Download or read book Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies written by Sarah Shair-Rosenfield and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2019-07-26 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When and why do democratic political actors change the electoral rules, particularly regarding who is included in a country’s political representation? The incidences of these major electoral reforms have been on the rise since 1980. Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies argues that elite inexperience may constrain self-interest and lead elites to undertake incremental approaches to reform, aiding the process of democratic consolidation. Using a multimethods approach, the book examines three consecutive periods of reform in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim majority country and third largest democracy, between 1999 and 2014. Each case study provides an in-depth process tracing of the negotiations leading to new reforms, including key actors in the legislature, domestic civil society, international experts, and government bureaucrats. A series of counterfactual analyses assess the impact the reforms had on actual election outcomes, versus the possible alternative outcomes of different reform options discussed during negotiations. With a comparative analysis of nine cases of iterated reform processes in other new democracies, the book confirms the lessons from the Indonesian case and highlights key lessons for scholars and electoral engineers.

Download or read book The Politics of Electoral Reform written by Alan Renwick and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-04 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Understanding Electoral Reform written by Reuven Y. Hazan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Limits of Electoral Reform written by Shaun Bowler and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Institutions 'matter' to electoral reform advocates and political scientists - both argue that variation in electoral institutions affect how elected officials and citizens behave. Change the rules, and citizen engagement with politics can be renewed. Yet a look at the record of electoral reform reveals a string of disappointments. This book examines a variety of reforms, including campaign finance, direct democracy, legislative term limits, and changes to the electoral system itself. This study finds electoral reforms have limited, and in many cases, no effects. Despite reform advocates' claims, and contrary to the 'institutions matter' literature, findings here suggest there are hard limits to effects of electoral reform. The explanations for this are threefold. The first is political. Reformers exaggerate claims about transformative effects of new electoral rules, yet their goal may simply be to maximize their partisan advantage. The second is empirical. Cross-sectional comparative research demonstrates that variation in electoral institutions corresponds with different patterns of political attitudes and behaviour. But this method cannot assess what happens when rules are changed. Using examples from the US, UK, New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere this book examines attitudes and behaviour across time where rules were changed. Results do not match expectations from the institutional literature. Third is a point of logic. There is an inflated sense of the effects of institutions generally, and of electoral institutions in particular. Given the larger social and economic forces at play, it is unrealistic to expect that changes in electoral arrangements will have substantial effects on political engagement or on how people view politics and politicians. Institutional reform is an almost constant part of the political agenda in democratic societies. Someone, somewhere, always has a proposal not just to change the workings of the system but to reform it. The book is about how and why such reforms disappoint. Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The Comparative Politics series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, and Kenneth Carty, Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia.

Download or read book The Handbook of Electoral System Choice written by J. Colomer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book A Crisis of Western Democracy Can an Electoral Reform re establish Faith in Democratic Institutions written by Katherine Kretshmer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2020-01-24 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - International Politics - General and Theories, grade: 1,4, University of East London, language: English, abstract: This thesis sets out to examine the current crisis of democracy and discusses if a reform of the electoral system could restore faith in the democratic idea. Trust in democratic institutions has declined steadily over the past decades and a growing part of the population doubts the legitimacy of government and authorities. The political system in the Western world seems in turmoil. Therefore the history and development of democracy in the Western world are briefly touched before listing the symptoms of the current crisis – mistrust from the population against politicians and elites and from the governments against their citizens, increasing support for authoritarian rulers, mistrust against conventional media outlets and a growing disinterest in politics and current affairs combined with a lack of knowledge – and debating possible reasons. The electoral system as the key feature of modern democracy is then scrutinized and different reforms, ranging from simple amendments, such as the lowering of the voting age, to more comprehensive approaches are discussed. Two alternatives to the current electoral system are presented, the exclusion of unknowledgeable voters and the drawing of lots. The drawing of lots is considered the most appropriate alternative; hence a system combining conventional elections and sortition is deemed the most feasible alternative to the current electoral system and a promising tool to re-establish faith in democracy.

Download or read book Smarter Ballots written by J.S. Maloy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-08 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a new democratic theory of election reform, using the tradition of political realism to interrogate and synthesize findings from global elections research and voting theory. In a world of democratic deficits and uncivil societies, political researchers and reformers should prioritize creating smarter ballots before smarter voters. Many democracies’ electoral systems impose a dilemma of disempowerment which traps voters between the twin dangers of vote-splitting and “lesser evil” choices, restricting individual expression while degrading systemic accountability. The application of innovative conceptual tools to comparative empirical analysis and previous experimental results reveals that ballot structure is crucial, but often overlooked, in sustaining this dilemma. Multi-mark ballot structures can resolve the dilemma of disempowerment by allowing voters to rank or grade multiple parties or candidates per contest, thereby furnishing democratic citizens with a broader array of options, finer tools of expression, and stronger powers of accountability. Innovative proposals for ranking and grading ballots in both multi-winner and single-winner contests, including referendums, are offered to provoke further experimentation and reform—a process that may help the cause of democratic elections’ relevance and survival.

Download or read book Electoral Systems for Emerging Democracies written by Jørgen Elklit and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advice to Emerging Democracies

Download or read book To Keep Or To Change First Past The Post written by André Blais and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-05-08 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a detailed examination of the politics of electoral reform in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, the debates that take place, the proposals that are advanced, and the strategies deployed by the actors.

Download or read book Fair and Effective Representation written by Mark E. Rush and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2001 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two experts on political representation, voting rights, and the election process debate the most pertinent issues of electoral reform and assess them in the context of the Founders' vision of representation and minority rights. Mark E. Rush and Richard L. Engstrom discuss the promises and pitfalls of electoral reform--specifically, the merits of converting from the traditional single-member district to some form of proportional representation. The authors examine the shortcomings of the existing methods of elections (such as gerrymandering, low turnout, voter apathy, and underrepresentation of minorities and women), debate the merits of converting to proportional representation, ask whether it would address the imperfections of the current system, and investigate the extent to which proportional representation adheres to the Founders' (particularly Madison's) plan for representation. With an introduction by esteemed political scientist Bruce E. Cain, this is an essential text for courses in voting rights and behavior, elections, and American political thought.

Download or read book From Open Secrets to Secret Voting written by Isabela Mares and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The expansion of suffrage and the introduction of elections are momentous political changes that represent only the first steps in the process of democratization. In the absence of institutions that protect the electoral autonomy of voters against a range of actors who seek to influence voting decisions, political rights can be just hollow promises. This book examines the adoption of electoral reforms that protected the autonomy of voters during elections and sought to minimize undue electoral influences over decisions made at the ballot box. Empirically, it focuses on the adoption of reforms protecting electoral secrecy in Imperial Germany during the period between 1870 and 1912. Empirically, the book provides a micro-historical analysis of the democratization of electoral practices, by showing how changes in district level economic and political conditions contributed to the formation of an encompassing political coalition supporting the adoption of electoral reforms.

Download or read book Electoral Reform and the Fate of New Democracies written by Sarah Shair-Rosenfield and published by Weiser Center for Emerging Dem. This book was released on 2019 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How elites influenced major electoral reform in the emerging democracy of Indonesia

Download or read book Making Democracy Safe written by Megan Reif and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ethnic grievances, socio-economic cleavages, past conflicts, and other macro-level factors associated frequently with political violence cannot explain subnational and cross-national variation in geographic and temporal patterns of coercive campaigning and post-election violence. Why do so many democracies -- old and new, diverse and homogenous -- experience election violence, often long after founding elections? Why does it occur in some electoral districts and not others? I develop a common set of explanations for this unique form of political violence, proposing why, where, how, and when parties and candidates risk reprisals, punishment, and reputational costs to influence elections through “undue influence.” Considering the array of available non-coercive strategies, such as negative campaigning, vote buying, and boycotting available to politicians, to name a few, the choice to use violence or to allow supporters to do so is a rare and, often, conscious choice. I aim to expand understanding of this phenomenon. First, drawing on historical case studies of particularly acute eruptions of election violence, I describe the enigmatic historical and contemporary patterns of election violence that contemporary explanations, which focus primarily on recent episodes, tend to overlook. It is study of these cases, as well as preliminary, theory-building research trips to observe both rounds of Indonesia's 2004 presidential elections, on which I base my theory, while the collection of data and tests of this theory will be carried out independently and separately from this presentation of theory, hypotheses, and empirical expectations to minimize bias and report transparently and honestly when the empirical results are inconsistent with my initial propositions. While the theory shaped the research design and data collection, data has not been analyzed before full articulation of the theory in its current form. I begin by developing a typology of election violence -- an undertaking that responds to one of the first studies in political science to call attention to the topic (Rapoport & Weinberg, 2001b, p. 35). I follow by presenting a theory to explain the probability, spatial diffusion, typological variation, lethality, and long-term rise and fall of election violence in the electoral histories of many polities. In the first of four propositions, I contend that parties and candidates are most likely to initiate or tolerate election violence when both uncertainty and incentives to cultivate a personal vote are high. Electoral uncertainty arises from exogenous sources of competitiveness. Institutional uncertainty arises following pro-democratic electoral reforms or tougher monitoring and enforcement of electoral corruption laws, increasing the costs of nonviolent fraud relative to violence. Personal vote incentives (a) minimize party desire and ability to control candidate campaign behavior and (b) maximize the number of actors willing to provide violence when faced with the imminent gain or loss of the private benefits that particular candidates target to loyal supporters. Second, I argue that the timing, targets, perpetrators, number of people involved, and other components of the typology vary across electoral system families and regime type. At one extreme, in Closed List Proportional Representation Systems (CLPR), violence occurs primarily during the intra-party, pre-campaign and/or coalition-formation stages of competition and involves candidate sponsorship of violence against one another. At the other extreme, violence in First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) electoral systems occurs primarily during the inter-party campaign and election day phases, targeting voters and supporters. Following the posting of results, post-election violence tends to occur when the national distribution of competitive constituencies is such that at least one party and its supporters estimated apriori equal probabilities of winning or losing the ability to govern alone at the national level, a situation that can occur in both CLPR and FPTP systems. This and other types of violence tend to occur at adolescent stages of democratization, rather than primarily during founding elections. Third, I suggest that ethnic grievances, socio-economic cleavages, past conflicts, and other correlates of deaths common in the broader political violence literature cannot predict when and where election violence occurs. I hypothesize instead that these predisposing factors determine the severity and lethality to which coercive campaigning and election violence escalate in particular countries and constituencies. Fourth, I propose that election violence is endogenous to democratization. Cleaning up elections can, in the short term, increase incentives for competitors to engage in coercive campaigning and election violence. In turn, eruptions of election coercion can disrupt path-dependent, institutionalized electoral bias and fraud more by generating mass awareness of and demand for pro-democratic electoral reforms than can nonviolent election fraud alone. The theory's subnational and cross-national empirical expectations will be evaluated using three original datasets, informed by qualitative fieldwork in Algeria, Newark, and Pakistan. The Election Violence Incidents Database (EVID) includes narratives and micro-level coding of the features of election-related incidents reported in major national newspapers four months before and one month after elections in Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Newark, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Variables include dates, geographic location (latitude-longitude), perpetrator and victim affiliations, and positions, the tactics used by each actor in each event (from vandalism to bombings), deaths, injuries, property damage, and electoral consequences, as well as an index of report reliability indicators. EVID encompasses elections since the 1960s, but initial analysis will include only two elections for each case. The cross-national analysis employs the Global Violent Elections Database (GVED), which indicates whether each national election worldwide between 1890 and 2005 included violence, fraud, or both, along with number of injuries and deaths (for 1945-2005). I combine this data with that compiled by other scholars for uncertainty, ICPV, electoral systems, degree of democracy, electoral reform, and control variables such as ethno-linguistic diversity and poverty. Due to the lack of literature and measurement of causes of electoral reform, it is difficult to implement a dynamic model that addresses the mutually causal relationship between election violence and electoral reform. For a tentative test of the endogeneity hypothesis, I will use data on the timing of major electoral reforms and constitutional changes in neighboring countries during the previous five years as an instrument for electoral reform in a structural equation model. I created the Election Laws on Election Crimes (ELECD) database, which codes national election crimes laws current as of 2005 (if specified in the constitution or electoral law and amendments) for nearly all countries in the world. I model the content, complexity, and levels of fines, penalties, electoral remedies for violent and nonviolent electoral crimes as a function of a country's past experience with election violence. In describing and explaining election violence and its institutional consequences, I contribute to research on micro-level variations in violence, the role of violence as a mechanism of institutional change, and the incremental process by which even flawed elections further democratization. My findings should interest practitioners involved in election observation, reform, administration, and security, as well as those involved in designing institutions in new democracies.

Download or read book Reforming the Republic written by Todd Donovan and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a general discussion of a wide range of political reforms by addressing how the American political system would be different if various reforms were adopted. Advocating a wide menu of proposals and weighing their good and bad effects, this book does not attempt exhaustive analysis of a single topic. Rather, it gives general introductions to each issue. It examines some of the most important rules that shape America's electoral landscape, assembling the best evidence available to anticipate what would happen if certain rules were changed. Designed to make readers think and analyze the current electoral status quo in the U.S., this book covers electoral reform and American politics, the public's attitudes, problems with congressional elections, electing the Congress and the President, ballot selection, campaign finance, and the mechanics of running an election. An appropriate and thought-provoking book for any reader who wonders about the current electoral process in the U.S., and is interested in learning about the possible effects of the current reform movement.

Download or read book Institutional Design In New Democracies written by Arend Lijphart and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the relationship between the tasks of institutional design and the outcomes of the process of economic and political liberalization in Latin America and in Central and Eastern Europe. The contributors emphasize the design of institutions to serve a market economy, the design of electoral laws, and the design of executive-legislative relations. Within this framework each chapter discusses the legacy of the pre-existing authoritarian regime; the range of preferences among various strategic actors with regard to the pace and mix of reforms; and the consequences of final choices for the institutionalization of effective economies and the process of democratization. Countries throughout Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe are moving from semi-closed to open economies and from authoritarian to democratic political systems. Despite important differences between the regions, these transitions involve similar tasks: the establishment of governmental institutions and electoral systems conducive to legitimation of the new and fragile democracies and expansion of the institutional infrastructure of a market economy. This volume looks at both regions, focusing on the relationship between the tasks of institutional design and the outcomes of the process of economic and political liberalization. In particular, the contributors emphasize the design of institutions to serve a market economy, the design of electoral laws, and the design of executive-legislative relations. Each chapter discusses the legacy of the pre-existing authoritarian regime; the range of preferences among various strategic actors (the government, state bureaucracies, opposition parties, and interest groups) with regard to the pace and mix of reforms; and the consequences of final choices for the institutionalization of effective economies and the process of democratization.

Download or read book When Citizens Decide written by Patrick Fournier and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three unprecedented large-scale democratic experiments have recently taken place. Citizen assemblies on electoral reform were conducted in British Columbia, the Netherlands, and Ontario. Groups of randomly selected ordinary citizens were asked to independently design the next electoral system. In each case, the participants spent almost an entire year learning about electoral systems, consulting the public, deliberating, debating, and ultimately deciding what specific institution should be adopted. When Citizens Decide uses these unique cases to examine claims about citizens' capacity for democratic deliberation and active engagement in policy-making. It offers empirical insight into numerous debates and provides answers to a series of key questions: 1) Are ordinary citizens able to decide about a complex issue? Are their decisions reasonable? 2) Who takes part in such proceedings? Are they dominated by people dissatisfied by the status quo? 3) Do some citizens play a more prominent role than others? Are decisions driven by the most vocal or most informed members? 4) Did the participants decide by themselves? Were they influenced by staff, political parties, interest groups, or the public hearings? 5) Does participation in a deliberative process foster citizenship? Did participants become more trusting, tolerant, open-minded, civic-minded, interested in politics, and active in politics? 6) How do the other political actors react? Can the electorate accept policy proposals made by a group of ordinary citizens? The analyses rely upon various types of evidence about both the inner workings of the assemblies and the reactions toward them outside: multi-wave panel surveys of assembly members, content analysis of newspaper coverage, and public opinion survey data. The lessons drawn from this research are relevant to those interested in political participation, public opinion, deliberation, public policy, and democracy. Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr. The Comparative Politics Series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Kenneth Carty, Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia, and Professor Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Institute of Political Science, Philipps University, Marburg.

Download or read book Democracy in the States written by Bruce E. Cain and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in the States offers a 21st century agenda for election reform in America based on lessons learned in the fifty states. Combining accessibility and rigor, leading scholars of U.S. politics and elections examine the impact of reforms intended to increase the integrity, fairness, and responsiveness of the electoral system. While some of these reforms focus on election administration, which has been the subject of much controversy since the 2000 presidential election, others seek more broadly to increase political participation and improve representation. For example, Paul Gronke (Reed College) and his colleagues study the relationship between early voting and turnout. Barry Burden (University of Wisconsin–Madison) examines the hurdles that third-party candidates must clear to get on the ballot in different states. Michael McDonald (George Mason University) analyzes the leading strategies for redistricting reform. And Todd Donovan (Western Washington University) focuses on how the spread of "safe" legislative seats affects both representation and participation. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously observed that "a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." Nowhere is this function more essential than in the sphere of election reform, as this important book shows.