Journal Articles

Electoral volatility, competition and third-party candidacies in US gubernatorial elections

---

Third-party participation in plurality elections should be rare, given the low probability of electoral success. In the United States, the entrenched two-party system makes third-party candidacies especially puzzling. We develop a general theory of these candidacies based on the electoral context, focusing on electoral competition and volatility. When electoral competition is either low or high we expect the number of third-party candidates to be high, due to the opportunities to raise attention to policy issues or affect the election outcome. Moderate levels of competition will produce low levels of third-party candidate participation, as there are fewer prospects of drawing votes or attention. Volatility is expected to have a positive effect, since high volatility signals a de-aligned electorate. We evaluate our claims using US gubernatorial elections, 1977—2005. The results support our claims, suggesting that third-party candidacies are shaped by the degree of electoral volatility and competition.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

Party Politics

Call Number

-

Publisher

Thousand Oak : sage publisher., 2011

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

13540688

Classification

-

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Vol. 17 no. 5, September 2011.pp. 611-628

Subject(s)

Elections
electoral systems
Minor parties
Statistical analysis
Electoral volatility, competition and third-party

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment