When Candidates and Vote Distribution Matter: A New Indicator of Electoral Competitiveness

• Authors: Sergiu Gherghina , Huan-Kai Tseng
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The electoral competitiveness among candidates vying for single elected positions (e.g. president, members of parliament single member districts, or candidates for the party leadership) lacks an appropriate measurement. This study reevaluates previous measurements and proposes a new indicator that accounts for the interaction between the number of candidates and the distribution of votes. The resulting indicator overcomes the oversensitivity problem associated with earlier specification and provides better competitiveness estimate for various electoral settings. Its applicability is universal and allows for cross-cases and longitudinal comparisons for a wide variety of single-winner elections.

Keywords

EN

ELECTORAL COMPETITION; SINGLE WINNER; CANDIDATES; VOTE DISTRIBUTION

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: ASK. Research and Methods
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 55-68

Contributors

author

Sergiu Gherghina

• International Data Infrastructures, GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Square B2, 1, 68159 Mannheim, Germany

author

Huan-Kai Tseng

• Department of Political Science, George Washington University, USA