Regional cleavages in African politics: Persistent electoral blocs and territorial oppositions

Distributive Politics and Electoral Competition

Within the framework of pure redistribution (dividing one unit of a homogeneous good among identical individuals), the paper analyses the redistribution that arises from Downsian, two-party, electoral competition. It appears that the strategic behavior of vote-maximizing parties leads them to propose divisions which are not far from the egalitarian one. Journal of Economic Literature Classifica...

Do Cleavages Explain Electoral Responses to Economic Crisis in Europe?

Religious Riots and Electoral Politics in India

The effect of ethnic violence on electoral results provides useful insights into voter behaviour and the incentives for political parties in democratic societies. Religious riots have claimed more than 14,000 lives in India since 1950. We study the effect of Hindu-Muslim riots on election results in India. We combine data on riots with electoral data on state legislature elections and control v...

Social cleavages, electoral reform and party choice: Israel’s ‘natural’ experiment

This paper examines party preferences in Israel from 1993 to 1999. This period provides a unique ‘natural’ experiment in that the middle was marked by a change from a single-ballot party list to a two-ballot system that included direct election of the Prime Minister. The paper has two goals: (1) to explore the patterns of social cleavage voting in Israel during this period; and (2) to determine...

Introduction – Financial Crisis, Austerity, and Electoral Politics

We are pleased to present this issue of JEPOP which is a special issue on the topic of how the financial crisis in Europe has changed the electoral politics of some of the most deeply affected countries. We are delighted to welcome on board Pedro C. Magalhães as guest co-editor for this issue. Pedro is principal researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portuga...