State-wide Parties Research Articles

Mujer y partidos políticos en España: las estrategias de los partidos y su impacto institucional, 1978-2004

El presenta articulo realiza un analisis en profundidad de la respuesta de las tres formaciones politicas de ambito estatal (Partido Socialista, Partido Popular e Izquierda Unida) a la reivindicacion de una presencia equilibrada de mujeres y hombres en los puestos de responsabilidad politica; una demanda que atane a los partidos en tanto que entre sus funciones operativas se encuentra el reclutamiento de las elites politicas, y es esta seleccion de candidatos la que determina finalmente la configuracion de las instituciones politicas. En concreto, analiza las estrategias implementadas por los tres partidos en el periodo democratico iniciado en 1978 y estudia su efecto sobre la presencia de las mujeres en los cargos de maxima responsabilidad organica y en las instituciones representativas. Se constata que el incremento en la representacion femenina se ha producido tanto por cuestiones ambientales (la competicion electoral entre los partidos, la lucha por el voto femenino, etc.) como por cuestiones internas, como la ideologia politica del partido, la constitucion de 'lobbies' de militantes feministas en los partidos y la introduccion de cuotas

British Statewide Parties and Multilevel Politics

The article addresses how Britain's major statewide political parties—Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats—adapted to political devolution in Scotland and Wales. It explores party organization, programs, and policymaking. It argues that the Labour Party experienced the most territorial intraparty conflict but fairly rapidly achieved a new balance between British and Scottish/Welsh party interests. The Conservative Party struggled after its 1997 UK election defeat and failed to adapt to multilevel politics with any consistency. The Liberal Democrats experienced the smoothest adjustment, largely on account of their own federal party constitution. The article concludes that the findings provide some backing to rational choice institutionalist hypotheses of party change but that a historical institutionalist approach can provide a fuller understanding of how parties adapt to devolution reforms.

Devolution and involution: De-federalization politics through educational policies in Spain (1996–2004)

Spanish autonomous communities have extensive powers in education, gradually extended since the 1980s. These have been used to engage in region and nation-building at the level of the autonomous communities. There is also a division between the main state-wide parties over secularism and the degree of inequality in the education system. Under the government of the Popular Party (1996–2004) there was an effort to recentralize the educational system, to emphasize conservative values and Spanish national identity.

A Step Backwards or a Step Forwards? The Politics and Policies of Decentralization under the Governments of the Partido Popular*

This article analyses the extent to which the centralist and unitary perceptions of Spanish national identity, historically linked to right-wing state-wide parties, guided the policy choices on political decentralization made by the governments of the Partido Popular (PP) (1996–2004), especially those related to the participation of the Autonomous Communities within state-wide politics and policy processes. Using data on intergovernmental conflicts, it finds that although the PP governments did actively neglect the political role of the Autonomous Communities at the state level, this behaviour was as much related to their adherence to the traditional right-wing attitude towards political decentralization itself as to their desire to prevent the Autonomous Communities acting as a political opposition.

Multi-Level Electoral Competition

Regionalization in the form of the creation of Autonomous Communities (ACs) has played a significant role in shaping the Spanish party system since the transition to democracy in 1977. Parties are divided into statewide parties, operating at both national and regional levels, and non-statewide parties. The latter have been most important in the historic nations of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia. We can generally see autonomous elections as second-order elections, with lower turnout than national elections and with results generally following the national pattern. In certain cases, the presence of non-statewide parties challenges this pattern and in Catalonia a distinct political arena exists with its own characteristics. The existence of autonomous parliaments and governments has also provided new opportunities for both statewide and non-statewide parties and served as a power base for political figures within the parties.

Political Decentralization, Electoral Change and Party Organizational Adaptation

Electoral politics in the larger Western democracies seems to be becoming increasingly `denationalized': non-statewide political parties have grown in strength, and demands for decentralization have led to major institutional changes in large unitary states in recent years. As a result, the conventional view of party politics as essentially taking place at the national level, between national parties, over national issues, appears increasingly inadequate. This article argues that party scholars need to look more closely at what we could call the `territorial dimension' of electoral politics: the spatial and geographical aspects of party competition. This article presents a preliminary analysis of how centre-periphery tensions and institutional reforms affect the way statewide parties organize, focusing on the areas of elite recruitment, electoral programmes and campaigning, and party behaviour in public office. It hypothesizes a variety of patterns of party response, and provides some tentative evidence from Western European democracies, and in particular Britain, Italy and Spain.This analysis shows that the internal workings of statewide political parties are a key variable in understanding the relationship between institutional reform and the `denationalization' of electoral politics.

Institutionalizing Party Systems in Multiethnic States: Integration and Ethnic Segmentation in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1992

A country’s multinational diversity does not by itself predict the way this diversity will be reflected in the party system. The pattern of party politics also depends on the context: electoral and institutional rules, differential political assets, and different incentives to cooperate or dissent. To demonstrate variations in the dynamics of ethnic politics, this article examines the divergent ways in which Slovak political parties were organized within the larger political system in two periods—the interwar unitary Czechoslovak state and the postcommunist federal state. Differences in political resources and institutional setting help explain why interwar Slovakia had a hybrid party system composed of both statewide and ethnoregional parties, while the postcommunist state saw the emergence of two entirely separate party systems in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In turn, differing patterns of party politics in these two cases had different consequences for the management of ethnonational conflict in the state.

Non State-Wide Parties in Spain: An Attitudinal Study of Nationalism and Regionalism

Non State-Wide Parties in Spain: An Attitudinal Study of Nationalism and Regionalism

Non State-wide Parties in Spain: An Attitudinal Study of Nationalism and Regionalism

The contribution of regional parties to the development of the state of the autonomies in democratic Spain is the focus of this article. One of the most important features of the transformed state is non-statewide parties (NSWPs) that have emerged as a result of diversity and expressions of regionalism. The level of electoral strength and institutional presence, attitudinal bases of their electoral support, and perceptions of the territorial space and representation of NSWPs are analyzed.

Sophomore Surge in State Legislative Elections, 1968-86

An analysis using district-level data for more than 5,100 cases of freshman legislators seeking reelection in 32 states shows considerable evidence of a sophomore surge phenomenon during the 1970s and 1980s. First-term legislators in both upper and lower houses in nearly all of the states were found to benefit from surge when the analysis was controlled for statewide party swing. A multivariate model of individual-level surge across states is estimated, with structural, institutional, interparty competition, and national conditions variables, as well as year and region. One of the most noteworthy findings is that member resources-especially the availability of personal staff-are positively related to surge.

Specifying the Impact of Incumbency On State Legislative Elections

Prior research, based on the analysis of aggregate-level state legislative election data, has documented a decline in the marginality of state legislative districts. Over the past twenty or so years, state legislators, much like congressional incumbents, have been winning reelection by larger margins of the vote. By taking advantage of district-level, state legislative election data, the research presented here specifies the relative impact of incumbency on district marginality, while controlling for statewide party trends. More specifically, it follows the lead of congressional elections studies, examining the impact of retirement slump and sophomore surge on the legislative district vote. In general, the legislative district vote reflects both a retirement slump and a sophomore surge, with the magnitude of their impact being conditioned by the level of contested incumbent victories in a state.

Formation of the California Communist Labor Party

IN OCTOBER, 1919, amid the wreckage of what had once been the powerful Socialist party of California, five militant left-wing members of the party's state executive committee met in Oakland to determine the organization's fate. By unanimous vote, with a bare quorum present, the committee endorsed formation of the Communist Labor party of America, sold all physical assets of the California Socialist party to one of their communist sympathizers, and urged all Socialist locals to affiliate with the newly formed communist organization. Within a month they launched the first state-wide communist party in California.' The Communist Labor party evolved from a half-century of Marxist agitation in California, but its immediate origin was to be found in developments in the California Socialist party after 1910. That organization, after a decade of minor achievements, had become a significant force in California politics. Socialist candidates won municipal offices and state assembly seats, and in 1911 the party nearly won control of Los Angeles. By 1914 state party membership reached an all-time peak, over eighty-two hundred members, with some three hundred locals scattered throughout the state, representing both rural and urban regions.2 But coincidental with this peak of activity came the outbreak of World War I and with it a decline in the socialist movement. Ameri-