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A ratio measure of interparty competition?
Author(s) -
Uslaner Eric M.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830220110
Subject(s) - measure (data warehouse) , competition (biology) , index (typography) , interval (graph theory) , mathematics , statistics , economics , computer science , combinatorics , ecology , biology , data mining , world wide web
Meltz has proposed a ratio measure of interparty competition, Ω, for two‐party electoral systems which he claims is completely general. It is maintained that for very reasonable situations of party competition, the Meltz index does not fall in the [0,1] interval and that it is better interpreted as approximating a standard score. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that: (1) the index actually ranges from [−∞] and (2) the values of the index depend upon the number of elections being considered.