The Measurement of Party Competition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3200482 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David J Elkins (University of British Columbia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1974 |
| Volume | 68 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 682-700 |
| Publication date | 1974-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1959513 |
| OpenAlex | W4248597716 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 19 |
Most measures of party competition were designed for the United States or other two-party systems. The measure proposed here is intended for multiparty as well as two-party systems. It is a formalization of the notion of uncertainty: election outcomes are competitive to the degree we are uncertain who will win. By ascertaining through survey research the degree of party loyalty over time, one can calculate the chances of alternative outcomes in hypothetical replications of any given election. Since the chance that a losing party might have won is one measure of the importance of that party, this approach to party competition also provides a precise indicator of the number of parties in the system (i.e., whether it is two-party, three party, etc.). The method is applied here to data on Canadian federal elections in 1965 and 1968
Business · Competition (biology · Data mining · Democracy · Duverger's law · General election · Internet privacy · Loyalty · Measure (data warehouse · Political science · Politics · Primary election · Single non-transferable vote · Third party · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Labor Movements and Unions · Law
Political Parties
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The rise of a third party
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The political consequences of electoral laws
An economic theory of democracy
Political parties and political development
European Political Parties
Party Loyalty and the Likelihood of Deviating Elections
Measuring Interparty Competition
Stability and Change in Patterns of French Partisanship
The Equilibrium Cycle in Two-Party Politics
On the Existence of Forces Restoring Party Competition
An Experimental Method to Measure the Tendency to Equibalance in a Political System
The Measurement of Inter-Party Competition and Systemic Stability
The Desired Political Entropy
The Electoral System of Canada
Inter-Party Competition for Congressional Seats
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 1978 - 2025 (48) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |