Conclusion

The goal of this book has been to examine in detail the micro mechanisms underlying the aggregate patterns described by the second-order election model commonly used to study multi-level elections. The book builds on existing work showing that the incentives provided by multiple arenas affect political behaviour and show that these effects are heterogeneous across parties and voters and across regions and countries. Multi-level governance complicates the study of elections but it also creates greater variation, and this variation allows richer theories about party and voter behaviour to be tested. As the importance of electoral arenas beyond the national level increases across ever more countries, it is imperative that those theories help us to understand the implications not just for parties and voters but for the quality of electoral democracy.