Abstract
In this article we suggest improved measures of 'party linkage' across districts. The degree of party linkage, defined as the extent to which parties are uniformly successful in winning votes across districts, is an important but neglected issue in the party politics literature. It is particularly important in understanding the nature of national-level party system formation. Our suggested indices build on the measure of party linkage introduced by Cox (1999), which he named the party system 'inflation index' since it measures the inflation from the district-level to the national-level party system size that occurs in the process of party system aggregation. Our measures improve on Cox by making it more intuitive, introducing an appropriate weighting scheme, and suggesting a subnational-level measurement of party linkage. We examine the properties and the usefulness of our measures by numerical simulation and by empirical application to data from Italy, India, Germany, and the United States.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 543-564 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Party Politics |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2004 Sep |
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Keywords
- Cross-district analysis
- Linkage
- Measurement
- Party system
- Simulation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
Cite this
Measuring party linkage across districts : Some party system inflation indices and their properties. / Moenius, Johannes; Kasuya, Yuko.
In: Party Politics, Vol. 10, No. 5, 09.2004, p. 543-564.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring party linkage across districts
T2 - Some party system inflation indices and their properties
AU - Moenius, Johannes
AU - Kasuya, Yuko
PY - 2004/9
Y1 - 2004/9
N2 - In this article we suggest improved measures of 'party linkage' across districts. The degree of party linkage, defined as the extent to which parties are uniformly successful in winning votes across districts, is an important but neglected issue in the party politics literature. It is particularly important in understanding the nature of national-level party system formation. Our suggested indices build on the measure of party linkage introduced by Cox (1999), which he named the party system 'inflation index' since it measures the inflation from the district-level to the national-level party system size that occurs in the process of party system aggregation. Our measures improve on Cox by making it more intuitive, introducing an appropriate weighting scheme, and suggesting a subnational-level measurement of party linkage. We examine the properties and the usefulness of our measures by numerical simulation and by empirical application to data from Italy, India, Germany, and the United States.
AB - In this article we suggest improved measures of 'party linkage' across districts. The degree of party linkage, defined as the extent to which parties are uniformly successful in winning votes across districts, is an important but neglected issue in the party politics literature. It is particularly important in understanding the nature of national-level party system formation. Our suggested indices build on the measure of party linkage introduced by Cox (1999), which he named the party system 'inflation index' since it measures the inflation from the district-level to the national-level party system size that occurs in the process of party system aggregation. Our measures improve on Cox by making it more intuitive, introducing an appropriate weighting scheme, and suggesting a subnational-level measurement of party linkage. We examine the properties and the usefulness of our measures by numerical simulation and by empirical application to data from Italy, India, Germany, and the United States.
KW - Cross-district analysis
KW - Linkage
KW - Measurement
KW - Party system
KW - Simulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=4644369705&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=4644369705&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1354068804045387
DO - 10.1177/1354068804045387
M3 - Article
VL - 10
SP - 543
EP - 564
JO - Party Politics
JF - Party Politics
SN - 1354-0688
IS - 5
ER -