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Party Competition in the 2013 Italian Elections: Evidence from an Expert Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

Aldo Di Virgilio ,
Daniela Giannetti ,
Andrea Pedrazzani  and
Luca Pinto
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Abstract

In this article, we examine the structure of party competition in Italy in the February 2013 elections. We rely on the spatial approach to party competition to analyse the most salient dimensions of the policy space in the Italian context. Our analysis is based on quantitative estimates from expert survey data. These data highlight the salience of the socioeconomic policy dimension and capture the change in the importance of the EU dimension. Finally, this study provides an analysis of potential coalition governments in the aftermath of the 2013 general election that is grounded on the spatial approach to coalition formation.

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Government and Opposition , Volume 50 , Supplement 1 , January 2015 , pp. 65 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014.

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Footnotes

*

Aldo Di Virgilio is an Associate Professor in Political Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. Contact email: aldo.divirgilio@unibo.it.

Daniela Giannetti is Professor in Political Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. Contact email: daniela.giannetti@unibo.it.

Andrea Pedrazzani is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. Contact email: andrea.pedrazzani@unibo.it.

Luca Pinto is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. Contact email: luca.pinto@unibo.it.

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