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In 2008, Romania changed its electoral system from PR to single ballot mixed. A major reason behind this reform was to strengthen the ties between the candidates and their constituents, and our goal is to test whether this has happened. To this end, we analyze aggregate electoral returns from Romania's 3,000 localities, and rely on the notion of 'uniform partisan swing,' which states that the level of local support for a given party in an election is an excellent predictor of its level of support in the same locality or region in the next election. We expect that the change of the electoral system will lead to a decrease in ideological voting and a larger impact of the qualities of individual candidates. We test this by comparing the correlation between support for a given party at the locality level in the 2000 and 2004 parliamentary elections with the correlation between support for the same party in the 2004 and 2008 elections. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I use survey data to map the constituents of two extreme right-wing parties, the French National Front and the Greater Romania Party, in a two-dimensional policy space. The presence of these constituents has similar consequences for political competition in the two polities, making their politics two-dimensional. On the one hand, we have moderate left and moderate right constituencies, divided primarily by "Old Politics" economic conflicts. On the other hand, we have "New Politics" conflicts, dividing the authoritarian and xenophobic constituents of extreme right -wing parties from all other constituencies. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]