Municipal Governance and Democratic Perceptions: The Role of Party Competition and Municipal Governance on Evaluations of Democracy

• In Event: Party System Change in Latin America

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the institutional variables that allow some parties to continue to win local elections while others fail when there is a national party system collapse. The paper looks at the size, level of nationalization, level of centralization, and legacies of political parties prior to collapse in order to explore which political parties are able to win local elections and how decentralization reforms change the nature of political parties. This paper explores the differences in in the structure of competition between parties at the national and subnational level. In the paper, I raise the question of how federalism modifies party strategies and preferences for maintaining subnational presence in the aftermath of collapse or continuing to attempt a national-level resurgence. Thus, I engage in the political consequences of national party system collapse as it influences subnational political competition.

Author

• Katherine McKiernan