2025/04/24 by Dieter Stiers, Marc Hooghe · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #European Union Policy and Governance #Political Systems and Governance
paper · doi:10.1080/13597566.2025.2496883
openalex publication_date 2025/04/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The idea that regional elections automatically could be considered as second-order elections has been criticized in the recent literature, as the rise of regional authority implies that the regional level has become more important in various federal systems. In the CSES-Belgium election survey (2024), it was asked what level of authority is most important for citizens when they casted a vote simultaneously for the federal and the regional level. Only about 30% of respondents state that the federal elections are more important, and a clear majority of respondents thinks they are equally important. If regional elections are not second-order, the vote choice should be based on an evaluation of the specific policies at that level. The analysis, however, shows that the importance attached to the level of authority is not related to the likelihood of split-ticket voting.