Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
Based on Percentage Distribution of Votes by Parties
Mean absolute deviation: MAD = Σ | X – √ | / n (also called “index of variation” [Rose and Urwin 1975: 24])
Mean squared deviation: MSD = Σ (X – √)² / n
Variance: S² = Σ (X – √)² / n – 1
Standard deviation: S = √ S² or S = √ Σ (X – √)² / n – 1
Lee index: LEE = Σ | X – √ | / 2
Variability coefficient: CV = S / √
IPR = √ n Σ | X – √ | / (2 (n – 1) Σ X)
Based on Percentages of Parties' Vote Distribution by Constituencies
Cumulative regional inequality index: CRII = 1/2 Σ | votes – voters | (not applicable to turnout).
The formula is divided by 100 to vary between 0 and 1 (Rose and Urwin 1975). When voters' figures are not available, electorate figures are used.
All Constituencies versus Constituencies in Which the Party Is Present Only
For party support, all previous indices have been computed (1) on the total number of constituencies (party not present = 0) and (2) on the constituencies in which the party was present only (party not present = system missing). This distinction does not apply to the CRII or to turnout figures.
Territorial Coverage by Parties
The simplest measure used to assess the spread of parties across regions is the number of constituencies in which a party is present (nominator) as a percentage of the total number of constituencies (denominator).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.