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Recasting the Meaning of Elections: Three Strikes for the Mandate Interpretation in Europe

Tristan Klingelhöfer

Comparative Politics2025https://doi.org/10.5129/001041525x17515489518332article
ABDC A
Weight
0.41

Abstract

How are we to interpret the rising popularity of right-wing populist and outright authoritarian parties in European democracies? Commonly, elections are seen as handing a mandate to their winners. So, are such forces increasingly receiving a mandate from voters to carry out their policies? This article reviews three recent books (Authoritarianism and the Evolution of West European Electoral Politics by Erik R. Tillman, Democracy Erodes from the Top by Larry M. Bartels, and Voters under Pressure by Ruth Dassonneville) and argues that the mandate interpretation strikes out. These books illustrate how politicians shape “mandates,” how “mandates” can be ignored by those in power, and how the party system and the electorate are not structured (anymore) in a way to allow for genuine mandates to emerge.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5129/001041525x17515489518332

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@article{tristan2025,
  title        = {{Recasting the Meaning of Elections: Three Strikes for the Mandate Interpretation in Europe}},
  author       = {Tristan Klingelhöfer},
  journal      = {Comparative Politics},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5129/001041525x17515489518332},
}

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Recasting the Meaning of Elections: Three Strikes for the Mandate Interpretation in Europe

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Evidence weight

0.41

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10
M · momentum0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.