Voting systems in parallel and the benefits for small parties: An examination of Green Party candidates in London elections. (January 2014)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Voting systems in parallel and the benefits for small parties: An examination of Green Party candidates in London elections. (January 2014)
- Main Title:
- Voting systems in parallel and the benefits for small parties
- Authors:
- Thrasher, Michael
Borisyuk, Galina
Rallings, Colin
Sloan, Luke - Abstract:
- In simple plurality voting systems smaller parties facing resource constraints may struggle to field candidates, particularly when the number of electoral districts is large. In the absence of a strong coordinating party organization, the pattern of contestation may also be sub-optimal – the small party fields candidates where support is minimal, ignoring other electoral districts where voters would support the party if it had stood a candidate. This article considers how and whether the separate operation of an Additional Member voting system running parallel to a simple plurality system assists smaller parties by providing low-cost information about the spatial distribution of voter support. Using aggregate voting data collected at the London ward level for both simple plurality local council elections and the separate mixed-member proportional system used to elect the Greater London Assembly we test whether the Green Party demonstrated an ability to modify and optimize its pattern of contestation. There appears to be little evidence of either a contagion or learning effect in respect of the location of Green candidates, suggesting that a free but valuable data source is unexploited.
- Is Part Of:
- Party politics. Volume 20:Number 1(2014:Jan.)
- Journal:
- Party politics
- Issue:
- Volume 20:Number 1(2014:Jan.)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 20, Issue 1 (2014)
- Year:
- 2014
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2014-0020-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 134
- Page End:
- 142
- Publication Date:
- 2014-01
- Subjects:
- Green Party -- parallel voting systems -- small parties -- voting systems
Political parties -- Periodicals
Political science -- Periodicals
324.2 - Journal URLs:
- http://ppq.sagepub.com/ ↗
http://www.swetswise.com/link/access%5Fdb?issn=1354-0688 ↗
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/home.nav ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/1354068811436045 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1354-0688
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 5471.xml