Democracy and the Politics of Electoral System Choice PDF Download

Author: Amel Ahmed
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107031613
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book explores the dynamics of electoral system choice and raises questions about the democratic credentials of the early processes of democratization.

Author: J. Colomer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230522742
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 571

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Book Description
The topic of electoral reform is an extremely timely one. The accelerated expansion of the number of new democracies in the world generates increasing demand for advice on the choice of electoral rules; at the same time, a new reformism in well established democracies seeks new formulae favouring both more representative institutions and more accountable rulers. The Handbook of Electoral System Choice addresses the theoretical and comparative issues of electoral reform in relation to democratization, political strategies in established democracies and the relative performance of different electoral systems. Case studies on virtually every major democracy or democratizing country in the world are included.

Author: Josep M. Colomer
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780191529252
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
The role of institutions is to establish the domains of public activity and the rules to select leaders. Democratic regimes organize in simple institutional frameworks to foster the concentration of power and alternative successive absolute winners and losers. They favour political satisfaction of relatively small groups, as well as policy instability. In contrast, pluralistic institutions produce multiple winners, including multiparty co-operation and agreements. They favour stable, moderate, and consensual policies that can satisfy large groups' interests on a great number of issues. The more complex the political institutions, the more stable and socially efficient the outcome will be. This book develops an extensive analysis of this relationship. It explores concepts, questions and insights based on social choice theory, while empirical focus is cast on more than 40 democratic countries and a few international organizations from late medieval times to the present. The book argues that pluralistic democratic institutions are judged to be better than simple formula of their higher capacity of producing socially satisfactory results.

Author: Mr Lawrence LeDuc
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1847871380
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
The first edition of Comparing Democracies was a landmark text, providing students with a thematic introduction to the global study of elections and voting. In this major new edition the world's leading international scholars have again produced an indispensable guide and up-to-date review of the whole field. Each of the chapters (the majority of which are completely new) provide a broad theoretical and comparative understanding of all the key topics associated with the elections including electoral and party systems, voter choice and turnout, campaign communications, and the new politics of direct democracy. This Second Edition will remain essential reading for students and lecturers of elections and voting behaviour, comparative politics, parties, and democracy.

Author: Erik S. Herron
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190258675
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 752

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Book Description
No subject is more central to the study of politics than elections. All across the globe, elections are a focal point for citizens, the media, and politicians long before--and sometimes long after--they occur. Electoral systems, the rules about how voters' preferences are translated into election results, profoundly shape the results not only of individual elections but also of many other important political outcomes, including party systems, candidate selection, and policy choices. Electoral systems have been a hot topic in established democracies from the UK and Italy to New Zealand and Japan. Even in the United States, events like the 2016 presidential election and court decisions such as Citizens United have sparked advocates to promote change in the Electoral College, redistricting, and campaign-finance rules. Elections and electoral systems have also intensified as a field of academic study, with groundbreaking work over the past decade sharpening our understanding of how electoral systems fundamentally shape the connections among citizens, government, and policy. This volume provides an in-depth exploration of the origins and effects of electoral systems.

Author: Reuven Y. Hazan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317978919
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
The field of elections and electoral systems, and particularly electoral reform, has exhibited tremendous growth and cross-national appeal over the last two decades. However, beyond an increased knowledge of voting rules and their consequences for political representation, little attention has been devoted to the question of why electoral systems have recently undergone substantial change in several liberal democracies. This book addresses several new approaches to electoral reform. First, the scope of the study of electoral reform has been expanded. Second, contrary to previous studies of electoral reform, the conviction that the determinants of reform can be explained by one single approach has been replaced by a belief in a more comprehensive framework for analysis. Third, we move beyond political parties (acting in parliament and government) as the most significant source of electoral reform. Fourth, a focus on the determinants of electoral reform allows us to include motivations and objectives of electoral reform. A final advancement in the study of electoral reform is the inclusion of countries other than ‘established’ democracies. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Author: Alan Renwick
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139486772
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Elections lie at the heart of democracy, and this book seeks to understand how the rules governing those elections are chosen. Drawing on both broad comparisons and detailed case studies, it focuses upon the electoral rules that govern what sorts of preferences voters can express and how votes translate into seats in a legislature. Through detailed examination of electoral reform politics in four countries (France, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand), Alan Renwick shows how major electoral system changes in established democracies occur through two contrasting types of reform process. Renwick rejects the simple view that electoral systems always straightforwardly reflect the interests of the politicians in power. Politicians' motivations are complex; politicians are sometimes unable to pursue reforms they want; occasionally, they are forced to accept reforms they oppose. The Politics of Electoral Reform shows how voters and reform activists can have real power over electoral reform.

Author: Josep M. Colomer
Publisher: ECPR Press
ISBN: 1907301577
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Personal representation is a necessary element to achieve a high quality of democracy. Many studies of electoral systems, by focusing on the allocation of seats to parties, have neglected the study of this essential dimension. In democratic countries different ballot forms and rules exist to vote for individual candidates and to allocate seats to individuals. This book studies the different voting procedures and formulas for personal representation, their origins and consequences, their compatibility with party representation and the strategies and normative criteria for electoral system choice. It presents an analytical framework, new empirical data, an innovative classification of electoral systems, and reproduction of ballots from different countries. The different chapters also offer a number of comparative and single-case studies on candidate selection and on voting in single-seat districts, closed party lists, primary elections, mixed systems, open lists with preferential votes, and open and ordinal ballots.

Author: Larry Diamond
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801884757
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
As the number of democracies has increased around the world, a heated debate has emerged among political scientists about which system best promotes the consolidation of democracy. This book compares the experiences of diverse countries, from Latin America to southern Africa, from Uruguay, Japan, and Taiwan to Israel, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Author: J. J. A. Thomassen
Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
ISBN: 0198716338
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
'Elections and Democracy' is based on data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, spanning 36 countries. It considers the majoritarian and consensus models of democracy and how their embodiment in institutional structures influence vote choice, political participation and satisfaction within a functioning democracy.