Electoral competition

Elections
Part of the Politics series

Basic types By-election Corporate Direct / Indirect Fixed-term General Local Mid-term Plurality Primary Proportional Recall Snap Sortition Two-round system
Terminology Anonymous elector Apportionment Audits Competition Boundary delimitation Crossover voting Electoral college Election law Election silence Gerrymandering Initiative Psephology Secret ballot Suffrage Right to stand for election
Subseries Political party Voting Electoral systems
Lists Elections by country Close elections Most recent Next general elections National and local elections in 2024
Related Election security Electoral fraud Referendum (by country) Electoral reform Election science
Politics portal
v t e

Electoral competition or electoral competitiveness describes the amount of competition in electoral politics between candidates or political parties, usually measured by the margin of victory.^[1] The Polity data series includes a measure of political competition.^[2]

United States

In American federal elections, races for U.S. Senate tend to be more competitive than those for U.S. House of Representatives.^[3] Even in wave election years, the vast majority of U.S. House members keep their seats, with little pressure from the opposing party.^[4] Competition in U.S. House races has been in decline since at least the 1960s.^[5]

References

^ Klarner, Carl; Berry, William; Carsey, Thomas; Jewell, Malcolm; Niemi, Richard; Powell, Lynda; Snyder, James (2013). "State Legislative Election Returns (1967-2010)". doi:10.3886/ICPSR34297.v1. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ https://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/p5manualv2018.pdf Marshall, Monty G., and Ted Robert Gurr. "Polity5: Political regime characteristics and transitions, 1800-2018." Center for Systemic Peace 2 (2020).
^ Nice, David (1984). "Competitiveness in house and senate elections with identical constituencies". Political Behavior. 6 (1): 95–102. doi:10.1007/BF00988231. S2CID 154349012.
^ "How Do We Make Elections More Competitive?". Prospect.org. 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
^ Abramowitz, Alan I; Alexander, Brad; Gunning, Matthew (2006). "Incumbency, Redistricting, and the Decline of Competition in the U.S. House Elections". The Journal of Politics. 68 (1): 75–88. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.177.798. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00371.x. S2CID 18783205.