Ethnic alignment in divided regions: individual and contextual factors

The literature on sub-state nationalisms in Western democracies usually understands ethnicity as a defining feature of regional parties advocating for group and/or territorial recognition. However, the role of ethnicity for state-wide parties competing in regional elections has not received the same...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Serrano, Ivan
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Repositorio:O2, repositorio institucional de la UOC
OAI Identifier:oai:openaccess.uoc.edu:10609/99600
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10609/99600
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ethnicity
Regional parties
State-wide parties
Elections
Contextual effects
Nationalism
Nacionalisme
Eleccions
Nacionalismo
Elecciones
Descripción
Sumario:The literature on sub-state nationalisms in Western democracies usually understands ethnicity as a defining feature of regional parties advocating for group and/or territorial recognition. However, the role of ethnicity for state-wide parties competing in regional elections has not received the same attention. Using observational data at the census section level for the Basque election of 2016, this paper shows how state-wide parties can be even more affected by ethnic alignment than regional parties. A key element presented here is the role of contextual effects that generate intra-group variations, resulting in different patterns of electoral boundaries. State-wide parties have an uneven distribution of vote indicating the difficulty of reaching wide segments of the electorate, a pattern that is only broken to some extent by the emergence of new political parties. On the other hand, some regional parties can be more successful both in non-core areas and reaching non-core voters in nationalist strongholds.