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.
Last updated by source: 2023-11-24
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(Emanuele, 2015)
Electoral volatility caused by vote switching between existing parties, namely parties receiving at least 1% of the national share in both elections under scrutiny.
More about this variableElectoral volatility caused by vote switching between existing parties in a second election in the same year.
More about this variableElectoral 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 computed by aggregating the scores of each party falling below 1% and then comparing the overall sum at time t and t+1. Conversely, each party's volatility is counted separately - up to a specification of 0.1% - and then added to the calculation of dev_othv. This choice has been made to avoid underestimation of Total Volatility but at the same time to maintain a distinction between parties above 1% and parties below 1% for the calculation of the two components of dev_regv and dev_altv.
More about this variableElectoral 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.
More about this variableElectoral 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 share in election at time t+1 (while it received less than 1% in election at time t). Conversely, a party is considered as exiting the part system where it receives less than 1% in election at time t+1 (while it received at least 1% in election at time t).
More about this variableElectoral volatility caused by vote switching between parties that enter or exit from the party system in a second election in the same year.
More about this variableTotal electoral volatility in the party system, given by the sum of the previous measures: dev_regv + dev_altv + dev_othv = dev_tv.
More about this variableTotal electoral volatility in the party system in a second election in the same year.
More about this variable