Objective
Political parties and party systems are crucial institutions for the functioning of a modern representative democracy. Two established explanations of party system fragmentation and volatility are social cleavages and institutions. However, both approaches do not sufficiently consider the role of political elites in shaping party systems. This research project therefore seeks to complement these two approaches by studying one of the most important ways through which political elites can shape party systems, namely the stability of party supply. Party supply is unstable when new parties emerge and existing parties disappear, split, merge or combine themselves into fluid electoral alliances. In order to understand how the instability in party supply affects party systems, the project asks two questions: (1) what causes the instability in party supply? (2) how does the instability in party supply affect voter behaviour and parties’ electoral support? The project builds on the state-of-the-art in the literature by studying the causes and consequences of those forms of party instability that have been under-researched, namely, party splits, mergers, pre-electoral alliances and dissolutions. In addition, it also constructs an aggregate index of party instability and considers its impact on party system volatility. In order to conduct these studies, the project will build a cross-national dataset recording the instability in party supply in approximately 30 OECD and newer European democracies. The analysis of this cross-national dataset will be complemented by the analysis of election surveys, interviews with political elites and academics, and qualitative case studies. The project will provide a major contribution to the understanding of the development of party systems in both established and new democracies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences political transitions elections
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
EX4 4QJ Exeter
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.