Electoral competition, political competition or electoral competitiveness describes the amount of competition in electoral politics between candidates or political parties, usually measured by the margin of victory.[1] The Polity data series includes a measure of political competition.[2] Political competitiveness can be affected by the proportionality between votes and seats, which can be represented by Gallagher index.[3]

Political competition is defined as one minus the share of votes received by the largest party.
Political competition is one minus the share of the winning party's votes in a national election. It provides a measure of the winning party's dominance in the election.

Roemer model of political competition

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The Roemer model of political competition is a game between political parties in which each party announces a multidimensional policy vector. Since Nash equilibria do not normally exist when the policy space is multidimensional, John Roemer introduced the concept of party-unanimity Nash equilibrium (PUNE), which can be considered an application of the concept of Nash equilibrium to political competition. It is also a generalization of the Wittman model of political competition.

Effect on corruption

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Political competitiveness can affect the level of political corruption.[3]

By country

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In American federal elections, races for U.S. Senate tend to be more competitive than those for U.S. House of Representatives.[4] Even in wave election years, the vast majority of U.S. House members keep their seats, with little pressure from the opposing party.[5] Competition in U.S. House races has been in decline since at least the 1960s.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Klarner, Carl; Berry, William; Carsey, Thomas; Jewell, Malcolm; Niemi, Richard; Powell, Lynda; Snyder, James (2013). "State Legislative Election Returns (1967-2010)". doi:10.3886/ICPSR34297.v1. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ https://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/p5manualv2018.pdf Marshall, Monty G., and Ted Robert Gurr. "Polity5: Political regime characteristics and transitions, 1800-2018." Center for Systemic Peace 2 (2020).
  3. ^ a b Alfano, Maria Rosaria; Baraldi, Anna Laura; Cantabene, Claudia (2013). "The role of political competition in the link between electoral systems and corruption: The Italian case". The Journal of Socio-Economics. 47: 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2013.07.005.
  4. ^ Nice, David (1984). "Competitiveness in house and senate elections with identical constituencies". Political Behavior. 6 (1): 95–102. doi:10.1007/BF00988231. S2CID 154349012.
  5. ^ "How Do We Make Elections More Competitive?". Prospect.org. 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
  6. ^ Abramowitz, Alan I; Alexander, Brad; Gunning, Matthew (2006). "Incumbency, Redistricting, and the Decline of Competition in the U.S. House Elections". The Journal of Politics. 68 (1): 75–88. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.177.798. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00371.x. S2CID 18783205.