Simultaneous elections

This article analyzes the possible electoral advantages and disadvantages of a unique party that competes in two simultaneous elections with respect to those obtained when it competes as two different parties. I assume that a unified party has a larger strategy set but it is forced to choose the sam...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Aragonés, Enriqueta
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/374541
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/374541
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Simultaneous elections
State-wide parties
Sub-national parties
Descripción
Sumario:This article analyzes the possible electoral advantages and disadvantages of a unique party that competes in two simultaneous elections with respect to those obtained when it competes as two different parties. I assume that a unified party has a larger strategy set but it is forced to choose the same policy in both elections. I analyze different scenarios depending on the features of the electorates and of the party configuration that it faces: the same party or two different parties. In all cases, I show that a unified party can only fare better than two independent parties when the two electorates are similar enough. In this case, the party may obtain the vote of the moderates in both elections. If the electorates are aligned with the opponent the gains from unification are more likely in more polarized electorates. Otherwise, the losses from unification increase with the intensity of the electoral competition.