The mobilization and representation of societal demands and grievances is a central function of political parties and party systems in democratic regimes (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967). Sudden crises can disrupt it and act as a catalyst for party system change, leading to the entry of new parties in elections and parliaments (e.g., Hobolt and Tilley, 2016; Vidal, 2018; Casal Bértoa and Weber, 2019). This special issue is interested in the link between democracies' crisis exposure and patterns of party entry and survival as well as the latter's short- and long-term consequences for democracy. We are interested in two main questions: How have newcomers (successfully) exploited major crises? Did new entries stay around and introduce significant change in party systems or did they vanish after a short period of turmoil leaving traditional patterns of inter-party competition intact

Bolleyer, N

Sikk, A

van de Wardt, M

English

van de Wardt, Marc

Bolleyer, Nicole

Sikk, Allan

VU Research Portal

Editorial: Party Entry and Exit in Times of Crisis

UCL Discovery

EDITORIALpublished: 05 April 2022doi: 10.3389/fpos.2022.867640Frontiers in Political Science | www.frontiersin.org 1 April 2022 | Volume 4 | Article 867640Edited and reviewed by:Ignacio Lago,Pompeu Fabra University, Spain*Correspondence:Marc van de Wardtm.p.vande.wardt@vu.nlSpecialty section:This article was submitted toElections and Representation,a section of the journalFrontiers in Political ScienceReceived: 01 February 2022Accepted: 07 February 2022Published: 05 April 2022Citation:van de Wardt M, Bolleyer N andSikk A (2022) Editorial: Party Entry andExit in Times of Crisis.Front. Polit. Sci. 4:867640.doi: 10.3389/fpos.2022.867640Editorial: Party Entry and Exit inTimes of CrisisMarc van de Wardt 1*, Nicole Bolleyer 2 and Allan Sikk 31 School of Business and Economics, Ethics, Governance and Society, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam,Netherlands, 2Geschwister-Scholl-Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany, 3 School ofSlavonic and East European Studies, University College London, London, United KingdomKeywords: party entry, party survival, party system change, crisis, new partiesEditorial on the Research TopicParty Entry and Exit in Times of CrisisThe mobilization and representation of societal demands and grievances is a central function ofpolitical parties and party systems in democratic regimes (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967). Sudden crisescan disrupt it and act as a catalyst for party system change, leading to the entry of new partiesin elections and parliaments (e.g., Hobolt and Tilley, 2016; Vidal, 2018; Casal Bértoa and Weber,2019). This special issue is interested in the link between democracies’ crisis exposure and patternsof party entry and survival as well as the latter’s short- and long-term consequences for democracy.We are interested in two main questions: How have newcomers (successfully) exploited majorcrises? Did new entries stay around and introduce significant change in party systems or did theyvanish after a short period of turmoil leaving traditional patterns of inter-party competition intact?The first contribution by Lago focusses on the (consolidation) of electoral support of the radicalright party Vox (established in 2013), which became electorally successful after the 2017 Catalanindependence referendum that provoked a major institutional crisis. Specifically, Lago focusses onthe effect of district magnitude on the electoral support for the party in the two Spanish generalelections in 2019. Lago attributes the inconsistent findings on the impact of the electoral system tothe fact that many scholars focus on the median or mean district magnitude (at the aggregate level)rather than using the electoral district as the unit of analysis. Furthermore, district magnitude islikely correlated with socio-political variables (e.g., demographic characteristics of the inhabitantsof the district) affecting the likelihood of voting for new political parties. To disentangle the effectof district magnitude, Lago proposes a quasi-experimental design: focussing on changes in supportfor Vox within electoral districts with only 196 days separating the two elections, implies that thesocio-political determinants of success for new parties are likely to stay constant, helping to isolatethe effect of district magnitude. Both for aggregate district-level electoral support and individual-level party switching from the Partido Popular (PP) to Vox, Lago finds that the electoral viabilityof Vox in the April election increased its support in the November elections. So, Spanish votersstrategically voted or refrained from voting for Vox.The second contribution by Schulte-Cloos on the radical-right Alternative für Deutschland(AfD) (founded in 2013) also focusses on a lower level of aggregation, namely the evolution ofthe party’s electoral support within municipalities. While Lago highlights the role of the electoralsystem, Schulte-Cloos uncovers the local “breeding ground” for new parties. Particularly, she arguesthat it is crucial to consider variation across municipalities in deeply seated nativist attitudes alreadypresent before the 2015 refugee crisis and the emergence of the AfD itself. So, to understandthe initial electoral support for the AfD and its growth, we must consider differences acrossmunicipalities in the dormant electoral potential for the party. To empirically test this hypothesis,Schulte-Cloos relies on a rich panel dataset. It consists of 10,694 municipalities for which shereports the AfD’s electoral support in four consecutive elections (two federal and two EU). Shevan de Wardt et al. Editorial: Party Entry and Exit in Times of Crisisfocusses on two dependent variables: the AfD’s level of electoralsupport and changes in this support across two elections. Theelectoral support for the radical right before the emergence ofthe AfD (for parties such as Die Republikaner) is the mainindependent variable and a proxy for deeply seated nativistattitudes. Based on advanced spatial econometric analyses, shedemonstrates that such attitudes increased both the level andchange in the AfD’s electoral support.Finally, Rama et al. analyze three new political parties inSpain: the radical left Podemos (founded in 2014), the unionistand liberal Ciudadanos (founded 2016) and the radical rightVox (founded in 2013). The authors provide a rich comparativeanalysis, uncovering the interplay between proportional electoralinstitutions, crises, and the voter demand side. The authorsfirst pinpoint that all three parties first participated in EUelections with more proportional electoral rules before enteringthe national elections. However, the authors argue that crisesand voter demands play a more decisive role than proportionalelectoral rules. As for the nature of the crises, Podemossuccessfully tapped into discontent with the austerity policiesresulting from the European debt crisis, but other types ofcrises acted as catalysts for Ciudadanos and Vox—namely theCatalan independence referendum. Ciudadanos also benefitedfrom a corruption scandal within the PP. The authors showhow the three parties exploited the respective crises that ledto their rise. Podemos, for instance, successfully mined a nicheof voters combining high political interest with low trust inestablished political parties. Lastly, the authors reveal how thevoters for each of the three parties differ from those voting forthe closest located established party (PP in case of Vox andCiudadanos, and PSOE in case of Podemos). While Podemosand Vox voters are clearly distinct from their mainstreamcounterparts, Ciudadanos voters are not that different from thoseof the PP. Therefore, it may be more difficult for Ciudadanosto consolidate its support, which could explain its recentelectoral losses.Together these articles produce several important insights.First, to understand the (ongoing) electoral success ofnewcomers, we should look beyond the national level andexplore regional and local factors. Second, different types ofcrises (not solely economic) play a major role in the electoralbreakthrough of the new parties; yet, the causality may becomplex. Rather than changing attitudes, crises may activatelatent attitudes like the deeply seated nativist attitudes. Third,we must study how crises interact with the openness of theelectoral system and electoral niches. Finally, the question ofwhether new parties fostered party system change depends uponone’s definition of the concept (also see Borbáth, 2021). At leastin the contexts studied, they have all fostered electoral lossesamong established parties. Yet, Rama et al. are skeptical aboutwhether these parties changed the Spanish cleavage structure.Furthermore, assessing the impact of new parties requireslooking at multiple levels (local, regional, EU) rather than onlythe national level.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSMW wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authorscontributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved thesubmitted version.FUNDINGMW research on party entry and exit was supported bytwo completed postdoctoral research grants from the ResearchFoundation Flanders FWO (Grant No. FWO16/PDO/198)and the Fund for Scientific Research Wallonia FNRS (GrantNo. 28091302).REFERENCESBorbáth, E. (2021). Two faces of party system stability: programmatic changeand party replacement. Party Polit. 27, 996–1008. doi: 10.1177/1354068820917628Casal Bértoa, F., and Weber, T. (2019). Restrained change: party systemsin times of economic crisis. J Polit. 81, 233–245. doi: 10.1086/700202Hobolt, S. B., and Tilley, J. (2016). Fleeing the centre: the riseof challenger parties in the aftermath of the euro crisis.West Eur. Polit. 39, 971–991. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2016.1181871Lipset, S. M., and Rokkan, S. (1967). Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives. New York, NY: Free Press.Vidal, G. (2018). Challenging business as usual? The rise of new parties in Spainin times of crisis.West Eur. Polit. 41, 261–286. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2017.1376272Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the research was conducted in theabsence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as apotential conflict of interest.Publisher’s Note: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authorsand do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those ofthe publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated inthis article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed orendorsed by the publisher.Copyright © 2022 van de Wardt, Bolleyer and Sikk. This is an open-access articledistributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided theoriginal author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the originalpublication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with theseterms.Frontiers in Political Science | www.frontiersin.org 2 April 2022 | Volume 4 | Article 867640

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