TY - JOUR
T1 - Party system closure and openness
T2 - Conceptualization, operationalization and validation
AU - Casal Bértoa, Fernando
AU - Enyedi, Zsolt
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, © The Author(s) 2014.
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - The degree of closure of the governmental arena is a central aspect of the stabilization of party systems, and yet little systematic effort has been devoted to its operationalization. The article proposes a new index, examines its reliability and validity, and reports the ranking of 60 party systems. By redefining the units of measurement we suggest new indicators that are uniform and transparent in their logic of construction, can be applied both to specific government-changes and to time periods, and are sensitive to the degree of change. The article finds a hierarchy among the components of party system closure, dominated by coalition formula. While new and established democracies can both produced closed patterns, the analysis of inter-war European party systems shows that closed systems are less prone to authoritarian takeover. The article demonstrates the power of inertia: the completely closed configurations stand out as the most durable ones.
AB - The degree of closure of the governmental arena is a central aspect of the stabilization of party systems, and yet little systematic effort has been devoted to its operationalization. The article proposes a new index, examines its reliability and validity, and reports the ranking of 60 party systems. By redefining the units of measurement we suggest new indicators that are uniform and transparent in their logic of construction, can be applied both to specific government-changes and to time periods, and are sensitive to the degree of change. The article finds a hierarchy among the components of party system closure, dominated by coalition formula. While new and established democracies can both produced closed patterns, the analysis of inter-war European party systems shows that closed systems are less prone to authoritarian takeover. The article demonstrates the power of inertia: the completely closed configurations stand out as the most durable ones.
KW - 1848-2013
KW - European democracies
KW - government formation
KW - party system closure
KW - structure of competition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84966737274&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1354068814549340
DO - 10.1177/1354068814549340
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84966737274
SN - 1354-0688
VL - 22
SP - 265
EP - 277
JO - Party Politics
JF - Party Politics
IS - 3
ER -