En la Terminal me pide la contraseña pero cuando lo introduzco no sale nada

This project adopts a mixed approach composed of two national frameworks (Italy, Spain) and four regional case studies (Campania and Lombardia in Italy, Andalusia and Galicia in Spain). The national frameworks compare multi-level party systems and party organisations across the national territory; develop categories for regional party systems; and highlight salient features for analysis in the regional case studies. The regional case studies closely examine the dynamics of party competition and organisational change, consider the organisational and systemic linkages between territorial levels, reflect on the characteristics of regional political leadership, and introduce an understanding of the local dimensions of regional party politics. This mixed approach overcomes the trade-off between breadth and depth of analysis in regional party politics (see Chapter 1.1), and seeks to locate contextual findings within a more comparative framework, which may be usefully adapted to analyse multi-level party politics in other political systems.

Selection of Empirical Indicators

Empirical indicators are selected to measure and compare change over the course of the analytical time-frame. Narrowing party systems and organisations to a set of indicators raises the inevitable problem of neglecting other relevant areas of party activity. This problem can be partially compensated by selecting broad indicators able to convey the core features of parties in systemic and organisational terms. These are refined and applied at both levels of analysis, ensuring they are applicable in both general terms (national framework), and can also contribute towards a more contextual understanding (regional case studies). The regional case studies are crucial in identifying other relevant variables, as well as exploring the salient dynamics identified in the national framework.

Empirical Indicators for Party Systems

The indicators for party system are based on the congruence (or similarity) of parties and party competition between territorial levels (Thorlakson, 2006; 2007). The number of

parties will provide a starting point to differentiate between national and regional party

systems, as well as between different regional party systems. The number of parties will not be evaluated according to a minimum electoral threshold of support, or through a statistical measurement, but will consider all parties that win seats in national or regional parliaments. Even parties with a relatively low level of support in Italy and Spain may prove essential to winning elections or forming governing coalitions at national or regional level, given the highly competitive nature of their party systems. The territorial

coverage of statewide parties is another inter-regional indicator that evaluates whether

parties are represented in different national/regional party systems over the timeframe. While these empirical indicators will provide a good measurement of the party system

format, they need to be considered alongside other indicators that measure the structures of competition (Sartori, 1976). Coalition formation is particularly useful as a defining

feature of party competition in most Spanish and Italian regions, and as a process that links national and regional arenas through processes of coordination and experimentation (Downs, 1998), while the resulting patterns of government alternation can illustrate the intensity of party competition (Mair, 1997), as well as the degree of congruence between national and regional levels of party competition (Thorlakson, 2006). Analysis of party systems in the national frameworks relies primarily on data for regional elections and government formation, as well as relevant secondary literature. Analysis of party systems in the regional case studies additionally relies on archival research, documentary evidence, and a series of in-depth political interviews.

Empirical Indicators for Party Organisation

Measuring organisational change in political parties is a complex endeavour that needs to consider both formal rules and informal practices. While change to formal rules may betray a continuation of existing informal practices, changes to informal practices can occur without changes in formal rules. Formal organisational change generally takes place through revisions to party statutes, which can simultaneously affect different areas of party organisation. This analysis focuses on changes to the regional level of party

organisation, particularly whether this has obtained an enhanced autonomy from the

national level, or an enhanced influence over national party decision-making. A related but complementary indicator for measuring organisational change is candidate selection, which focuses on the role of the regional party in multi-level elections. Although candidate selection has already been included in existing frameworks for measuring party decentralisation (Hopkin 2003; Deschouwer, 2003), its application is not uncomplicated. Decentralised candidate selection procedures are not always closely related to levels of state decentralisation, since they can be linked to historic traditions of personal representation (e.g. UK) or Constitutional prerogatives (e.g. Germany) (see Gallagher and Marsh, 1988). A further distinction must be made between ‘decentralisation’ of procedure (i.e. handing power of selection to the regional or local party branches) and ‘decentralisation with democratisation’ of procedure (i.e. handing power of selection to regional or local party primaries). Whereas the former procedure should strengthen the sub-national party organisation, the latter may undermine it by establishing direct links between the membership base and the party leadership. Changes in candidate selection procedure that increase the autonomy of one sub-national level (e.g. regional branches), may do so at the expense of others (e.g. local branches). Finally, the scope of candidate selection should be considered, namely whether it applies to all parliamentary candidates, or only to ‘leadership’ selection (Hopkin, 2001b). Candidate selection is nevertheless a crucial empirical indicator that can best measure the locus of territorial power within party organisations, because it highlights which territorial level performs the core ‘nominating function’ (Truman, 1954). Analysis of formal changes to party organisations will be mainly conducted at the level of national framework, through an analysis of party

statutes and key secondary literature. Analysis of informal changes to party organisation will be mainly conducted in the regional case studies, which rely on archival analysis, documentary evidence, and in-depth political interviews.

Selection of Regional Case Studies

The regional case studies for Italy (Campania, Lombardia) and Spain (Andalusia, Galicia) compare the behaviour of statewide parties in diverse territorial contexts, where their level of access to sub-national government varies considerably, and the prevailing political culture is very different. This variation is necessary to confirm whether the organisational behaviour of statewide parties has become territorially differentiated, or whether these parties display similar behaviour across the national territory. Case selection avoided regions where non-statewide parties are predominant in electoral terms (more than 40% of electoral support), because these weakly reflect the political dynamics that prevail in the rest of the country, since the behaviour of all political actors is heavily determined by competing nationalist mobilisation. The selected regions nevertheless contain non-statewide parties, which obtained seats in the regional parliament and entered the regional government, so represent a systemic challenge for competing statewide parties. This allows non-statewide parties to become an object for comparative analysis in the regional case studies. Since this research project focuses on party system dynamics and organisational change, it must explore regions with different structures of party competition, because this variable will affect organisational adaptation in both statewide and non-statewide parties. One Italian region is therefore dominated by the centre-right coalition (Lombardia), while the other has alternated between competing coalitions, but is now dominated by the centre-left coalition (Campania). One Spanish region is dominated by a centre-left statewide party without alternation in government (Andalusia), while the other was long dominated by a centre-right statewide party, which was eventually displaced from office by a coalition of centre-left statewide and non-statewide parties (Galicia). All the regions selected are relatively large in size (population > 2 million), which ensures the dynamics of regional politics could have a significant effect on national party politics, and may influence the territorial strategies of statewide parties.