Electoral volatility has largely increased in Western Europe in the last two decades. The average duration of cabinet formation processes has escalated as a result of growing polarization and party system fragmentation. These changes have not been gradual, but have responded to different 'transformation waves' in which new party types have been incorporated into national parliaments heterogeneously across Western European democracies. When did these changes begin? What are the reasons behind them and why do different party systems follow different patterns?

The goal of this seminar is to provide students with a set of conceptual and empirical tools to answer these questions. It aims to get them familiar with the evolution of Western European party systems from a historical and comparative perspective so that they can identify patterns of continuity and change. To do so, it will review the main political theories of party system formation and change in Europe, with a particular emphasis in cleavage theory. The course is divided into two weekend-blocks. The first block will consist of a review of European party systems, focusing on their main changes from the 1960s until now. The second block will discuss the most relevant (electoral) demand and supply factors provided by the literature to explain these changes.

·         Mandatory readings

Boix, C. (2007). The emergence of parties and party systems. In The Oxford handbook of comparative politics.

Bornschier, S. (2010). The new cultural divide and the two-dimensional political space in Western Europe. West European Politics, 33(3), 419–444.

Chiaramonte, A., & Emanuele, V. (2017). Party system volatility, regeneration and de-institutionalization in Western Europe (1945–2015). Party Politics, 23(4), 376–388.

Hobolt, S. B., & De Vries, C. E. (2012). When dimensions collide: The electoral success of issue entrepreneurs. European Union Politics, 13(2), 246–268.

Ignazi, P. (1992). The silent counter-revolution: Hypotheses on the emergence of extreme right-wing parties in Europe. European Journal of Political Research, 22(1), 3–34.

Kriesi, H., & Hutter, S. (2019). Economic and political crises–the context of critical elections. European Party Politics in Times of Crisis, 33.

Mair, P. (1993). Myths of electoral change and the survival of traditional parties: The 1992 Stein Rokkan Lecture. European Journal of Political Research, 24(2), 121–133.

Müller-Rommel, F. (1998). Explaining the electoral success of green parties: A cross-national analysis. Environmental Politics, 7(4), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644019808414428

Oesch, D. (2008). Explaining workers’ support for right-wing populist parties in Western Europe: Evidence from Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, and Switzerland. International Political Science Review, 29(3), 349–373.

·         Additional resources

Cavaille, C., & Marshall, J. (2019). Education and anti-immigration attitudes: Evidence from compulsory schooling reforms across Western Europe. American Political Science Review, 113(1), 254–263.

Downs, A. (1957). An economic theory of democracy.

Emanuele, V., & Chiaramonte, A. (2018). A growing impact of new parties: Myth or reality? Party system innovation in Western Europe after 1945. Party Politics, 24(5), 475–487.

Emanuele, V., & Chiaramonte, A. (2019). Explaining the impact of new parties in the Western European party systems. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 29(4), 490–510.

Hernández, E., & Kriesi, H. (2016). The electoral consequences of the financial and economic crisis in Europe. European Journal of Political Research, 55(2), 203–224.

Hernández, E., & Kriesi, H. (2016). The electoral consequences of the financial and economic crisis in Europe. European Journal of Political Research, 55(2), 203–224.

Hobolt, S. B., & De Vries, C. E. (2015). Issue entrepreneurship and multiparty competition. Comparative Political Studies, 48(9), 1159–1185.

Hobolt, S. B., & Tilley, J. (2016). Fleeing the centre: the rise of challenger parties in the aftermath of the euro crisis. West European Politics, 39(5), 971–991.

Hooghe, L., & Marks, G. (2018). Cleavage theory meets Europe’s crises: Lipset, Rokkan, and the transnational cleavage. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(1), 109–135.

Hutter, S., Kriesi, H., & Vidal, G. (2018). Old versus new politics: The political spaces in Southern Europe in times of crises. Party Politics, 24(1), 10–22.

Inglehart, R. (1977). The silent revolution: Changing values and political styles in advanced industrial society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Kalyvas, S. N. (2018). The rise of Christian democracy in Europe. Cornell University Press.

Kriesi, H. (1998). The transformation of cleavage politics The 1997 Stein Rokkan lecture. European Journal of Political Research, 33(2), 165–185.

Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S., & Frey, T. (2006). Globalization and the transformation of the national political space: Six European countries compared. European Journal of Political Research, 45(6), 921–956.

Lipset, S. M., & Rokkan, S. (1967). Cleavage structures, party systems, and voter alignments: an introduction. Free Press.

Mudde, C. (1999). The single-issue party thesis: Extreme right parties and the immigration issue. West European Politics, 22(3), 182–197.

Mudde, C. (2007). Populist radical right parties in Europe (Vol. 22, Issue 8). Cambridge University Press Cambridge.

Muller-Rommel, F. (2019). New politics in Western Europe: The rise and success of green parties and alternative lists. Routledge.

Oesch, D., & Rennwald, L. (2018). Electoral competition in Europe’s new tripolar political space: Class voting for the left, centre-right and radical right. European Journal of Political Research, 57(4), 783–807.

Przeworski, A. (1986). Paper stones: A history of electoral socialism. University of Chicago Press.

Rooduijn, M., & Burgoon, B. (2018). The paradox of well-being: do unfavorable socioeconomic and sociocultural contexts deepen or dampen radical left and right voting among the less well-off? Comparative Political Studies, 51(13), 1720–1753.

Spoon, J.-J., & Klüver, H. (2019). Party convergence and vote switching: Explaining mainstream party decline across Europe. European Journal of Political Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12331