Regional and National Elections in Eastern Europe

This book is the second of two studies which systematically explore territoriality of the vote in Europe. They investigate when and where voters treat regional elections differently from national contests and aim to increase our understanding of the dynamics of electoral competition, which have become increasingly multifarious and complex in many countries due to the establishment and strengthening of regional government. This volume brings together leading experts on elections who analyze differences between regional and national electoral outcomes in ten East European countries since 1990. Based on a common analytical framework, each chapter investigates congruence between regional and national elections and traces and explains second-order and regional election effects. The editors applied a similar analytical framework in Regional and National Elections in Western Europe (Palgrave, 2013) which focused on 13 West European countries, enabling the authors to compare regionalelectoral dynamics between Eastern and Western Europe and observe to what extent explanations for territorial heterogeneity in the vote in the West also apply to the East. This book will be of particular interest to advanced students and scholars in the fields of comparative politics, regional studies, Eastern-European politics, and democratization. 

List of Tables and Figures.- Acknowledgements.- Notes on Contributors.- 1. Introduction: An Analytical Framework for Studying Territoriality of the Vote in Eastern Europe; Arjan H. Schakel and Régis Dandoy.- 2. Bosnia and Herzegovina: An Archetypical Example of an Ethnocracy; John Husley and Dejan Stjepanović.- 3. Croatia: Elections for Weak Counties When Regionalization is Not Finished Yet; Ivan Koprić, Daria Dubajić, Tijana Vukojičić Tomić and Romea Manojlović.- 4. Czech Republic: Regional Elections without Regional Politics; Michal Pink.- 5. Hungary: Are Neglected Regional Elections Second-Order Elections?; Gábor Dobos and Réka Várnagy.- 6. Poland: Nationalization Despite Fear of Regionalization; Wojciech Gagatek and Michał Kotnarowski.-7. Romania: Regional Persistence in a Highly Nationalized Party System; Dragoș Dragoman and Bogdan Gheroghiță.- 8. Russia: Nationalization Achieved Through Electoral and InstitutionalEngineering; Derek Hutcheson and Arjan H. Schakel.- 9. Serbia and Montenegro. From Centralization to Secession and Multi-Ethnic Regionalism; Christina Isabel Zuber and Jelena Džankić.- 10. Slovakia: The Unbearable Lightness of Regionalisation; Marek Rybář and Peter Spáč.- 11. Turkey: Provincial Elections as a Barometer of National Politics; Emanuele Massetti and Sait Aksit.-12. Conclusion: Towards an Explanation of the Territoriality of the Vote in Eastern Europe; Arjan H. Schakel.- Bibliography.- Index.