Election Systems and Gerrymandering Worldwide

Election Systems and Gerrymandering Worldwide
Author: Steve Bickerstaff
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2020-05-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030308375

This book explores the similarities and differences among national election systems around the globe and sheds light on how election systems are susceptible to gerrymandering, which is the process by which an incumbent or a political party attempts to manipulate the boundaries of electoral districts for their own advantage. Presenting research showing that some of the worst electoral-system manipulation occurs in the oldest established democracies, the book explores how nations have modified the form of government to meet local conditions and how democracy is threatened by gerrymandering.

Electoral System Design

Electoral System Design
Author: Andrew Reynolds
Publisher: Stockholm : International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2005
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Publisher Description

How to Rig an Election

How to Rig an Election
Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2024-07-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0300280831

An engrossing analysis of the pseudo-democratic methods employed by despots around the world to retain control Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote. In this engaging and provocative book, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas expose the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratization, and reveal the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in order to guarantee victory for themselves. Based on their firsthand experiences as election watchers and their hundreds of interviews with presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, election officials, and conspirators, Cheeseman and Klaas document instances of election rigging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including notable examples from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States—touching on the 2016 election. This eye-opening study offers a sobering overview of corrupted professional politics, while providing fertile intellectual ground for the development of new solutions for protecting democracy from authoritarian subversion.

Democracy and Elections

Democracy and Elections
Author: Richard S. Katz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 358
Release: 1997
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0195044290

Analyzing the electoral systems of various countries, including those of developing nations, this work examines the relationship between democratic theory values and the electoral institutions used to achieve them. Empirical data is used to find the institutions most appropriate to each model.

Votes from Seats

Votes from Seats
Author: Matthew S. Shugart
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2017-10-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108417027

Four laws of party seats and votes are constructed by logic and tested, using physics-like approaches which are rare in social sciences.

Strengthening Electoral Integrity

Strengthening Electoral Integrity
Author: Pippa Norris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2017-08-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108508766

Today a general mood of pessimism surrounds Western efforts to strengthen elections and democracy abroad. If elections are often deeply flawed or even broken in many countries around the world, can anything be done to fix them? To counter the prevailing ethos, Pippa Norris presents new evidence for why programs of international electoral assistance work. She evaluates the effectiveness of several practical remedies, including efforts designed to reform electoral laws, strengthen women's representation, build effective electoral management bodies, promote balanced campaign communications, regulate political money, and improve voter registration. Pippa Norris argues that it would be a tragedy to undermine progress by withdrawing from international engagement. Instead, the international community needs to learn the lessons of what works best to strengthen electoral integrity, to focus activities and resources upon the most effective programs, and to innovate after a quarter century of efforts to strengthen electoral integrity.

Rethinking US Election Law

Rethinking US Election Law
Author: Steven Mulroy
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 176
Release:
Genre: Election law
ISBN: 1788117514

Recent U.S. elections have defied nationwide majority preference at the White House, Senate, and House levels. This work of interdisciplinary scholarship explains how “winner-take-all” and single-member district elections make this happen, and what can be done to repair the system. Proposed reforms include the National Popular Vote interstate compact (presidential elections); eliminating the Senate filibuster; and proportional representation using Ranked Choice Voting for House, state, and local elections.

Turkey's Electoral Geography

Turkey's Electoral Geography
Author: Edip Asaf Bekaroğlu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2021-03-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000351289

Analyzing Turkey’s electoral geography, this volume evaluates the geographical repercussions of the elections in Turkey since the establishment of multiparty politics in 1950. The book focuses on the last two decades, examining the interaction between electoral behavior and regional dynamics. Various issues related to the geographical connotations of Turkish electoral politics are qualitatively and quantitatively addressed by scholars with diverse backgrounds in social sciences. The chapters herein examine how Turkey’s electoral geography has been shaped over the years to correspond with a certain aspect of multiparty politics, such as voting behaviors, political parties and party systems, nationalization and regionalization, redistricting, gender issues, identity dynamics, or ideological polarization. This comprehensive work contributes to the theoretical debates in electoral geography in general. Utilizing notions from electoral geography literature, this book develops new concepts through the Turkish case. Filling an important gap in the literature on Turkish politics, this contemporary analysis will be a key resource to policymakers, students, and scholars interested in political science, Turkey, and the Middle East.

Electoral Engineering

Electoral Engineering
Author: Pippa Norris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2004-02-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521536714

From Kosovo to Kabul, the last decade witnessed growing interest in ?electoral engineering?. Reformers have sought to achieve either greater government accountability through majoritarian arrangements or wider parliamentary diversity through proportional formula. Underlying the normative debates are important claims about the impact and consequences of electoral reform for political representation and voting behavior. The study compares and evaluates two broad schools of thought, each offering contracting expectations. One popular approach claims that formal rules define electoral incentives facing parties, politicians and citizens. By changing these rules, rational choice institutionalism claims that we have the capacity to shape political behavior. Alternative cultural modernization theories differ in their emphasis on the primary motors driving human behavior, their expectations about the pace of change, and also their assumptions about the ability of formal institutional rules to alter, rather than adapt to, deeply embedded and habitual social norms and patterns of human behavior.