Still standing for elections? Political externalities and the determinants of party entry decisions

According to the Duvergerian theories, only political parties expecting to achieve representation are predicted to stand for elections alone in the long run. However, the empirical evidence shows that, throughout the world, parties continue presenting candidacies when they are non-viable, thus calling into question Duverger’s theoretical expectations. This paper investigates this apparent paradox through in-depth interviews with political leaders in Canada and Spain, and illustrates that parties presenting candidacies when non-viable obtain positive political externalities to compete. Analogously, political parties not presenting candidacies when non-viable will suffer negative political externalities for not doing so. Overall, the overlap of electoral arenas turns the decision to present candidacies when non-viable into the dominant strategy, whereas coalescing or withdrawing become the least favoured alternatives.