2024/09/05 by Tal Elovits, Nimrod Barnea · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Political Conflict and Governance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/spsr.12622
openalex publication_date 2024/09/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract In this study, we investigate national parties' strategic choices in Israeli local elections, utilizing a dataset of 3,737 electoral lists across 200 municipalities over three election cycles (2013–2024). Employing label coding and multilevel analysis, we reveal that municipality size, previous electoral success, mayoral candidacy, and ruling coalition membership significantly influenced parties' decisions to compete and their choice of label. Notably, almost 30% of party lists conceal their identity by opting for ‘disguised’ labels. We argue that Israel's extreme party decline in local politics, characterized by the dominance of independent lists, may foreshadow global trends as national parties withdraw from municipal contests. Our findings highlight the prevalence of disguised party lists, raising questions about voter information, as party labels serve as crucial informational shortcuts. This study contributes to the literature on party strategies and electoral dynamics in multilevel polities by emphasizing label analysis in local elections.