Multi-level Election Timing-A Comparative Overview

This article compiles information on multi-level electoral politics in nine countries, starting with multi-level election cycles: horizontal concurrence and vertical concurrence. In addition to the cycle of federal and regional elections, this report looks at election rules for federal and regional elections: fixed election date, possibility of vertical concurrence, dissolution of regional assemblies, length of term after dissolution and the electoral systems for state-wide and regional elections. These election rules and the cycle of state-wide and regional elections contribute to either encouraging the symmetry between the state-wide and regional party systems or, on the contrary, facilitating the divergence between state-wide and regional political arenas and electoral cycles.