In the three Italian political elections held with the 75%-plurality, mixed-member electoral system, a systematic difference can be observed in vote shares obtained by the two major party coalitions in the plurality versus proportional vote. The article analyses the sources of these differences in the 2001 political elections. Based on precinct data for the whole country, separate analyses are carried out - using the Goodman model - in order to build "turnover tables" between the two arenas for each district of the country. Differentiated behaviours are thus quantified and commented at the national level. An explanatory analysis is then presented, in order to ascertain significant relations between such behaviours and district-level variables such as geographical area, urban setting, number of candidates contesting the district and party affiliation of coalition candidates. The overall result is that differentiated behaviours are dictated both by evaluation of the national competition setting and historical legacy regarding the perception and evaluation of the political space.

De Sio, L. (2006). Political Involvement and Electoral Competition. Center for the Study of Democracy - University of California, Irvine. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6xb2g2s9 Vai al sito web

De Sio, L. (2006). Elettori “convertiti”, elettori “traghettati.” In Itanes (Ed.), Dov’è la vittoria? Il voto del 2006 raccontato dagli italiani (pp. 61–76). Bologna: Il Mulino.

The close outcome of the Italian general elections of 2006 highlights the crucial role of floating voters, switching from one coalition to its opponent. Using survey data, the paper studies the relation between the degree of political interest and knowledge of individual voters and their propensity to switch between competing coalitions in subsequent elections. Two rival hypotheses are proposed. The first, dubbed the "electoral market", states that most vote change happens among the most interested and informed. On the contrary, the rival hypothesis of the "electoral bazaar" envisages a scenario where floating voters are mostly among the least politically involved. The results of the analysis show a marked difference between patterns in the First and the Second Republic.

D’ALIMONTE, R. D. R. (2005). Italy: A Case of Fragmented Bipolarism. In G. M. & M. P. (Eds.), THE POLITICS OF ELECTORAL SYSTEMS (pp. 253–276). Oxford: Oxford University Press.