The decline of Duverger?: The impact of devolution on party systems in the United Kingdom

In particular, it analyses if voters have taken information from election results at the devolved tier, which operate under forms of Proportional Representation (PR), and applied those lessons at general elections, which do not use PR. This could alter how Duverger’s Law (1967) is interpreted as it maintains that two-party systems should remain stable as long as majoritarian rules are maintained, making no account for lower electoral tiers.

The central hypothesis of this dissertation argues that a more permissive electoral system in the devolved assemblies has created conditions which permit, but do not guarantee, contamination from the bottom-up. If enough voters learn from the proportional results, bottom-up effects have the capacity to overhaul long-established two-party systems in general election constituencies. <br><br><i>Thesis is embargoed until 31 July 2030.</i>