A Cross‐National Analysis of Party Switching

Abstract

Though instances of party switching have been widely documented, there is little cross‐national research on this phenomenon. The prevalence of switching is therefore unknown, and the factors influencing this behavior remain unclear. Using the most comprehensive dataset on party switching ever constructed, we illustrate both that interparty movement is more common than previously assumed and that there are substantial differences in its prevalence across parties. To explain this variation, we examine the relationship between legislators' motivations, institutional arrangements, and switching. We find that motivational explanations are correlated with interparty movement and that institutional arrangements exhibit only limited direct influence on switching.

The Costs and Benefits of Party Switching in Mexico

“…In Bolivia, party switching has been very rare, with the exception of the 2005 election, when roughly half the returning deputies switched parties (Centellas 2008). In contrast, party switching appears to be virtually nonexistent in Chile (O'Brien and Shomer 2013).…”

“…In institutionalized party systems such as Mexico's, incumbents may be less likely to switch political parties, since they may face costs trying to win ballot access in a new party and also electoral costs in terms of lost votes, since their reputation and past electoral support are tied to a specific party (Grose and Yoshinaka 2003;Heller and Mershon 2009;O'Brien and Shomer 2013). Once a politician reaches office under a party label in an institutionalized party system, the costs of switching to a new party are likely to outweigh the benefits, absent some exogenous shock (Canon and Sousa 1992).…”

“…Globally, rates of party switching in Mexico are more consistent with those of established democracies, such as Canada (2-9 percent), in contrast to newer democ-racies such as Taiwan (~9-22 percent) and Ukraine (~56 percent) (Fell 2014;Heller and Mershon 2008;O'Brien and Shomer 2013). However, measures of switching are sometimes difficult to compare across cases, as some authors focus only on switches during a legislative term, while others compare switches using candidate lists across several elections.…”

Party Cross-carpeting in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: Cases and Causes

“…Fittingly, the popular axiom that democracy without parties is "unthinkable" finds expression in this context (Schnattschneider, 1942:1). Similarly, competition among political actors is only meaningful when it is aimed towards party institutionalization which according to O'Brien and Shomer (2013) is a function of organizational loyalty. In other words, political actors do not just contest for political power they must conform to certain generalized political imperatives.…”

Cross-national partisan effects on agenda stability

“…Although governing cabinets in parliaments rarely lose legislative votes (Huber 1996;Döring 2003), the observance of parliamentary discipline does not mean that parties' MPs hold cohesive preferences or have little influence on parliamentary acts. Indeed, MPs also have a range of tools to register their dissatisfaction with parliamentary leaders (Döring 2003;O'Brien and Shomer 2013).…”