Dataset of Electoral Volatility in Western Europe

Data source: Vincenzo Emanuele

This dataset provides data on electoral volatility and its internal components in parliamentary elections (lower house) in 20 countries of Western Europe for the period 1945-2023. It covers the entire universe of Western European elections held after World War II under democratic regimes. Data for Greece, Portugal and Spain have been collected after their democratizations in the 1970s. Altogether, a total of 347 elections (or, more precisely, electoral periods) are included.

When several elections were held in a single year, the data for the last election is included in the QoG dataset.

Dataset type
Time-Series
Dataset level
Country
Last updated by source
2025-11-03

Citation

When using this dataset, please cite as:

• Emanuele, V. (2015). Dataset of electoral volatility and its internal components in western europe (1946-2015). Italian Center for Electoral Studies. https://doi.org/10.7802/1112

Variables in this dataset

Browse variables and select them for download.

Electoral volatility caused by vote switching between existing parties, namely parties receiving at least 1% of the national share in both elections under scrutiny.

View variable

Electoral volatility caused by vote switching between existing parties in a second election in the same year.

Electoral volatility caused by vote switching between parties falling below 1% of the national share in both the elections at time t and t+1. It is important to clarify that this category is not compu ...

View variable

Electoral volatility caused by vote switching between parties falling below 1% of the national share in both the elections at time t and t+1 in a second election in the same year.

Electoral volatility caused by vote switching between parties that enter or exit from the party system. A party is considered as entering the party system where it receives at least 1% of the national ...

View variable

Electoral volatility caused by vote switching between parties that enter or exit from the party system in a second election in the same year.

Total electoral volatility in the party system, given by the sum of the previous measures: dev_regv + dev_altv + dev_othv = dev_tv.

View variable

Total electoral volatility in the party system in a second election in the same year.