Research & Politics | |
In defiance of Duverger: The class cleavage and the emergence of district-level multiparty systems in western Europe: | |
Christopher D Raymond1  | |
关键词: Party systems; social cleavages; Duvergerâs Law; | |
DOI : 10.1177/2053168014567557 | |
学科分类:社会科学、人文和艺术(综合) | |
来源: Sage Journals | |
【 摘 要 】
At its core, Duvergerâs Law, which holds that the number of viable parties in first-past-the-post systems should not exceed two, applies primarily at the district level. While the number of parties nationally may exceed two, district-level party system fragmentation should not. A growing body of research, however, shows that district-level party system fragmentation can indeed exceed two in first-past-the-post systems. This piece addresses the fundamental tension between Duvergerâs Law and recent scholarship on district-level party systems. I explore whether the major alternative explanation for party system fragmentation â the social cleavage approach â can explain violations of Duvergerâs Law. Testing this argument in several west European elections prior to the adoption of proportional representation, I find evidence favouring a social cleavage explanation: with the expansion of the class cleavage, the average district-level party system eventually came to violate the two-party predictions associated with Duvergerâs Law. This suggests that, in defiance of Duverger, greater levels of social cleavage diversity may produce multiparty systems even in first-past-the-post systems.
【 授权许可】
CC BY-NC-ND
【 预 览 】
Files | Size | Format | View |
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RO201902022239240ZK.pdf | 264KB | download |