Assessing multi-level congruence in voting in comparative perspective: Introducing the municipal level. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bolgherini, Silvia; Grimaldi, Selena; Paparo, Aldo
• Is Part Of: Local government studies. Volume 47:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 54
• Page End: 78
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Multi-level congruence -- vote congruence -- municipal elections -- party-system change -- critical elections -- Italy and Spain; Local government -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Local government -- Periodicals; 352.042
• DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2020.1797692
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0300-3930

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article widens the theoretical debate on congruence in voting by including the municipal level on top of the consolidated national-regional comparisons. The concept of multi-level congruence (MLC) is introduced and an original dataset is computed in order to investigate two distinct territorial-level comparisons in Italy and Spain: the national-municipal and the regional-municipal. By building on several strands of literature, the article tests different predictors of congruence. Our findings show that local elections are more likely to be impacted by national (and, to a smaller extent regional) politics in central, large municipalities; while local politics is more likely to prevail in peripheric, small municipalities. Moreover, municipal elections are second-order with respect to the national-level at least when election timing is taken into account. Furthermore, historical voting patterns also play a role in explaining the incongruence between local and national elections. Finally, national party-system reshuffle (slightly) affects congruence only for the regional-municipal comparison – and surprisingly not for the national-municipal one.