par Close, Caroline
Référence IPSA World Congress (22nd: 8th-12th July 2012: Madrid)
Publication Non publié, 2012-07-08
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : Electoral systems have been for a long time a core topic in the field of comparative politics. Causes and consequences of electoral system have been analyzed in different areas of the polity, both at the intra and the inter-party dimensions. During the last two decades, many countries have experienced electoral system change (New Zealand, Italy, Japan…) - increasing scholars’ attention towards electoral reform. The paper focuses on the consequences of electoral system on party factionalism, and asks how recent electoral reforms can affect this intra-party dimension. While few systematic cross-sectional studies have been led on the topic, the paper attempts to fill this gap by investigating the effect of national legislative election rules (IV) on party factionalism (DV) in fifteen European parliamentary systems. The paper focuses exclusively on factionalism within the parliamentary party group (PGG), operationalized as a propensity to dissent, and measured through MPs’ dissenting preferences, attitudes and behaviors collected via cross-national MP surveys. The results suggest that recent reforms increasing the personalization of the vote would promote candidate-centered behavior in the parliamentary arena, thus increasing the risk of factional politics.