Download or read book Three Essays on the Electoral Mechanism written by Sugato Dasgupta and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Three Essays on Electoral Rules and Competitive Authoritarian Elections written by Shichao Ma and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This dissertation consists of three essays on elections in democracies and competitive authoritarian regimes. The first chapter examines how the incumbent in an authoritarian regime eliminates his opponents in a competitive election. The rest two chapters study how elections and electoral rules affect the behavior of politicians and political parties in ethnic mobilization and the formation of trade treaties. In the first chapter, I study optimal repression in competitive autocracies by building a citizen-candidate model in which one candidate, the incumbent, can selectively eliminate other citizen-candidates. I find that the incumbent either eliminates all competitive challengers to win the election, removes a smaller subset of challengers to select a preferable successor, or runs a free and fair election and loses power. In a free and fair election, the median voter result does not hold. For a large range of parameters, the successor selected by the incumbent can be more moderate than any candidate that would emerge from a free and fair election. Consequently, compared to a free and fair election, the median voter may be better off in a rigged election. The second chapter examines the influence of two major electoral rules on people's ethnic salience through politician's mobilization and nation-building effort. Building on the constructivist view of ethnicity, I model electoral competition between ethnic entrepreneurs and a national unitary actor under majoritarian and proportional representation voting rules. The model shows that proportional representation encourages ethnic mobilization and discourages nation-building while majoritarian rule has the opposite effect. Using data from eighteen African democracies, I find citizens feel their ethnic identities more salient under proportional representation than under majoritarian rule when approaching elections. The third chapter proposes a novel explanation for why states form preferential trade agreements (PTAs). I argue that current governments, anticipating them losing power in the future, use PTAs to constrain future governments. This mechanism can generate two unique observable implications that are not compatible with existing theories. Because the demand for constraining opponents varies with electoral institutions and electoral prospects, I expect governments are more likely to ratify PTAs under the under majoritarian electoral rules and before losing elections. Empirical results from a dataset of all PTAs from 1945 to 2006 strongly support these hypotheses."--Pages x-xi.
Download or read book Three Essays on Electoral Manipulation written by Miguel Ricardo Rueda R. and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the developing world, it is common to find a disconnect between formal democratic institutions and the distribution of political power and accountability of public officials. Electoral manipulation is likely to be a major factor behind the gap between rules and the reality of everyday politics in these countries. Although there is a renewed interest in the study of electoral manipulation, we still lack a clear understanding of the mechanisms used by politicians to irregularly capture elections. This dissertation gives a closer look to the micro-foundations of different electoral manipulation strategies and identifies some of their key determinants. The first essay formally examines how vote buying is widespread even when vote brokers have limited knowledge about voters' attributes and voting choices. The model captures a monitoring scheme in which a broker conditions future bribes on her candidate reaching a threshold of votes in a given polling station. The main finding is that bribed voters will not vote as instructed by the broker if many others vote in the polling station. The result contrasts with all previous explanations of how these transactions are sustained, which rely on brokers being able to identify voters who will comply, or on the brokers' ability to circumvent the secrecy of the ballot. In the second essay, I empirically show that the aggregation levels of electoral results do influence the observed variation in electoral manipulation. Using data from Colombia, I uncover a robust negative correlation between the size of the average polling station and vote buying. I also document a negative association between the electorate size and all methods of manipulation, and I show that the relationship is stronger for vote buying than for turnout suppression and fraud. I argue that because vote buying has the largest marginal cost of implementation among these strategies, turnout suppression and fraud are more attractive in elections with large electorates. In the last essay, I empirically explore the relationship between vote buying and associational life. The paper shows that participation in groups in the community is positively associated with the incidence of these transactions. Contrary to the expectations derived from the traditional literature on social capital, this essay's findings show that institutions of civic participation can be used to increase the efficiency of electoral strategies of manipulation, reducing accountability, and more generally, affecting the quality of democratic processes."--Abstract.
Download or read book Power Sabotage and Misdirection written by Frederick Aram Papazyan and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is a collection of three essays on political economy. In the first chapter, I develop an economic theory of how a society's distribution of power and resources evolves over time. Multiple lineages of players compete by accumulating power, which is modeled as an asset that increases the probability of winning conflicts over resources. Given any initial distribution of power, this model provides a unique equilibrium prediction of how it will evolve over time. Three types of stable distributions are approached in the long run: inclusive, oligarchic, and dictatorial, where power is uniformly distributed among all players, a few players, or held by just one player, respectively. I show that power and resources inevitably fall into the hands of a few when political competition is left unchecked in large societies. This addresses a longstanding empirical puzzle, and I also provide policy implications for keeping inclusivity stable in large societies. In the second chapter, my co-author, Danil Dmitriev, and I consider the problem of designing a voting mechanism that is robust to derailment by external groups. We show that plurality voting and other standard mechanisms are often not robust to sabotage; in fact, it is sometimes preferable to not run any poll at all. The optimal voting mechanism is found to make saboteurs indifferent between each alternative they can vote for since this undermines their ability to adversely affect the designer's predictions of other voters' preferences. In the third chapter, I study how a sender can use verifiable binary evidence to influence a receiver about a binary state when the relevance of information is ex ante uncertain and asymmetrically known by the sender. The sender has access to two pieces of evidence: one they know to be perfectly informative of the state and one that is completely uninformative. I show that while full disclosure of evidence is possible in equilibrium, the receiver can never fully unravel which piece of evidence is relevant. Consequently, the receiver may gain little to no information about the state even when all evidence is truthfully disclosed.
Download or read book After the People Vote written by Norman J. Ornstein and published by A E I Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new edition of this popular guide examines how the electoral college and postelection processes work and includes a short history of contested elections.
Download or read book Three essays on random mechanism design written by Huaxia Zeng and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This dissertation studies a standard voting formulation with randomization. Formally, there is a finite set of voters, a finite set of alternatives and a lottery space over the alternative set. Each voter has a strict preference over alternatives. The domain of preferences contains all admissible preferences. Every voter reports a preference in the domain; a preference profile is generated; and the social lottery then is determined by a Random Social Choice Function (or RSCF). This dissertation focuses on RSCFs which provide every voter incentives to truthfully reveal her preference, and hence follows the formulation of strategy proofness in [26] which requires that the lottery under truth telling (first-order) stochastically dominates the lottery under any misrepresentation according to every voter’s true preference independently of others’ behaviors. Moreover, this dissertation restricts attention to the class of unanimous RSCFs, that is, if the alternative is the best for all voters in a preference profile, it receives probability one. A typical class of unanimous and strategy-proof RSCFs is random dictatorships. A domain is a random dictatorship domain if every unanimous and strategy proof RSCF is a random dictatorship... "-- Author's abstract.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems written by Erik S. Herron and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 752 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Electoral Systems and Conflict in Divided Societies written by Ben Reilly and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-05-04 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper is one of a series being prepared for the National Research Council's Committee on International Conflict Resolution. The committee was organized in late 1995 to respond to a growing need for prevention, management, and resolution of violent conflict in the international arena, a concern about the changing nature and context of such conflict in the post-Cold War era, and a recent expansion of knowledge in the field. The committee's main goal is to advance the practice of conflict resolution by using the methods and critical attitude of science to examine the effectiveness of various techniques and concepts that have been advanced for preventing, managing, and resolving international conflicts. The committee's research agenda has been designed to supplement the work of other groups, particularly the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, which issued its final report in December 1997. The committee has identified a number of specific techniques and concepts of current interest to policy practitioners and has asked leading specialists on each one to carefully review and analyze available knowledge and to summarize what is known about the conditions under which each is or is not effective. These papers present the results of their work.
Download or read book The Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic Books Library presents this brand new edition of “The Federalist Papers”, a collection of separate essays and articles compiled in 1788 by Alexander Hamilton. Following the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, the governing doctrines and policies of the States lacked cohesion. “The Federalist”, as it was previously known, was constructed by American statesman Alexander Hamilton, and was intended to catalyse the ratification of the United States Constitution. Hamilton recruited fellow statesmen James Madison Jr., and John Jay to write papers for the compendium, and the three are known as some of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755–1804) was an American lawyer, journalist and highly influential government official. He also served as a Senior Officer in the Army between 1799-1800 and founded the Federalist Party, the system that governed the nation’s finances. His contributions to the Constitution and leadership made a significant and lasting impact on the early development of the nation of the United States.
Download or read book Understanding the Fundamentals of the U S Presidential Election System written by Alexander S. Belenky and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-04-25 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book on the U.S. presidential election system to analyze the basic principles underlying the design of the existing system and those at the heart of competing proposals for improving the system. The book discusses how the use of some election rules embedded in the U.S. Constitution and in the Presidential Succession Act may cause skewed or weird election outcomes and election stalemates. The book argues that the act may not cover some rare though possible situations which the Twentieth Amendment authorizes Congress to address. Also, the book questions the constitutionality of the National Popular Vote Plan to introduce a direct popular presidential election de facto, without amending the Constitution, and addresses the plan’s “Achilles’ Heel.” In particular, the book shows that the plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause from the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Numerical examples are provided to show that the counterintuitive claims of the NPV originators and proponents that the plan will encourage presidential candidates to “chase” every vote in every state do not have any grounds. Finally, the book proposes a plan for improving the election system by combining at the national level the “one state, one vote” principle – embedded in the Constitution – and the “one person, one vote” principle. Under this plan no state loses its current Electoral College benefits while all the states gain more attention of presidential candidates.
Download or read book Three Essays in Local Public Economics written by Philip William Sprunger and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Growing into Voting written by Richard Öhrvall and published by Linköping University Electronic Press. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis contains an introduction and four essays that together address the issues of turnout and habitual voting. Although voting is less unequal than other forms of political participation, it is still biased in favour of more socially affluent citizens. One way to achieve more equal participation is to increase the general turnout. This is the implication of the `law of dispersion', formulated by Tingsten in 1937, which states that as turnout increases, participatory equality also increases. In Essay I, co-written with Mikael Persson and Maria Solevid, we revisit Tingsten's law and find new empirical support for it. One possible path to improving general turnout is the formation of voting habits. It is argued by some scholars that voting is a habit formed early on in life, when young people encounter their first elections after coming of age. It is, however, still a matter of debate as to whether voting is an act of habit. Three of the four essays in this thesis tackle this question in various ways. In Essay II, I study voting among young people who encounter their first election in different social contexts depending on their age, and how these differing contexts affect their propensity to vote in their first and second election. In Essay III, I examine whether experiencing a European Parliament election with a low turnout as a first election affects the likelihood of casting a vote in a subsequent national parliamentary election. In Essay IV, co-written with Sven Oskarsson, we study student mock elections, which constitute the first, albeit hypothetical, election experience for many young people. The main result is that the first election a young person faces is not as important as has been claimed in previous research. Regardless of whether the initial experience takes place in a context that encourages turnout or the first election encountered is a low-stimulus election that fails to draw crowds to the polls, there is no substantial impact on turnout in subsequent elections. One implication of this finding is that lowering the voting age is not likely to increase voting rates, not even in the longer term. Den här avhandlingen innefattar ett introduktionskapitel och fyra artiklar som tillsammans behandlar valdeltagande och röstning som en vana. Även om röstning i allmänna val är den mest jämlika formen av politiskt deltagande finns ändå tydliga skillnader i deltagande mellan befolkningsgrupper med olika socioekonomisk bakgrund. Ett sätt att nå ett mer jämlikt deltagande är genom ett högre valdeltagande. Det är innebörden av det lagbundna samband som Tingsten fann år 1937 och som förutsäger att skillnaden i deltagande mellan olika grupper är mindre ju högre valdeltagandet är. I avhandlingens första artikel, samförfattad med Mikael Persson och Maria Solevid, undersöker vi om detta samband fortfarande har empiriskt stöd och finner att så är fallet. En tänkbar väg till ett högre valdeltagande går via ett främjande av vanemässig röstning. En del forskare hävdar nämligen att röstning är en vana och att den vanan formas redan i de första val där en ung person har möjlighet rösta. Huruvida röstning är en vana är dock omdebatterat. Tre av avhandlingens artiklar tar på olika sätt upp den frågan. I avhandlingens andra artikel studerar jag unga personer som beroende på när de är födda får rösta för första gången vid olika åldrar och därmed i skilda social kontexter. Frågan jag ställer är hur dessa skillnader påverkar deras benägenhet att rösta i det valet och i det därpå följande. Vissa unga personer får rösta för första gången efter att ha nått rösträttsåldern i ett Europaparlamentsval där valdeltagandet är lågt. I den tredje artikeln undersöker jag ifall den erfarenheten har någon inverkan på deltagandet i ett därpå följande riksdagsval. I den fjärde artikeln, samförfattad med Sven Oskarsson, studerar vi om de skolval som arrangeras i många skolor har någon inverkan på studenters senare deltagande i riktiga val. Avhandlingens huvudresultat är att deltagande i det första valet en ung person får rösta i saknar den betydelse för framtida valdeltagande som hävdats i tidigare forskning. Oavsett om det första valet äger rum i en kontext som främjar röstning eller om det är ett val som väcker lite intresse, får det ingen substantiell effekt på benägenheten att rösta i följande val. En implikation av detta resultat är att en sänkt rösträttsålder troligen inte skulle ge ett högre valdeltagande, inte ens på längre sikt.
Download or read book Electoral Laws and Their Political Consequences written by Bernard Grofman and published by Algora Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ..." a usful volume on the impact of electoral laws...includes a very good bibliography and index...establishes a broader international and interdisciplinary perspective on the methods of representation." - American Political Science Review
Download or read book Picking the President written by Eric Burin and published by . This book was released on 2017-02 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2016 presidential election has sparked an unprecedented interest in the Electoral College. In response to Donald Trump winning the presidency despite losing the popular vote, numerous individuals have weighed in with letters-to-the-editor, op-eds, blog posts, videos, and the like, and thanks to the revolution in digital communications, these items have reached an exceptionally wide audience. In short, never before have so many people had so much to say about the Electoral College. To facilitate and expand the conversation, Picking the President: Understanding the Electoral College offers brief essays that examine the Electoral College from different disciplinary perspectives, including philosophy, mathematics, political science, history, and pedagogy. Along the way, the essays address a variety of questions about the Electoral College: Why was it created? How has it changed over time? Who benefits from it? Is it just? How will future demographic patterns affect it? Should we alter or abolish the Electoral College, and if so, what should replace it? In exploring these matters, Picking the President enhances our understanding of one of America's most high-profile, momentous issues.
Download or read book Three Essays in Search of a Conversation written by Sherman Lewis and published by Hayward Area Planning Association. This book was released on 2022-08-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays are for Americans concerned about the future of our country and for policy wonks. By and large, the political process is controlled by those who take an intertest in politics, large in number but small as a percent of population. Are you a member of the political class? Membership is voluntary. Our first 800 years of thinking: science culture and empathy from the Enlightenment ~1600 to ~ 2400 The Crisis of the Anthropocene: The most comprehensive description of all issues of the crisis in less than 100 pages. For the purpose of going through your mind to influence your brain. Musings on our Present Discontent: America, not advanced, not a democracy. Right to life for baby; right to choose for mom. Taxation. The security of a free state. Issues not discussed. The threat from within, Trumpism. The threat from without: Putinism. How to participate. Renewal.
Download or read book Three Essays in Public Economics written by Michael Gerald Smart and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book ELECTORAL ESSAYS AND DISCOURSES written by Carl W. Dundas and published by Author House. This book was released on 2014-03 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains five electoral essays and five discourses which explore issues impacting on free, fair and credible election organisation and conduct, with special attention on best practices in the Commonwealth and the African Union. The essays constitute part 1 and the discourses part 2 of the book. It describes and analyses the slow and cautious restart of the process of democratic elections in Nigeria, examining the missteps along the way from the first to the fourth electoral cycle which ended in 2011, which constitute essay I. Essay II deals with the development of election observation, together with mechanisms to strengthen the effectiveness thereof in the African Union and promote the technical capabilities of African Union electoral management bodies. Essay III seeks to compare aspects of election observation by the Commonwealth and the African Union. Essay IV examines best electoral practices in the Commonwealth and the African Union and essay V with the potential use of alternative dispute resolution in elections in the Commonwealth and the African Union. The discourses vigorously explore current electoral issues that slant towards further development in the near future. Discourse A is about youth and elections. It discusses how youth can participate more effectively in elections. Discourse B looks at the dimensions of political finance with particular attention to campaign financing. Discourse C is about incumbency and elections and discusses the nature and impact of incumbency on elections. Discourse D is about the culture of impunity which affects many electoral management bodies and in particular as it pertains to election violence. Discourse E deals with the impact of social media on election preparation and conduct.
