Regional and national elections in Western Europe : territoriality of the vote in thirteen countries / edited by Régis Dandoy, teaching assistant, University of Brussels, Belgium and Arjan Schakel, assistant professor in Research Methods, Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, Netherlands
1. Introduction: Territoriality of the Vote. A Framework for Analysis; Arjan H. Schakel and Regis Dandoy -- 2. Austria: Regional Elections in the Shadow of National Politics; Marcelo Jenny -- 3. Belgium: Towards a Regionalization of National Elections?; Regis 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 Gomez 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 Regis Dandoy
Summary
"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"-- Provided by publisher
