Re-entering electoral politics - Reputation and party system change in Spain and Greece

    Authors

    K. Hamann;B. Sgouraki-Kinsey

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Party Polit.

    Keywords

    democratization; elections; Greece; political parties; Spain; TRANSITION; Political Science

    Abstract

    This article examines change in the Greek and Spanish party systems between their pre- and post-authoritarian periods. While the Greek party system displayed substantial continuity, the Spanish system showed considerable change. We connect continuity in party structure with length of interruption of competitive electoral politics. Our argument relies on the idea of reputation to explain why Spanish party leaders were far less constrained in moving their parties along the policy space than their Greek counterparts. Political parties in Spain had less reputation for established policy positions than Greek parties. Our argument and its implications are formally derived from a model developed by Bowler. We evaluate some alternative explanations and conclude that reputation is a factor accounting for variation in party system change in these two cases. At the time of the transition party leaders were presented with different opportunities to redefine their respective parties' policy positions.

    Journal Title

    Party Politics

    Volume

    5

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-1999

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    55

    Last Page

    77

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000078298100004

    ISSN

    1354-0688

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