2024/04/02 by Davide Vampa · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Political Systems and Governance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13608746.2024.2429199
openalex publication_date 2024/04/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Electoral disparities can arise across places, depending on whether they hold the status of ‘cores’ – i.e. centres of relative political, demographic, and economic significance – or are positioned in what can be defined as ‘provincial’ areas, outside these cores. Italy and Spain present intriguing cases for investigation as polycentric systems with multiple regional cores. This study introduces a Core Electoral Strength (CES) index and applies it to over 300 observations of parties to assess their vote share advantage in core areas over provincial areas. The analysis reveals that, in both countries, CES tends to be higher for new parties, and lower for regionalist and government parties. However, findings are inconsistent across ideological party families.