Are Politics Local?
The Two Dimensions of Party Nationalization around the World

This book asks: are politics local? Why? Where? How do we measure local versus national politics? And what are the effects?

Scott Morgenstern (Author)

9781108400343, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 May 2018

311 pages, 50 b/w illus. 36 tables
22.8 x 15 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

'This book by Scott Morgenstern is an important landmark study that puts geography high on the research agenda of comparative political science. Three features make this book worthwhile reading for scholars working on the nationalization of elections and parties … the book Are Politics Local? constitutes a benchmark that will serve as a necessary starting point for scholars who set out to further explore party nationalization.' Arjan H. Schakel, Political Science Quarterly

Are politics local? Why? Where? When? How do we measure local versus national politics? And what are the effects? This book provides answers to these questions, within an explicitly comparative framework, including both advanced and developing democracies. It does so by using a statistically-based and graphical account of party nationalization, providing methodology and data for legislative elections covering scores of parties across dozens of countries. The book divides party nationalization into two dimensions - static and dynamic - to capture different aspects of localism, both with important implications for representation. Static nationalization measures the consistency in a party's support across the country and thus shows whether parties are able to encompass local concerns into their platforms. Dynamic nationalization, in turn, measures the consistency among the districts in over-time change in electoral results, under the presumption that where districts differ in their electoral responses, local factors must drive politics. Each of the two dimensions, in sum, considers representation from the perspective of the mix of national versus local politics.

Part I. Describing, Measuring, and Comparing the Two Dimensions: 1. Dimensions of party nationalization: static and dynamic
2. A typology of party nationalization
3. Measuring static and dynamic nationalization
4. Applying the model: patterns of static and dynamic nationalization
Part II. Explaining Party Nationalization
5. Explaining static and dynamic nationalization
6. Institutions, ethnic heterogeneity and party nationalization: a statistical analysis
Part III. Implications: Nationalization as an Explanatory Variable: 7. Regionalism, accountability, and party nationalization
8. The role of party nationalization on party unity and retrospective voting
9. The role of party nationalization on collective action and dissent among co-partisan legislators: roll call voting and bill co-sponsorship
Part IV. Conclusion: 10. Summary and Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Public finance [KFFD], Comparative politics [JPB]