| OCR Text |
Show 70 policy orientations, this may provoke bitter internal divisions that can prove electorally damaging" (2006, 515). Many rival niche parties are created due to splinters, and the presence of a rival, splinter or otherwise, is expected to impact electoral success (Spoon 2011, 20). The presence of numerous competing parties, and the presence of a rival or splinter niche party in particular, are expected to hurt the electoral success of one or both of these parties (Backes 2011, 150-2). As Art explains, "Splinter parties may compete for the same slice of the electorate and draw votes away from the original party. Large splits threaten the party's survival and it can take years to recover the organizational resources that were lost" (2011, 35-6). Hypothesis 22: As the number of political parties (overall and specifically the presence of rivals/splinter parties) contesting an election increase, the electoral success (percent of the vote, number of seats, and movement by mainstream parties on niche issues) of niche parties (environmental or MCCP) will decrease. Many of the niche parties in Europe have competed against a rival or splinter party and one case will briefly be examined: Denmark. Denmark presents a case of how splintering can often work against one of the competing niche parties, in this case the original party. The Danish People's Party (DF) broke off from the Danish Progress Party (FP) in 1995 (Widfeldt 2000, 486-492).19 After a long internal power struggle coinciding with a decline in the electoral success of the Progress Party, members led by Pia Kjærsgaard broke off and created the new, more right-leaning People's Party (DF). Despite being considered more radical, the DF received more than double the percent of the vote and double the number of seats than the Progress Party concurrently received. In 19 Per Table 4 in Chapter I, the Danish Progress Party was excluded from this project because, at its creation, it focused on a different niche. It switched to a more MCCP basis later on, so it has still been counted as a rival party for the purposes of this variable. |
