constituencies other than his or her own. This can occur, for instance, in a minority or coalition parliamentary government consisting of parties with different and in fact opposing constituencies. Testable hypotheses are derived on the effect of the party composition of the legislature on the executive's constraint.