Are Politics Local? The Two Dimensions of Party Nationalization around the World

Date
-
Event Sponsor
Center for Latin American Studies
Location
Bolivar House, 582 Alvarado Row, Stanford, CA
Are Politics Local? The Two Dimensions of Party Nationalization around the World

Friday Lecture and Book Talk with Scott Morgenstern

Are politics local? Why? Where? When? How do we measure local versus national politics? And what are the effects? This book provides answers to these questions, within an explicitly comparative frame- work, including both advanced and developing democracies. It does so by using a statistically based and graphical account of party natio- nalization, providing methodology and data for legislative elections covering scores of parties across dozens of countries. The book divides party nationalization into two dimensions – static and dynamic – to capture different aspects of localism, both with important implications for representation. Static nationalization measures the consistency in a party’s support across the country and thus shows whether parties are able to encompass local concerns into their platforms. Dynamic nationalization, in turn, measures the consistency among the districts in over-time change in electoral results, under the presumption that where districts differ in their electoral responses, local factors must drive politics. Each of the two dimensions, in sum, considers representation from the perspective of the mix of national versus local politics.

Scott Morgenstern is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is author of Patterns of Legislative Politics: Roll Call Voting in Latin America and the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and the co-editor of Legislative Politics in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2002), among other publications. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Party Politics, Electoral Studies, and other journals.

The book will be on sale during the lecture.

Light lunch will be provided

Contact Phone Number