Securing the Status Quo? The role of apparentements in Austrian local elections in protecting and disrupting party dominance.

Apparentement – the pooling of votes for electoral alliances – is a special feature of proportional electoral systems. We shed light on their use in local elections in the Land of Tyrol, where it is frequently utilized by the Christian-democratic People’s Party (ÖVP). The party consists of several leagues which represent different socioeconomic and demographic groups and they compete with separate lists of candidates in local elections. Based on a comprehensive analysis of local elections in Tyrol between 1998 and 2016 we find, that apparentements regularly yielded more seats for the ÖVP, helping to preserve the ÖVP’s predominant position in the region.