Electoral Institutions and Intraparty Cohesion

Konstantinos Matakos, Riikka Savolainen, Orestis Troumpounis (), Janne Tukiainen and Dimitrios Xefteris

University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics from University of Cyprus Department of Economics

Abstract: We study parties' optimal ideological cohesion across electoral rules, when the following trade-off is present: A more heterogenous set of candidates is electorally appealing (catch-all party), yet, it serves policy-related goals less efficiently. When the rule becomes more disproportional, thus inducing a more favorable seat allocation for the winner, the first effect is amplified, incentivizing parties to be less cohesive. We provide empirical support using a unique data-set that records candidates' ideological positions in Finnish municipal elections. Exploiting an exogenous change of electoral rule disproportionality at different population thresholds, we identify the causal effect of electoral rules on parties' cohesion.

Keywords: Electoral systems; ideological heterogeneity; party cohesion; policy-motivated parties; proportional representation; regression discontinuity design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C72 D02 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2018-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Electoral Institutions and Intraparty Cohesion (2024)
Working Paper: Electoral Institutions and Intraparty Cohesion (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucy:cypeua:09-2018

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