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"In the post-war era one of the most significant transformations in the democratic process throughout Western Europe has been the widespread introduction of regional elections. Symptomatic of this decentralization has been the shift of various legislative powers to regional governing bodies. As a result, electorates throughout Western Europe now have more opportunities to express their preferences and air their grievances across electoral arenas while the dynamics of electoral competition have become increasingly multifarious and complex. Voters can now use regional elections to articulate their discontent with the policies of the national government or can elect based on the political offer in the regional electoral arena. This book brings together leading experts on elections who analyze differences between regional and national electoral outcomes in thirteen West European countries between 1945 and 2011. It extends existing insights by providing new empirical evidence and by presenting alternative accounts for differences between the regional and national vote across Western Europe"--
List of contents
List of Tables and Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Territoriality of the Vote. A Framework for Analysis; Arjan H. Schakel and Régis Dandoy 2. Austria: Regional Elections in the Shadow of National Politics; Marcelo Jenny 3. Belgium: Towards a Regionalization of National Elections?; Régis Dandoy 4. Denmark: The First Years of Regional Voting after Comprehensive Reform; Yosef Bhatti and Sune Welling Hansen 5. France: Regional Elections as 'third-order' Elections?; Fabien Escalona, Simon Labouret and Mathieu Vieira 6. Germany: The Anatomy of Multi-level Voting; Charlie Jeffery and Alia Middleton 7. Greece: Five Typical Second-order Elections Despite Significant Electoral Reform; Stavros Skrinis 8. Italy: Between Growing Incongruence and Region-specific Dynamics; Emanuele Massetti and Giulia Sandri 9. The Netherlands: Two Forms of Nationalization of Provincial Elections; Arjan H. Schakel 10. Norway: No Big Deal with Regional Elections?; Lawrence E. Rose and Tore Hansen 11. Spain: The Persistence of Territorial Cleavages and Centralism of the Popular Party; Braulio Gómez Fortes and Laura Cabeza Perez 12. Sweden: From Mid-term County Council Elections to Concurrent Elections; Linda Berg and Henrik Oscarsson 13. Switzerland: Moving Towards a Nationalized Party System; Daniel Bochsler and Fabio Wasserfallen 14. The United Kingdom: Multi-level Elections in an Asymmetrical State; Nicola McEwen 15. Conclusion: Regional Elections in Comparative Perspective; Arjan H. Schakel and Régis Dandoy Bibliography Index
About the author
Linda Berg, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Yosef Bhatti, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Daniel Bochsler, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Laura Cabeza Perez, Spanish National Research Council
Fabien Escalona
Braulio Gómez Fortes, Institute of Governance
Tore Hansen, University of Oslo, Norway
Charlie Jeffery, University of Edinburgh, UK
Marcelo Jenny, University of Vienna, Austria
Simon Labouret, Institute of Political Studies in Grenoble
Emanuele Massetti, University of Sussex, UK
Nicola McEwen, University of Edinburgh, UK
Alia Middleton, University of Edinburgh, UK
Henrik E. Oscarsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Lawrence E. Rose, University of Oslo, Norway
Giulia Sandri, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Stavros Skrinis, Panteion University Athens, Greece
Mathieu Vieira, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Fabio Wasserfallen, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Sune Welling Hansen, Danish Institute of Governmental Research
Report
'Elections at the subnational level have so far often been looked at through the lenses of methodological nationalism. That includes the assumption that they are 'second order' and thus only to be understood for their meaning at the statewide level. This collection does a great job analyzing carefully and systematically substate electoral dynamics on their own terms. The result is a must-read, a truly 'first order' book.'
Kris Deschouwer, Department of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
'This stimulating volume provides a comprehensive survey of the diversity and distinctiveness of regional elections across western Europe. Beyond this, it opens our eyes to regional elections as a core subject of comparative politics that repays serious study. This volume is a tour de force in transcending methodological nationalism.'
Gary Marks, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA and Department of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Together with a team of first-rate scholars, Dandoy and Schakel provide the first in depth and rigorous analysis of regional and national elections between 1945 and 2011 across 13 West European countries. In the context of an increasingly 'multi-level' Europe, this book rightly puts the comparative study of regional elections at the forefront of analysis and as such it successfully addresses the 'national bias' that had come to dominate much of party and electoral research until recent years. It is a must read for scholars of electoral studies, parties and federal and regional studies.'
Wilfried Swenden, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK
'This impressive book is a veritable treasure trove of striking data, suggestive conceptualisation and thought-provoking analysis. Its publication surely represents a landmark moment in the development of comparative electoral analysis.'
Richard Wyn Jones, Cardiff School of European Languages, Translation and Politics, Cardiff University, UK
'A most welcome study on the interplay of regional and national elections. The comparative volume combines the advantages of a clear and comprehensive analytical framework with the richness of in-depth country chapters. The book explores the diversity of regional electoral behavior but it also finds common factors that are at play in many political systems in Western Europe'
Klaus Detterbeck, Department of Political Science, University of Magdeburg, Germany
