Local electoral systems in Western Europe

Kolk, Hendrik van der

doi:10.1080/03003930701198524

Cited by 32 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…They should be particularly relevant in countries where the immigrant population is similar in size and composition to that in Sweden, and where it is difficult for voters to significantly reorder candidate rankings via preference votes. Such countries include Austria, Finland, France, the Netherlands, and the UK (on local electoral systems, see van der Kolk 2007). Moreover, to the extent that more populated, urban areas also have a lower ratio of seats to voters, we expect our findings pertaining to this ratio to be relevant across Western Europe, where migrants have predominantly settled in urban areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Are Immigrants Underrepresented in Politics? Evidence from Sweden

et al. 2015

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W idespread and persistent political underrepresentation of immigrant-origin minorities poses deep challenges to democratic practice and norms. What accounts for this underrepresentation? Two types of competing explanations are prevalent in the literature: accounts that base minority underrepresentation on individual-level resources and accounts that emphasize political opportunity structures. However, due to the lack of data suitable for testing these explanations, existing research has not been able to adjudicate between these theories. Using registry-based microdata covering the entire Swedish adult population between 1991 and 2010 our study is the first to empirically evaluate these alternative explanations. We examine election outcomes to municipal councils over the course of six elections and find that variation in individual-level resources cannot explain immigrants' underrepresentation. Further, when comparing immigrants and natives who face comparable political opportunity structures a large representation gap remains. Instead, we argue that discrimination by party gatekeepers plays a more significant role in perpetuating the underrepresentation of immigrants than do individual resources or structural variables.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Are Immigrants Underrepresented in Politics? Evidence from Sweden

et al. 2015

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“…This study focuses on a country that uses a list system as opposed to candidates being elected with a personal mandate or mixed systems, like the UK or France, because in the latter kind of systems the line between an independent councillor and a representative for an independent local party is more difficult to make. Table 1 lists all West European countries that meet the three criteria listed above, drawing the electoral systems from Van Der Kolk (2007). This study will focus on a country that is in top in terms of the support for independent local parties, from this list, because this gives one the ample number of respondents that actually has voted for independent local parties.…”

Section: Country Selection and Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pushed by national politics or pulled by localism? Voting for independent local parties in the Netherlands

Otjes

2018

Local Government Studies

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This study examines why citizens in the Netherlands vote for independent local parties. These are parties that run in municipal council elections, but do not run in elections at higher levels. This article examines a number of expectations: namely that voters vote for these parties out dissatisfaction with established parties, that they do so because they have a 'localist' political orientation or that they do so because their own national party is not running in the municipal elections. More support is found for the idea that voters vote for local parties because they are pushed away by national parties (either because they do not participate in some municipalities or because voters distrust them) than for the idea that voters vote for local parties for positive reasons, such as a localist political orientation. This article examines two surveys concerning voting behaviour in the 2014 Dutch municipal elections.

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“…In order to evaluate the hypotheses of the political process theory that relates protest movements to institutional characteristics of political systems, indicators of openness and responsiveness were created through principal component analysis (PCA). For openness, I used data on the type of electoral system (Van der Kolk, 2007) and the rate of local government representatives per 1000 inhabitants (Urban Audit). The factor created explains 61% of the variance (eigenvalue = 1.109).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For openness, I used data on the type of electoral system (Van der Kolk, 2007) and the rate of local government representatives per 1000 inhabitants (Urban Audit). The factor created explains 61% of the variance (eigenvalue ¼ 1.109).…”

Section: Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining differences in the strength of squatters’ movements in western European cities

Guzmán-Concha

2015

Acta Sociologica

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Squatters occupy and restore empty buildings to establish self-managed social centres, where they put in practice alternative ways of living while engaging in various protest campaigns. Episodes of squatters' activism have occurred in many European cities, including the 'occupy' movement and the demonstrations against austerity measures in several countries. Despite this trajectory, there is little comparative research on squatters' movements. This article addresses this gap by examining the determinants of the strength of squatters' movements in Western Europe using an original dataset of 61 cities (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). Employing logistic regression analysis, this article investigates the influence of factors that have not been previously examined in a comparative framework. The study shows that large leftist communities provide crucial resources for the squatters' movement, while prominent extreme right parties polarize the local society, triggering squatters' activism. Moreover, it demonstrates that larger cities are related to stronger movements and discusses the mechanisms that explain this association. Finally, this article shows that youth unemployment impinges on stronger movements when it interacts with other variables, but overall higher levels of youth unemployment are related to stronger movements. Therefore, resources, polarization and the structural configuration of the city are important determinants of the differential strength of this movement across locations.

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Local electoral systems in Western Europe

Cited by 32 publications

References 21 publications

Why Are Immigrants Underrepresented in Politics? Evidence from Sweden

Why Are Immigrants Underrepresented in Politics? Evidence from Sweden

Pushed by national politics or pulled by localism? Voting for independent local parties in the Netherlands

Explaining differences in the strength of squatters’ movements in western European cities

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