Position, selective emphasis and framing:How parties deal with a second dimension in competition

This Special Issue aims to (1) theorise party strategies in multi-dimensional policy spaces; and (2) apply the theory to party competition in multinational democracies characterised by a salient territorial dimension alongside a more established economic dimension. The introductory article brings together recent contributions treating spatial and salience theories as compatible and policy spaces as two-dimensional to propose four party strategies that can be ranked from one- to two-dimensional competitive behaviour: uni-dimensionality, blurring, subsuming, and two- dimensionality. The remaining contributions operationalise these strategies and draw on a variety of data sources ranging from manifestos to parliamentary bill proposals and expert surveys to describe when and explore why parties use these strategies in competition, focusing on patterns of party competition in multinational democracies, selected as typical cases of multi-dimensional competition.publishe

All jointly or everyone on its own? On fissions and fusions of ethnic minority parties

In this volume, the authors, from European, Canadian and American universities, focus on a very topical issue, the relations between nation states and national minorities which emerged in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dealing with various original case studies, such as Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Israel, or Malaysia, these relationships are studied from the perspective of the authorities of the new nation states and from the perspective of the minorities. The theoretical approach is inspired by Rogers Brubaker's work on 'nationalising states' (Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2011) and this leading author in the field provides a new discussion on the concept. The authors pay particular attention to the historical contexts in which the dynamics between nation-states and minorities developed and provide an innovative way of thinking about nationalism today.Given its position at the crossroad of different fields and broad geographical spectrum this book is relevant to a wide audience of scholars in the fields of nationalism, minority studies, citizenship studies, and multiculturalism

Ethnic Outbidding and Nested Competition : Explaining the Extremism of Ethnonational Minority Parties in Europe

The classical outbidding model of ethnic politics argues that democratic competition involving ethnic parties inevitably leads to ethnic outbidding where parties adopt ever more extreme positions. However, recent small-N studies show that ethnic outbidding is only one of a range of strategies available to ethnic parties. This article seeks to explain why some ethnic parties are extremist, whereas others adopt moderate positions. Drawing on the ethnic outbidding and the nested competition model of ethnic party competition, it is hypothesised that the ethnic segmentation of the electoral market, and the relative salience of an ethnically cross-cutting economic dimension of party competition, account for the varying degrees of extremism. Hypotheses are tested drawing on a novel, expert-survey-based dataset that provides indicators for the positions of 83 ethnonational minority parties in 22 European democracies in 2011. Results of ordinary least squares and two-level linear regressions show that as the economic dimension gains importance, parties become more moderate relative to the party system mean. The electorate's ethnic segmentation has a positive effect on extremism, but this effect is not significant in all models. Contrary to expectations, higher ethnic segmentation of the party system is associated with more moderate positions in the majority of the estimated models

The second edition of the EPAC expert survey on ethnonationalism in party competition : testing for validity and reliability

This research note presents EPAC 2017, a dataset resulting from the second round of an expert survey on ethnonationalism in party competition. EPAC provides cross-sectional data on the positions of (ethno-) national and mainstream parties on an ethnonational (also often referred to as ‘territorial’ or ‘centre-periphery’) dimension, as well as other important dimensions of political competition. The 2017 edition covers 222 political parties in 22 multinational European countries. The research note presents the main survey items and performs a series of validity and reliability tests on the data. Results show that EPAC 2017 provides valid and reliable measures of party positions on an ethnonational dimension. A short analysis of party system changes in Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina illustrates the opportunities of combining the 2011 and 2017 editions. The combined dataset allows studying the mobilization of the centre-periphery cleavage in party competition across Eastern and Western Europe and over time.publishe

Replication Data for "Decentralisation and secessionism in party competition. A comparative analysis of Eastern and Western Europe"

This are the replication data and file for the article "Decentralisation and secessionism in party competition. A comparative analysis of Eastern and Western Europe"

Capturing the pessimists: how nationalists exploit status concerns in elections

Previous research indicates that concerns about a decline in status can be a powerful motivator for voters who back nationalist parties in elections. Drawing on a new study, Phil Howe, Edina Szöcsik and Christina Zuber demonstrate how nationalists can win support by promising voters a change in the social order that benefits them as members of the nation