Multicandidate Elections Research Articles

Only game in town? the persistence of competitive authoritarian regimes in modern Turkey

ABSTRACT Why do so many regimes remain competitive authoritarian? This article argues that institutional path dependence explains the persistence of competitive authoritarian regimes in which electoral competition exists, but is unfair. The weakness of institutions regulating free and fair interparty competition, like multi-candidate elections, a constitution and statutes safeguarding fundamental rights, and intraparty competition, like intraparty democracy, is path-dependent and self-reinforcing. In settings where competition is partly free and fair, ruling elites have an incentive to combine democratic and undemocratic laws and policies to defeat counterelites and neutralize intraparty competitors. The likely long-term outcome is a vicious cycle of limited democratization, competitive authoritarian regime formation, and competitive authoritarian regime consolidation. I assess the argument by tracing the historical trajectory of reforms on constitutionalism, civil liberties, and multi-candidate competition in post-1950 Turkey, where the limits on interparty and intraparty competition have been reproduced in remarkable historical continuity.

A HOMOMORPHIC ENCRYPTION BASED ON-LINE VOTING SYSTEM

This paper developed for the risk free and person oriented Online Voting System. The Online Voting gadget is made for the humans of the united states living round the world and needs to vote for their representative. The election can be carried out in two methods the paper ballot election and the computerized ballot elections. The automatic ballot elections are referred to as the digital voting. The on line vote casting device is rather developed and the on-line polling machine can be changed through precisely and at once vote casting on line and on the spot results. The on line balloting gadget is completed by using the net so it can be known as the Internet Voting. The gadget proceeds the on-line vote casting machine in a new approach known as Homomorphic Encryption . Homogeneous encryption is the form of encryption, which lets the computer generate encrypted end results in ciphertexts, as though they were performed in a plaintext, when decrypted, which matches the end result of the operations. In this paper we have a digital voting device based on homomorphic encryption to make sure that the vote is confidential. The benefits of multi-homorphic encryption systems are all presented in our suggestion. The proposed electoral system is suitable for elections that include non-partial votes and for multi-candidate elections. For outsourced storage and counting, homomorphic encryption can be used.

Group-Based Voting in Multicandidate Elections

Group-Based Voting in Multicandidate Elections

A theory of strategic voting with non-instrumental motives

Empirical studies have documented non-instrumental motives for voting. However, the theoretical literature on strategic voting has largely ignored these motives. In this paper, we examine voter behavior in multi-candidate elections in the presence of ethical, expressive, and instrumental concerns. Voters in our model derive utility from both the election outcome and the action of voting. A fraction of voters are ethical, who follow a group-welfare maximizing voting rule. The rule may require them to misalign their votes, that is, to vote for a candidate who is not their most preferred. We characterize the optimal rule for the ethical voters and provide comparative statics with respect to various electoral parameters. In particular, we find that the degree of misaligned voting is increasing in the importance of the election but is non-monotonic in the popularity of the Condorcet loser.

Freedom and Voting Power

This paper develops the symmetric power order, a measure of voting power for multicandidate elections. The measure generalizes standard pivotality-based voting power measures for binary elections, such as Banzhaf power. At the same time, the measure is not based on pivotality, but rather on a measure of freedom of choice in individual decisions. Indeed, I use the symmetric power order to show that pivotality only measures voting power in monotonic elections, and is not a good measure in multicandidate elections. Pivotality only provides an upper bound on voting power. This result establishes a relation between voting power and strategy-proofness.

Electoral Institutions with Impressionable Voters

We use a model of impressionable voters to study multi-candidate elections under different electoral rules. Instead of maximizing expected utility, voters cast their ballots based on impressions. We show that, under each rule, there is a monotone relationship between voter preferences and vote measures. The nature of this relationship, how- ever, varies by electoral rule. Vote measures are biased upwards for socially preferred candidates under plurality rule, but biased downwards under negative plurality. There is no such bias under approval voting or Borda count. Voters always elect the socially preferred candidate in two-way races for any electoral rule. In multi candidate elections, however, the ability to elect a Condorcet winner varies by rule. The results show that multi-candidate elections can perform well even if voters follow simple behavioral rules. The relative performance of specific electoral institutions, however, depends on the assumed behavioral model of voting.

Impressionable Voters

We propose a model of impressionable voters. Impressionable voters vote based on impressions rather than maximizing expected utility. We apply our model to elections with multiple candidates and solve for the stationary distributions of the implied stochastic process. In elections with two candidates, we find that impressionable voters select the candidate that maximizes utilitarian welfare. In multi-candidate elections, Condorcet winners are elected provided that a majority of voters is able to sufficiently distinguish competing candidates. In such cases, models with impressionable voters may have better normative properties than models with rational voters. (JEL D71, D72, D91)

Path-dependency and coordination in multi-candidate elections with behavioral voters

We consider a behavioral model of voting in multi-candidate elections under plurality rule. In the case of a positive impression of the campaign leader, voters increase their propensity to vote for that candidate, while in the case of a negative impression voters decrease their propensity. The formation of positive or negative impressions depends on an endogenous aspiration level. We show that in multi-candidate elections, in any stationary distribution, the winner receives a share of 50% of votes. Our results suggest that achieving coordination is ‘path-dependent’: whether voters manage to coordinate on the majority-preferred candidate critically depends on the initial state. We then identify conditions that make the election of the majority-preferred candidate more likely. However, even if the majority candidate is elected for sure, voting behavior is only partially coordinated.

An Efficient Electronic Voting System in a Cloud Computing Environment

In this paper we present an electronic voting system based on Homomorphic encryption to ensure privacy, confidentiality and integrity in the voting. Our proposal offers all the advantages of the additively homomorphic encryption cryptosystems. The proposed voting scheme is suitable for multi-candidate elections as well as for elections in which contains neutral votes.

Multicandidate elections: Aggregate uncertainty in the laboratory

The rational-voter model is often criticized on the grounds that two of its central predictions (the paradox of voting and Duverger's Law) are at odds with reality. Recent theoretical advances suggest that these empirically unsound predictions might be an artifact of an (arguably unrealistic) assumption: the absence of aggregate uncertainty about the distribution of preferences in the electorate. In this paper, we propose direct empirical evidence of the effects of aggregate uncertainty in multicandidate elections. Adopting a theory-based experimental approach, we explore whether aggregate uncertainty indeed favors the emergence of non-Duverger's law equilibria in plurality elections. Our experimental results support the main theoretical predictions.

A hybrid approach to vector-based homomorphic tallying remote voting

Vector-based homomorphic tallying remote voting schemes provide an efficient protocol for vote tallying, but they require voters to prove in zero-knowledge that the ballots they cast have been properly generated. This is usually achieved by means of the so-called zero-knowledge range proofs, which should be verified by the polling station before tallying. In this paper, we present an end-to-end verifiable hybrid proposal in which ballots are proven to be correct by making use of a zero-knowledge proof of mixing but still using a homomorphic tallying for gathering the election results. Our proposal offers all the advantages of the homomorphic tallying paradigm, while it avoids the elevated computational cost of range proofs. As a result, ballot verification performance is improved in comparison with the equivalent homomorphic systems. The proposed voting scheme is suitable for multi-candidate elections as well as for elections in which the votes have different weights.

Extreme Vote Makeover: The Role of Ranked Choice Voting in the Oakland City Elections

This paper examines the effects that voting systems have on multicandidate elections. Using the ballot data collected from Alameda County, we have taken the votes from the recent mayoral election in Oakland City, CA, and recounted them using preference-base voting standards. After doing so we compared them to the original election outcome. The victor of this election flipped in three of the six counts these ballots underwent. This illustrates the need of the candidates of an election to understand how the differences in voting systems impact their campaign decisions.

One Person, Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation

This paper shows that information imperfections and common values can solve coordination problems in multicandidate elections. We analyze an election in which (i) the majority is divided between two alternatives and (ii) the minority backs a third alternative, which the majority views as strictly inferior. Standard analyses assume voters have a fixed preference ordering over candidates. Coordination problems cannot be overcome in such a case, and it is possible that inferior candidates win. In our setup the majority is also divided as a result of information imperfections. The majority thus faces two problems: aggregating information and coordinating to defeat the minority candidate. We show that when the common value component is strong enough, approval voting produces full information and coordination equivalence: the equilibrium is unique and solves both problems. Thus, the need for information aggregation helps resolve the majority's coordination problem under approval voting. This is not the case under standard electoral systems.

Information aggregation in multicandidate elections under plurality rule and runoff voting

I consider a model in which imperfectly informed voters with common interests participate in a multicandidate election decided by either plurality rule or a runoff. Prior to the election, each voter receives a private signal corresponding to the candidate the voter thinks is best. Voters are relatively more likely to think a given candidate is best if the candidate is a relatively better candidate. I show that there is a sequence of equilibrium strategies for the voters such that, as the number of voters goes to infinity, the probability that the best candidate is elected goes to 1. I further show that all candidates receive significant vote shares in any equilibrium in which information fully aggregates under plurality rule and that voters do at least as well when the election is decided by a runoff as they do when the election is decided by plurality rule.

Path-Dependency and Coordination in Multi-Candidate Elections

We consider a behavioral model of voting in multi-candidate elections. In case of satisfactory payoffs from the poll leader voters increase their propensity to vote for the leading candidate, while in case of unsatisfactory payoffs voters decrease their propensity. We first show that in any stationary distribution and for any configuration of the model, the winner receives a share of 50% of votes. Using results from the 1992 England elections, we show that this implication is consistent with voting data. Second, we show that the process is path-dependent: whether voters manage to coordinate on the majority candidate critically depends on the initial state. Moreover, even if the majority candidate is elected for sure, voting behavior is only partially coordinated.

Allies of the state: China's private entrepreneurs and democratic change

Jie Chen and Bruce J. Dickson draw on extensive fieldwork as they explore the extent to which China’s private sector supports democracy, surveying more than 2,000 entrepreneurs in five coastal provinces with over 70 percent of China’s private enterprises. The authors examine who the private entrepreneurs are, how the party-state shapes this group, and what their relationship to the state is. China’s entrepreneurs are closely tied to the state through political and financial relationships, and these ties shape their views toward democracy. While most entrepreneurs favor multi-candidate elections under the current one-party system, they do not support a system characterized by multi-party competition and political liberties, including the right to demonstrate. The key to regime support lies in the capitalists’ political beliefs and their assessment of the government’s policy performance. China’s capitalists tend to be conservative and status-quo oriented, not likely to serve as agents of democratization. This is a valuable contribution not only to the debates over the prospects for democracy in China but also to understanding the process of democratization around the globe.

Trading places

This paper examines effects that voting systems can have on electoral outcomes in multicandidate elections. Using ballots collected from a county Republican Party special election, we recount the votes using preference based voting systems and compare the results to the special election outcome. Relative rankings of candidates change across vote counting rules and voting systems. Because candidates trade places depending on rules, there are strong strategic implications for candidates and for those establishing the rules.

Lithuania 1940: Revolution From Above. On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics, 9 by Alfred Erich Senn (review)

REVIEWS 781 the 'slogansof repression were intimately intertwined withthoseof democracy '(p.8),sheattimes seemsuncertain, herself, as tothelarger implications ofsuchobservations. Above all, she neglects to defineherterms. Her book requires an explanation ofwhat'democracy' meantin a Sovietcontext, and an acknowledgement thatsocialist leaderswho toutedtheprinciple as proof oftheircountry's commitment to equalitysimultaneously vieweditnotas a vehicleforpromoting diversity, butrather as a mechanism forenforcing what GeorgeOrwellenthusiasts mighttermunfreedom. In otherwords,Bolshevik theorists associated'democracy' withcommunalpolicingand withcollective enforcement of socialistnorms.For all thatSovietauthorities on occasion allowed'democratic' eventssuchas multicandidate elections, theyroutinely ragedaboutcitizens'failures to electthe'right' people and did nothesitate to overturn the results of politicalprocessesthathad, view,goneawry.These leadersalso embracedviolencea; 'safeguarding' Sovietdemocracy and ensuring thatitwo nromote centra11 v accenta hie ends. fromtheirpointof s an essential toolin luldonlybe used to Goldmangrippingly illustrates how,bymid1937 , convulsions ofaccusation and counter-accusation had engulfed whole communities, withworkmates, friends and even family membersturning againstone anotherin whatthe authorterms public'rituals ofrepression' (ch. 6). Nevertheless, readersmust keepin mindthatmassparticipation, alone,did notfacilitate eithertheatrvmi7Qtinn r'T cr'r*i£ii-iT lv/~vl/-lrvio-n npppnnAc r'r trie* Vi/^-frM-ri/"» t rti^l f±r' r*t* i-V»of- o /-•/-> /-m-v>_ paniedit.ForwhiletheTerrorwas certainly, and quitefascinatingly, a time offrenetic grass-roots activity, itwas also a timeofsecrecy and concealment dependent on anonymous betrayals, midnight arrests, clandestine 'trials', executions insound-proofed rooms, furtive disposalofbodiesfrom allinvolved, nevertospeakoftheir experiences on penalty oftreason. Participation fuelled Terror, butsecrecy enabledit. Department ofHistory CynthiaHooper College oftheHoly Cross Senn, AlfredErich. Lithuania iQ4o: Revolution FromAbove.On the Boundary of Two Worlds:Identity, Freedom,and Moral Imagination in theBaltics, 9. Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York, 2007. 290 pp. Notes. Index.£42.60 (paperback). ProfessorSenn's study focuses primarily on thewayinwhichSovietofficials engineered Lithuania'sincorporation intotheSovietUnion in 1940butalso castsa critical lighton therecordofthe authoritarian regimerunning the countryfrom1926, under the presidencyof Antanas Smetona. Despite the density of detailthisis no merenarrative. Accountsof keyeventsare interwoven withreflections on thehistoriography oftheSoviettakeover, as well as personalmemories.Senn defendshimself againstchargesof giving too muchspace to Sovietinterpretations by reminding us how muchthese influencedWesternperceptions,chieflythroughexaggerating Moscow's 782 SEER, 87, 4, OCTOBER 2OOg popularity and devoting rather lessattention toitsapplication ofphysical and psychological terror in theBalticcountries. The bookopenswitha consideration ofthe1939Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the ensuingmachinations enablingthe SovietUnion, throughsecret protocols, to extenditssphereofinfluence to includeLithuania.In common withmanyothers theauthorarguably allowshisknowledge of1939tocolour hisviewofSoviet-German cooperation during the1920s,whenin factthere were seriousclashesof interest betweenthe two largepowersover Baltic issues.Interestingly, he doubtsif the SovietUnion had detailedplans in 1939fortheincorporation oftheBalticcountries, eventhoughtheultimate intention 'wouldseemto havebeen clear'(p. 22). The problemremainedofjust how theSovietgovernment wouldimpose itswillonLithuania. In thisrespect Sennhighlights theimportance oftheRed Army'soccupationof Vilniusin September1939. Smetonahoped thatin accepting thereturn ofthecity from theSovietshe couldclaimtobe realizing the major principleof Lithuania'sforeign policysince the 1920s.In fact, thehandingbackofVilniuswas a majorheadachefortheSmetonaregime. Lithuanians werein a tiny minority and as faras thePoleswereconcerned, theynow became accomplicesin the destruction of the Polishstate.Thus Sennlikens thereturn ofVilniusto thesiting ofa 'TrojanHorse'.It became 'thesourceofgreatstress fortheLithuanian government and a majorvehicle fortheSovietpenetration ofLithuanian consciousness' (p. 50). The pointis reinforced bya glanceat thehistory ofVilnius,emphasizing thePolishandJewish contributions tothecity. WhenSennturns tothelarge scaleanti-Jewish pogrominVilniuson 31October1939he finds an explanation perhapstoocharitably - inthefailure oftheLithuanians toprepare foradministering a citywheretheywerea tinyminority ofthepopulation, as well as in the presenceof pro-Communist Jewishactivists. These were 'probably themostvisiblein publicand theyevokedthestrongest reactions as theycheeredtheRed Army'(p. 58). Althoughthe book describeshow Smetona tried to re-establish his authority 'in theprotective shadowofthe [Soviet-Lithuanian] mutualassistancepact ' (p. 77)hisgovernment dulycollapsedwhentheRed Army finally occupied Lithuaniaon 15June 1940. Succeedingchapterschroniclethe Sovietinvasionand thepattern ofadministration underMoscow'semissary, VladimirDekanozov,USSR DeputyPeople'sCommissar ofForeignAffairs. Thereis also an interesting chapter on Smetonaas a refugee after he fledhis country fortheUnitedStates,wherehe died in a housefireon 9 January 1944The cool receptionthatSmetonareceivedfromthe Lithuanianémigré community seemsconsistent withSenn'sjudgement thattheregime 'had only shallowrootsin Lithuania;ithad blockedthedevelopment ofa civilsociety' (p. 83).It might be suggested, on theotherhand,thatcountries often getthe leaderstheydeserve,whichwould raise some painfulquestions,not least about the laterparticipation of manyLithuaniansin the brutality of the Nazi regime.That lies outsidethe scope of Senn's book, whichfinishes witha survey ofthe'dizzying transition' (p. 243)fromindependent stateto REVIEWS 783 constituent republicoftheUSSR and insists thatthiswas indeedrevolution from above. Bradford andGlasgow Universities JohnHiden Cienciala,AnnaM., Lebedeva,NataliaS. andMaterski, Wojciech(eds).Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment. AnnalsofCommunism. Yale University Press, New Haven,CT and London,2007.xxviii+ 561pp. Notes.Documents. Maps. Aerialand otherphotographs. Documentsources.Biographical sketches. Glossary oforganizations and...

Accurate and large-scale privacy-preserving data mining using the election paradigm

With the proliferation of the Web and ICT technologies there have been concerns about the handling and use of sensitive information by data mining systems. Recent research has focused on distributed environments where the participants in the system may also be mutually mistrustful. In this paper we discuss the design and security requirements for large-scale privacy-preserving data mining (PPDM) systems in a fully distributed setting, where each client possesses its own records of private data. To this end we argue in favor of using some well-known cryptographic primitives, borrowed from the literature on Internet elections. More specifically, our framework is based on the classical homomorphic election model, and particularly on an extension for supporting multi-candidate elections. We also review a recent scheme [Z. Yang, S. Zhong, R.N. Wright, Privacy-preserving classification of customer data without loss of accuracy, in: SDM’ 2005 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining, 2005] which was the first scheme that used the homomorphic encryption primitive for PPDM in the fully distributed setting. Finally, we show how our approach can be used as a building block to obtain Random Forests classification with enhanced prediction performance.

Ideology and Challenges of Political Liberalisation in the USSR, 1957-1961: Otto Kuusinen's 'Reform Platform', the State Concept, and the Path to the 3rd CPSU Programme by Jukka Renkama (review)

746 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 than his motivations also ensures that this study is objective, readable, sometimes even gripping, and an excellent startingpoint fromwhich further research into the dominant figure of recent Hungarian history may be conducted. Department of History TomLorman UniversityofCincinnati Renkama, Jukka. Ideology and Challenges ofPolitical Liberalisation in theUSSR, igjy-ig6i: OttoKuusinen's ReformPlatform', theState Concept, and the Path to the 3rd CPSU Programme.Bibliotheca Historica, 99. Suomalaisen Kirjalli suuden Seura, Helsinki, 2006. 396 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 29.00 (paperback). What thiswork isdealing with is the greatest theoretical challenge to Western political culture thathas so far arisen. It is rightlyreferred tohere asMarxism Leninism, not Marxism as such, many of whose Western theorists, such as Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein, were willing to tack along with parlia mentary democracy when the circumstances were right, which they wanted them to be. Marxism-Leninism was not of this kind. Even the understanding of supposedly common words was different. 'Party' in the West has meant a group of the like-minded, differing in particulars from the unlike-minded, but working through the same system. In Marxism-Leninism the Party was a vanguard leading the transformation of the whole of society. As Jukka Renkama shows, even the prospect of allowing multi-candidate elections for this single-party became impossible of realization in the period dealt with in his work. Itmight have led to aWestern-type party system. Strikingly apparent from Renkama's analysis is the fact thatMarxism Leninism was gripped not merely by itsoriginal opposition to the capitalist imperialistworld but by problems within itself ? of the apportioning of role between state, party, proletariat in its dictatorial task and even, after 1936, of constitution. Since the theory was a tool for the scientific development into Socialism, and then from Socialism into Communism, the search for objec tivitybecame an agonizing quest that took its toll through argumentation by exegetic commentary, personal feuding, backtracking and confession, attempts to slacken the strait-jacket of theory ? but never to abandon it entirely ? as the world changed. Kuusinen's second wife, Aino, while work ing for theComintern, got themeasure of all thisbefore shewas whisked off to Lefortov and the northern camps. But in thisbloody internalmaelstrom one of the greatest survivorswas her husband, Otto Wille, the exiled Finnish Communist, who in the final flush of his lifebecame a fullmember of thePresidium of the Soviet Union and set to work on the 'reformplatform' thatwas meant toput some political detail into the crude flourishes of N. S. Khrushchev's consumerism. Kuusinen's survival to thisperiod was all themore remarkable (and skilful) since back inFinland he had once been a parliamentarian and had been a principal drafter of the Finnish Red Constitution of February 1918.The author does not see the need reviews 747 tomention this,nor the fact thatKuusinen had also been active in the politics of a second parliamentary extreme Left party in Finland in the early 1920s, the Socialist Workers' Party. Under Khrushchev, Kuusinen now spoke for the referendum, once an important feature ofWestern-style Marxist parties, borrowed perhaps from Switzerland. It is true, however, that even before the 'reform platform' some faint suggestions of interest in thismechanism had occasionally surfaced in Soviet thinking, notably in paragraph 49 of the 1936 Stalin Constitution. But then, thiswas 'top-down' politics at the behest of the initiative of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet or at least 'on the demand of one of the Union Republics'. As a fullmember of the Supreme Soviet himself, the aged Kuusinen had, at last, lost some of his hesitations and began to talk in favour of grass-roots initiative and in general for the introduction of elections even into the state machinery as well as for a greater role for the social organiza tions in the Soviet state.All thiswas meant to fitthe ending of thedictatorship of the proletariat and the creation of an 'all people' state, the transition to which Khrushchev did not seem fully to understand. Renkama has painted a wide canvas with depictions, too, ofwhat had been going on in other professedlyMarxist-Leninist states,being particularly good on Imre Nagy. Renkama also shows thatKuusinen was critical of the Soviet...