The Comparative Analysis of Electoral and Partisan Politics: A Comment on a Special Issue of West European Politics

Abstract

The research papers assembled in this West European Politics issue are placed in an encompassing framework specifying components of the electoral and party studies research area. This makes it possible to identify complementarities, conflicts, and empty spaces left by the papers. Especially the conditioning of individual party preference through the structure of partisan alternatives needs more work. Generally analysis of the interaction of micro- and macro-level mechanisms impinging on the vote choice is called for.

Notes

1. The grid/group distinction is, of course, taken from Wildavsky's adaptation of Mary Douglas's anthropological theory. See as an elaboration Thompson et al. (1990). For a reformulation, see Kitschelt (2007a) and Kitschelt and Rehm (2008).

2. For a discussion of this profile of inducements, see Kitschelt and Wilkinson (2007).

3. As paradigmatic contributions to fill this lacunae, consider Kedar (2005) and Van der Brug et al. (2005).

4. For a conceptualization of competitiveness that goes beyond the margin of prospective victory between competing partisan camps, see Kitschelt (2007b).

5. For an effort to examine turnout through the lens of competitiveness, see Franklin (2004).