Re-Discovering the Role of Regional Parties: Size, Homogeneity, and Entrenched Self-Government Matter

Most studies on regional parties are focused on national elections, not on regional elections and government. This gives a distorted notion of how regional parties act. We show that entrenched self-government with legislative power has a fundamental role in how regional parties compete in regional elections compared to core state elections. In addition, parties form regional government which has been given authority to represent the entire region in agreement with core state government. To enhance our argument, we have added smallness and homogeneity which downgrades parties' role in core state elections and reinforces their commitment in regional elections and government.