Title

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

Authors

Authors

K. Hamann;B. Sgouraki-Kinsey

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

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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