The political leadership factor in the Spanish Local Elections

Povzetek

The present research looks at personal following and voting in the Spanish local elections held in 2007. In doing so, the study addresses three principal questions, each focusing on a different dimension of the effects of political leadership on local voting. These are: What is the relative impact of leadership evaluation vis-à-vis other contingent and structural factors of a local, regional and national nature? What is the relative impact of the local party leaders vis-à-vis the leaders of the national and regional party strata? and Do leadership evaluations count differently for voters politically identified with particular parties? KEYWORDS: • political leadership • local elections • political parties • democracy • Spain