Are Niche Parties Fundamentally Different from Mainstream Parties? The Causes and the Electoral Consequences of Western European Parties' Policy Shifts, 1976-1998

Are Niche Parties Fundamentally Different from Mainstream Parties? The Causes and the Electoral Consequences of Western European Parties' Policy Shifts, 1976–1998

Do “niche” parties—such as Communist, Green, and extreme nationalist parties—adjust their policies in response to shifts in public opinion? Would such policy responsiveness enhance these parties’ electoral support? We report the results of statistical analyses of the relationship between parties’ policy positions, voters’ policy preferences, and election outcomes in eight Western European democ...

Who Do European Parties Represent? How Western European Parties Represent the Policy Preferences of Opinion Leaders

Several recent studies explore how American politicians represent the policy views of subconstituencies within the electorate. We extend this perspective to 12 West European democracies over the period 1973–2002 to examine how mainstream parties responded to electoral subconstituencies. We find that parties were highly responsive to the views of opinion leaders, i.e., citizens who regularly eng...

Electoral Incentives and Political Parties in the Brazilian Budget Policy

Are moderate parties rewarded in multiparty systems? A pooled analysis of Western European elections, 1984–1998

We present cross-national analyses – both cross-sectional and longitudinal – estimating the vote shares for approximately 80 parties across Western Europe from 1984 to 1998. The results indicate that parties’ vote shares increase with their proximity to the centre of the voter distribution, although the effects are relatively small. These findings corroborate the theoretical results reported by...

Parties, Electoral Systems and Taxation 1870-1945

In this paper I argue that the effect of ideology on tax structure depends on the electoral system. Earlier research has argued that left wing governments tax more progressively, but in light of recent empirical work, this has been challenged. The dominant approach instead posits that the left taxes regressively while spending progressively. That is, the left still redistributes more, but it ta...