Party fragmentation and campaign spending: A subnational analysis of the German party system

Party finance allows elucidating parties’ behaviour in differing political and institutional contexts, yet only a few studies investigate expenditure patterns. Given that campaign activities are central for parties to fulfil their core functions representative democracy, this study seeks explain why invest electoral campaigns different degrees. We argue high party fragmentation reinforces focus on races election years, mechanism we refer as the ‘campaign concentration effect’. By contrast, less fragmented systems, more campaigning continuous basis. A subnational analysis of German system between 2009 2017 provides evidence effect. Our results imply growing nurtures efforts succeed elections, which is likely intensify orientation towards short capital-intensive campaigns.