IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gov/wpaper/1602.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An economic explanation of the nationalization of electoral politics

Author

Listed:
  • Ignacio Lago
  • Santiago Lago-Peñas

Abstract

The literature on the nationalization of electoral politics focuses on the institutional characteristics of political regimes and the structure and organization of social cleavages. We argue that the nationalization of electoral politics is also driven by economic performance. Short-term economic perturbations increase vote transfers from large (and highly nationalized) parties to small (and weakly nationalized) parties. On the contrary, sharp improvements in economic performance may generate vote shifts towards large parties, and then nationalization should increase. Permissive electoral systems exacerbate the influence of economic performance on nationalization. Pooled cross-sectional time-series regression analysis is conducted on data from 43 countries and 475 elections between 1950 and 2012. The party-level mechanisms are shown through a closer look at Austria and Portugal.

Suggested Citation

  • Ignacio Lago & Santiago Lago-Peñas, 2016. "An economic explanation of the nationalization of electoral politics," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 1602, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    • Handle: RePEc:gov:wpaper:1602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://infogen.webs.uvigo.es/WP/WP1602.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2016
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julio López Laborda & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Carlos Monasterio Escudero, 2006. "The Practice of Fiscal Federalism in Spain," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0623, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Andrey Timofeev, 2005. "Choosing between Centralized and Decentralized Models of Tax Administration (2005)," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0502, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepúlveda, 2007. "The Municipal Transfer System in Nicaragua:Evaluation and Proposals for Reform," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0708, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Laura Varela-Candamio & Fernando Rubiera Morollón & Gohar Sedrakyan, 2019. "Urban sprawl and local fiscal burden: analysing the Spanish case," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 177-203, February.
    3. Santiago Lago-Peñas & Xoaquín Fernández-Leiceaga & Alberto Vaquero-García, 2017. "Spanish fiscal decentralization: A successful (but still unfinished) process," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(8), pages 1509-1525, December.
    4. Xoaquín Fernández Leiceaga & Santiago Lago Peñas & Alberto Vaquero, 2016. "Spanish fiscal federalism at the crossroad: A survey," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 1601, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    5. Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepúlveda, 2012. "Sub-national Revenue Mobilization in Peru," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1209, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    6. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2011. "Municipal Finances in Latin America: Features, Issues, and Prospects," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1107, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    7. Jorge Martínez-Vázquez, 2008. "Revenue Assignments in the Practice of Fiscal Decentralization," Chapters, in: Núria Bosch & José M. Durán (ed.), Fiscal Federalism and Political Decentralization, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Köppl-Turyna, Monika & Strohner, Ludwig, 2023. "Reformoptionen des österreichischen Finanzausgleichs," Policy Notes 52, EcoAustria – Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepúlveda, 2011. "Intergovernmental Transfers in Latin America: A Policy Reform Perspective," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1108, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    10. Richard M. Bird, 2013. "Below the Salt: Decentralizing Value-Added Taxes," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1302, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    11. Timm Bönke & Beate Jochimsen & Carsten Schröder, 2013. "Fiscal Federalism and Tax Administration: Evidence from Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1307, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2013. "Fiscal Decentralization in Peru: A Perspective on Recent Developments and Future Challenges," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1324, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    13. Jorge Onrubia, 2006. "The Reform of the Tax Administration in Spain," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0612, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    14. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Cristian Sepulveda, 2012. "Intergovernmental transfers: a policy reform perspective," Chapters, in: Giorgio Brosio & Juan P. Jiménez (ed.), Decentralization and Reform in Latin America, chapter 9, pages iii-iii, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Bönke, Timm & Jochimsen, Beate & Schröder, Carsten, 2011. "Fiscal equalization and regions' (un)willingness-to-tax: Evidence from Germany," Economics Working Papers 2011-06, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    16. Gangadha Prasad Shukla & Duc Minh Pham & Michael Engelschalk & Tuan Minh Le, 2011. "Tax Reform in Vietnam," World Bank Publications - Reports 26851, The World Bank Group.
    17. Bönke, Timm & Jochimsen, Beate & Schröder, Carsten, 2014. "Fiscal federalism and tax enforcement," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100394, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Roy Bahl & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2013. "Sequencing Fiscal Decentralization," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(2), pages 641-687, November.
    19. Cordeiro Guerra, Susana & Lastra-Anadón, Carlos Xabel, 2019. "The quality-access tradeoff in decentralizing public services: Evidence from education in the OECD and Spain," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 295-316.
    20. Zaman, Nadeem Uz & Ghutai, Gul & Zaidi, Syed Raza Irfan Shah, 2012. "The implication of the value added tax in Pakistan: administration, experiences and fears," MPRA Paper 37172, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cleavages; decentralization; economic voting; electoral system; nationalization.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • H74 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Borrowing
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gov:wpaper:1602. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Patricio Sanchez-Fernandez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/geviges.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.