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By Colin Flint
Geojournal, 2000, Vol 51, pp. 145-156.
Electoral geography has been criticized for being driven by available data rather than theoretically derived questions. This paper makes two propositions with the intention of making electoral geography a vital component of geography. First, electoral geography and theories of the social construction of space should engage each other to their mutual advantage so that electoral geography is informed by theory and theory is informed by quantitative analysis. A theoretical framework for the empirical analysis of elections is proposed that views elections as one component of the social construction of space while simultaneously illustrating how space structures electoral behavior. Institutions and ideology frame local knowledge to create electoral locales that produce a regionalization of voter mobilization. In turn, voter mobilization recreates the geography of institutions and knowledge that structure electoral behavior. The second proposition is that the concepts of a geographic theory of voter mobilization need to be operationalized in such a way that space is an integral component of statistical analysis. The statistical concepts of spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity are used to include electoral locales and the regionalization of voter mobilization in the analysis. The theoretical framework and statistical operationalization proposed are illustrated by a statistical analysis of the growth of the Nazi party vote in Baden between 1924 and 1932.
Keywords: electoral geography; social construction of space; spatial statistics; Nazi party
By Colin Flint
The Arab World Geographer, 1998 Vol. 1, pp. 79- 100.
The Nazi party seized power on the basis of cross-class electoral support, one component of a Sammlungsbewegung (a national cross-class political movement). The Nazi party's broad electoral appeal at the national scale was composed of a mosaic of regionally-specific electorates, or Milieuparteien. Eight historical-cultural regions of Weimar Germany are defined and the socio-economic composition of the Nazi party electorate is modeled separately in each region. Two periods of change in the Nazi party vote in Reichstag elections are modeled, May 1928-September 1930 and September 1930-July 1932. By using spatial-statistics in a systematic analysis of the spatiality of the Nazi party vote, the regional heterogeneity of the composition of the Nazi party's electorate is revealed. Different socio-economic groups either supported or rejected the Nazi party depending upon their regional setting. For example, in north-eastern Germany and Silesia previous non-voters were an important source of Nazi party support during its rise to electoral prominence in September 1930. Alternatively, in north-west Germany, Rhineland-Westphalia, Baden, and Bavaria the Nazi party gained support from deserters from other political parties. As another example, during the period of change 1928-1930 the Nazi party gained support from white-collar workers in only two regions, Baden and Bavaria. No other regions displayed middle-class support for the Nazi party. In combination, these regionally-specific electorates formed a broad socio-economic national appeal which allowed the Nazi party to seize power.
Keywords: Nazi Party; Political Geography; Spatial Statistics