Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Party Politics
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (9)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mainwaring, S.
Right arrow Articles by Zoco, E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Political Sequences and the Stabilization of Interparty Competition

Electoral Volatility in Old and New Democracies

Scott Mainwaring

Political Science, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame, smainwar{at}nd.edu

Edurne Zoco

Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, ezoco{at}nd.edu

This article examines why some democracies and semi-democracies develop relatively stable party systems, while others continue to be roiled by high levels of electoral volatility. It is the first broadly cross-regional analysis of electoral volatility, and it is based on the most extensive data assembled on electoral volatility. Our most original finding is that competitive regimes inaugurated in earlier periods have much lower electoral volatility than regimes inaugurated more recently, even controlling for a variety of other factors that have been hypothesized to affect electoral volatility. Parties had very different functions according to when democracy was inaugurated, and these congenital differences had longterm effects on the stabilization of party competition. What matters for the stabilization of party competition is when democracy was born, not how old it is. Our results support social science approaches that emphasize historical sequences and path dependence.

Key Words: democratization • electoral volatility • party system • political parties

Party Politics, Vol. 13, No. 2, 155-178 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1354068807073852
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Party PoliticsHome page
O. Sanchez
Party Non-Systems: A Conceptual Innovation
Party Politics, July 1, 2009; 15(4): 487 - 520.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Party PoliticsHome page
M. Bogaards
Dominant Party Systems and Electoral Volatility in Africa: A Comment on Mozaffar and Scarritt
Party Politics, January 1, 2008; 14(1): 113 - 130.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Party PoliticsHome page
R. J. Dalton and S. Weldon
Partisanship and Party System Institutionalization
Party Politics, March 1, 2007; 13(2): 179 - 196.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Party PoliticsHome page
I. McAllister and S. White
Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Post-Communist Societies
Party Politics, March 1, 2007; 13(2): 197 - 216.
[Abstract] [PDF]