Jordi Muñoz | Universitat de Barcelona (original) (raw)
Papers by Jordi Muñoz
Between September 2009 and April 2011, around one-half of the Catalan municipalities held unoffic... more Between September 2009 and April 2011, around one-half of the Catalan municipalities held unofficial referendums on independence from Spain, in which more than 800,000 citizens took part. However, the participation rates were unevenly distributed across Catalonia. In this paper, using an original data set, we aim to respond to two relevant questions: first, why in some municipalities the referendum took place and in others it did not occur. Second, why did the referendum achieve high rates of turnout in some localities and much lower participation in others. We find that the resources available to the movement, the intensity of the mobilization efforts, the participatory tradition of the municipalities and the size of the nationalist ‘sentiment pool’ in each locality explain to a great extent the internal variation in nationalist mobilization in Catalonia.
This article considers how partisanship conditions attitudes toward corruption. Stirred by the pu... more This article considers how partisanship conditions attitudes toward corruption. Stirred by the puzzle of why corruption does not seem to have the electoral consequences we would expect, it explores whether party supporters are more tolerant toward corruption cases when they affect their own party. The partisan-bias hypothesis is confirmed by a survey experiment carried out in Spain, a country where a number of corruption scandals have been recently visible. The results show that the same offense is judged differently depending on whether the responsible politician is a member of the respondent’s party, of unknown partisan affiliation, or of a rival party. Furthermore, the degree of partisan bias depends on political sophistication. This suggests that although partisanship may induce tolerance to same-party corruption practices, the partisan bias disappears when political awareness is high.
Past research analysing the positive effects of proportional systems on electoral participation h... more Past research analysing the positive effects of proportional systems on electoral participation has focused on dimensions such as quality of representation, mobilisation, competitiveness, and efficacy. However, the potential consequences of higher complexity and difficulties for accountability on proportional systems are not well known. We show that proportional features capturing complexity and dispersion of power can increase the participatory gap between citizens with high and low education and interest in politics, usually by depressing turnout among the less educated and interested. The implications of adopting proportional rules that result in complex and divided forms of government in an era of increasingly disengaged citizens are discussed.
Support for independence from Spain has sharply increased in recent years in Catalonia. According... more Support for independence from Spain has sharply increased in recent years in Catalonia. According to all available evidence, public opinion has shifted from an overwhelmingly pro-autonomy position to an increasingly pro-independence stance. How can we explain such widespread support for secession in a democratic context? Traditionally, national identity has been regarded as the main explanatory factor, but recent accounts tend to underline the effect of political elite’s agency as well as instrumental calculations regarding the economic consequences of secession. However, the identification of this last causal effect is subject to a fundamental challenge: the possibility that economic expectations are mere rationalizations of prior preferences. In order to overcome this identification problem, we combine the analysis of observational survey data with an original survey-embedded experiment that provides a robust test of the causal nature of economic expectations. Our results show how identity, as well as partisanship, are the main drivers of support for secession, but also that economic considerations play an independent role. Results show that economic motivations are more relevant for citizens with ambivalent identity positions and for those that have no party identification, or are partisans of parties with less clear-cut stances on the issue.
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Jan 1, 2009
Attachment to the nation is often seen as a stable attitude that provides a "reservoir of diffuse... more Attachment to the nation is often seen as a stable attitude that provides a "reservoir of diffuse support" for a country, beyond any specific institutional setting.
7th Congress of the Asociación Española de Ciencia …, Jan 1, 2005
vii Tot això, per suposat, val diners. I a mi me'ls han proporcionat, en diverses etapes, la Univ... more vii Tot això, per suposat, val diners. I a mi me'ls han proporcionat, en diverses etapes, la Universitat Pompeu Fabra, el Ministeri espanyol d'Educació i Ciència (programa FPU), el projecte SEC-2003 00418 dirigit per Francesc Pallarés, el Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas i, finalment, també la Fundació la Caixa. Vull agrair especialment a l'equip de beques de la Caixa, i sobretot a Emília Jordi, perquè amb la seua professionalitat i dedicació van contribuir molt a que tot fos molt fàcil en la meua estada als EUA.
Informe Comunidades Autónomas, Jan 1, 2006
Regional & Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2006
In this paper, the results of the 2005 autonomous election in Galicia are analyzed. After a revie... more In this paper, the results of the 2005 autonomous election in Galicia are analyzed. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level explain the main reasons behind the defeat of the Popular Party after 16 years of absolute majority in the Galician Parliament and discuss its implications for the political system at the Galician and Spanish levels.
Regional & Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2006
In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2005 autonomous election in the Basque Cou... more In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2005 autonomous election in the Basque Country. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level and the main reasons behind the apparent stability of the polarized multiparty system and its ideological basis. We finally discuss the implications of the results for the political system at Basque and Spanish levels.
Instituto de Derecho Público, …, Jan 1, 2004
El 14 de Marzo de 2004 se celebraron las octavas elecciones generales desde la aprobación de la C... more El 14 de Marzo de 2004 se celebraron las octavas elecciones generales desde la aprobación de la Constitución Española. Los comicios se celebran en un clima fuertemente enrarecido a raíz de los terribles atentados del 11-M en Madrid y de sus derivadas políticas.
Regional and Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2010
Regional & Federal …, Jan 1, 2010
Cameron Anderson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University ... more Cameron Anderson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. His work on elections, voting behaviour and public opinion has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Political ...
Regional and Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2008
In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2006 autonomous election in Catalonia. Aft... more In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2006 autonomous election in Catalonia. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level and the main reasons behind the stability and change in the electoral behaviour. We finally discuss the implications of the results for the political system at Basque and Spanish levels.
Eines per a l'esquerra nacional, Jan 1, 2010
De vegades, petits gestos prenen dimensions inesperades i tenen conseqüències que ningú no s'haur... more De vegades, petits gestos prenen dimensions inesperades i tenen conseqüències que ningú no s'hauria imaginat. Llavors, els esdeveniments s'acceleren i en poques setmanes escenaris que semblaven inamovibles esdevenen cosa del passat. Això succeeix a Catalunya la tardor passada: el gest d'organitzar simbòlicament una consulta popular sobre la independència de Catalunya a Arenys de Munt -impulsada per una entitat ciutadana i amplificada de manera maldestra per les institucions de l'Estat espanyol-acaba produint un sorprenent efecte dòmino. Així, tres mesos després que el 41% dels arenyencs cridats a les urnes responguessin a la crida, 167 municipis celebren la seva consulta, amb un cens global d'unes 702.532 persones i una participació de 192.606, que representen un 27,42% de les persones amb dret a vot. Les dimensions del fenomen superen moltes expectatives. * Investigador postdoctoral en Ciència Política a la UAB ** Investigador en Ciència Política a la UPF VISTA PRÈVIA Les consultes sobre la independència celebrades a 167 municipis de Catalunya el 12 i 13 de desembre de 2009 representen un procés d'organització de la societat civil i de participació ciutadana amb pocs precedents al nostre país. Com es van organitzar? Què explica les taxes de participació assolides? Per què en uns municipis hi va votar més gent que en d'altres? Aquest article respon a aquestes qüestions a partir de l'anàlisi de les dades estadístiques oficials i provinents d'una enquesta realitzada a persones representatives de les plataformes organitzadores. 14 | EINES HIVERN 2010
Between September 2009 and April 2011, around one-half of the Catalan municipalities held unoffic... more Between September 2009 and April 2011, around one-half of the Catalan municipalities held unofficial referendums on independence from Spain, in which more than 800,000 citizens took part. However, the participation rates were unevenly distributed across Catalonia. In this paper, using an original data set, we aim to respond to two relevant questions: first, why in some municipalities the referendum took place and in others it did not occur. Second, why did the referendum achieve high rates of turnout in some localities and much lower participation in others. We find that the resources available to the movement, the intensity of the mobilization efforts, the participatory tradition of the municipalities and the size of the nationalist ‘sentiment pool’ in each locality explain to a great extent the internal variation in nationalist mobilization in Catalonia.
This article considers how partisanship conditions attitudes toward corruption. Stirred by the pu... more This article considers how partisanship conditions attitudes toward corruption. Stirred by the puzzle of why corruption does not seem to have the electoral consequences we would expect, it explores whether party supporters are more tolerant toward corruption cases when they affect their own party. The partisan-bias hypothesis is confirmed by a survey experiment carried out in Spain, a country where a number of corruption scandals have been recently visible. The results show that the same offense is judged differently depending on whether the responsible politician is a member of the respondent’s party, of unknown partisan affiliation, or of a rival party. Furthermore, the degree of partisan bias depends on political sophistication. This suggests that although partisanship may induce tolerance to same-party corruption practices, the partisan bias disappears when political awareness is high.
Past research analysing the positive effects of proportional systems on electoral participation h... more Past research analysing the positive effects of proportional systems on electoral participation has focused on dimensions such as quality of representation, mobilisation, competitiveness, and efficacy. However, the potential consequences of higher complexity and difficulties for accountability on proportional systems are not well known. We show that proportional features capturing complexity and dispersion of power can increase the participatory gap between citizens with high and low education and interest in politics, usually by depressing turnout among the less educated and interested. The implications of adopting proportional rules that result in complex and divided forms of government in an era of increasingly disengaged citizens are discussed.
Support for independence from Spain has sharply increased in recent years in Catalonia. According... more Support for independence from Spain has sharply increased in recent years in Catalonia. According to all available evidence, public opinion has shifted from an overwhelmingly pro-autonomy position to an increasingly pro-independence stance. How can we explain such widespread support for secession in a democratic context? Traditionally, national identity has been regarded as the main explanatory factor, but recent accounts tend to underline the effect of political elite’s agency as well as instrumental calculations regarding the economic consequences of secession. However, the identification of this last causal effect is subject to a fundamental challenge: the possibility that economic expectations are mere rationalizations of prior preferences. In order to overcome this identification problem, we combine the analysis of observational survey data with an original survey-embedded experiment that provides a robust test of the causal nature of economic expectations. Our results show how identity, as well as partisanship, are the main drivers of support for secession, but also that economic considerations play an independent role. Results show that economic motivations are more relevant for citizens with ambivalent identity positions and for those that have no party identification, or are partisans of parties with less clear-cut stances on the issue.
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Jan 1, 2009
Attachment to the nation is often seen as a stable attitude that provides a "reservoir of diffuse... more Attachment to the nation is often seen as a stable attitude that provides a "reservoir of diffuse support" for a country, beyond any specific institutional setting.
7th Congress of the Asociación Española de Ciencia …, Jan 1, 2005
vii Tot això, per suposat, val diners. I a mi me'ls han proporcionat, en diverses etapes, la Univ... more vii Tot això, per suposat, val diners. I a mi me'ls han proporcionat, en diverses etapes, la Universitat Pompeu Fabra, el Ministeri espanyol d'Educació i Ciència (programa FPU), el projecte SEC-2003 00418 dirigit per Francesc Pallarés, el Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas i, finalment, també la Fundació la Caixa. Vull agrair especialment a l'equip de beques de la Caixa, i sobretot a Emília Jordi, perquè amb la seua professionalitat i dedicació van contribuir molt a que tot fos molt fàcil en la meua estada als EUA.
Informe Comunidades Autónomas, Jan 1, 2006
Regional & Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2006
In this paper, the results of the 2005 autonomous election in Galicia are analyzed. After a revie... more In this paper, the results of the 2005 autonomous election in Galicia are analyzed. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level explain the main reasons behind the defeat of the Popular Party after 16 years of absolute majority in the Galician Parliament and discuss its implications for the political system at the Galician and Spanish levels.
Regional & Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2006
In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2005 autonomous election in the Basque Cou... more In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2005 autonomous election in the Basque Country. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level and the main reasons behind the apparent stability of the polarized multiparty system and its ideological basis. We finally discuss the implications of the results for the political system at Basque and Spanish levels.
Instituto de Derecho Público, …, Jan 1, 2004
El 14 de Marzo de 2004 se celebraron las octavas elecciones generales desde la aprobación de la C... more El 14 de Marzo de 2004 se celebraron las octavas elecciones generales desde la aprobación de la Constitución Española. Los comicios se celebran en un clima fuertemente enrarecido a raíz de los terribles atentados del 11-M en Madrid y de sus derivadas políticas.
Regional and Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2010
Regional & Federal …, Jan 1, 2010
Cameron Anderson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University ... more Cameron Anderson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. His work on elections, voting behaviour and public opinion has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Political ...
Regional and Federal Studies, Jan 1, 2008
In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2006 autonomous election in Catalonia. Aft... more In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2006 autonomous election in Catalonia. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level and the main reasons behind the stability and change in the electoral behaviour. We finally discuss the implications of the results for the political system at Basque and Spanish levels.
Eines per a l'esquerra nacional, Jan 1, 2010
De vegades, petits gestos prenen dimensions inesperades i tenen conseqüències que ningú no s'haur... more De vegades, petits gestos prenen dimensions inesperades i tenen conseqüències que ningú no s'hauria imaginat. Llavors, els esdeveniments s'acceleren i en poques setmanes escenaris que semblaven inamovibles esdevenen cosa del passat. Això succeeix a Catalunya la tardor passada: el gest d'organitzar simbòlicament una consulta popular sobre la independència de Catalunya a Arenys de Munt -impulsada per una entitat ciutadana i amplificada de manera maldestra per les institucions de l'Estat espanyol-acaba produint un sorprenent efecte dòmino. Així, tres mesos després que el 41% dels arenyencs cridats a les urnes responguessin a la crida, 167 municipis celebren la seva consulta, amb un cens global d'unes 702.532 persones i una participació de 192.606, que representen un 27,42% de les persones amb dret a vot. Les dimensions del fenomen superen moltes expectatives. * Investigador postdoctoral en Ciència Política a la UAB ** Investigador en Ciència Política a la UPF VISTA PRÈVIA Les consultes sobre la independència celebrades a 167 municipis de Catalunya el 12 i 13 de desembre de 2009 representen un procés d'organització de la societat civil i de participació ciutadana amb pocs precedents al nostre país. Com es van organitzar? Què explica les taxes de participació assolides? Per què en uns municipis hi va votar més gent que en d'altres? Aquest article respon a aquestes qüestions a partir de l'anàlisi de les dades estadístiques oficials i provinents d'una enquesta realitzada a persones representatives de les plataformes organitzadores. 14 | EINES HIVERN 2010