This dataset provides data on electoral volatility and its internal components in parliamentary elections (lower house) of 19 Western European countries for the 1945-2015 period. It covers the entire universe of Western European elections held after World War II under democratic regimes. Data for Greece, Portugal and Spain have been collected after their democratizations in the 1970s. Altogether, a total of 339 elections (or, more precisely, electoral periods) are included. This dataset follows the recent publication of an article [Chiaramonte, A. and Emanuele, V. (2015), Party System Volatility, Regeneration and De-Institutionalization in Western Europe (1945-2015), Party Politics, doi:10.1177/1354068815601330 http://ppq.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/08/24/1354068815601330.abstract] tackling the issue of party system (de-)institutionalization in Western Europe and based on this dataset.

Parliamentary elections (lower house) during the 1945-2015 period

Each election held under a democratic regime in Western Europe has been included in the sample