Suchergebnisse

This paper examines the impact of electoral systems on the success of regionalist parties in national elections held in 22 Western European regions from 1980 to 2004. Our study covers 30 regionalist parties, only those usually achieving more than one percent of the regional vote in the period under observation. Electoral systems are defined in terms of three main components: ballot structure, constituency magnitude & electoral formula. In particular, we focus on the effects of these elements on multipartism & on support for regionalist parties. Electoral results are, in turn, analyzed at constituency level. The analysis of 1622 district election results suggests two main conclusions: proportional systems clearly encourage multipartism but there is no evidence that they foster support for regionalist parties. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.