Conclusions

Abstract

This book is motivated by the belief that party switching is an important phenomenon, neither as idiosyncratic nor as noxious as the general perception suggests. The extant literature tends to either neglect party switching or treat it as an aberration. In a sense, this is understandable. At first blush, it seems illogical or self-defeating for a politician whose career and fortunes are bound to a particular party to even consider defecting from that party and joining another. It is all too easy to view party switching as confined to special conditions, as hold for example in new democracies, transitional party systems, or weak party organizations. Yet, as the contributions to this volume make abundantly clear, changes of party affiliation among elected politicians occur in virtually all legislatures and party systems. Party switching varies in frequency but it is ubiquitous. As one consequence of strategic behavior, moreover, it is both systematic and predictable. Further, as emphasized in the introduction, the presumption that switching is anomalous and rare belies the extent of its implications, its causes, and its effects.