Understanding the nationalization of party

This thesis is focused on the nationalization of party systems in Western Europe and combines four different approaches. Despite the literature claiming that political decentralization reduces party system nationalization, the first paper shows that this effect depends on the level of personalism th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Simón Cosano, Pablo
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/52983
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/52983
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Nationalization
party systems
decentralization
turnout
district magnitude
Nacionalización
sistemas de partidos
descentralización
participación electoral
magnitud del distrito
3
Descripción
Sumario:This thesis is focused on the nationalization of party systems in Western Europe and combines four different approaches. Despite the literature claiming that political decentralization reduces party system nationalization, the first paper shows that this effect depends on the level of personalism that the electoral system allows. The second article shows a new effect of the nationalization of party systems. This variable is shown to be a crucial element to explain turnout differences across districts within a country. The third article of this thesis is centered on the impact of the electoral system on party system nationalization through a crucial-experimental approach based on electoral reforms in Western Europe. Finally, the last part of the thesis focuses on describing and analyzing the nationalization of political parties in Spain, paying particular attention to differences among national and subnational parties.