Study Of Electoral Systems Research Articles

Inter-country differences in voter satisfaction with the democratic process: a study of world elections

Using data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, this paper examines differences between West and East European countries in their levels of satisfaction with the way democracy works. Compared to East European countries, satisfaction levels were considerably higher in Western countries (West Europe, North America, and Oceania). Moreover, there was considerably greater inequality in the distribution of satisfaction in East European, compared to Western, countries. When these facts were combined to construct “equity-sensitive” satisfaction averages, the gap between Western countries and East European countries was even greater than suggested by a comparison of average satisfaction levels. This raised the question of why satisfaction levels varied so markedly between these two sets of countries. A logit model suggested that a number of factors were important for determining whether people were satisfied with the way democracy worked in their countries. While there was a difference between Western countries and East European countries in their endowments of these satisfaction-inducing factors (income, gender, participation, education, among others), when the equations were estimated separately for the Western countries and East European countries, the coefficient responses associated with several of these factors also differed markedly between the two groups.

The Dynamics of Representation: Do Governments Reflect the Public Will?

How does democratic representation work? The linkage between the public and the political decision makers is one of the essential topics for the study of democratic political systems. Most research views elections and political representation as a discrete decision-making process. This paper suggests that democratic representation is a continuing, incremental process that occurs through a comparison of the past and the future across repeated elections. We offer two snapshots of this process by examining the correspondence between citizens and their government using modules I and II of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. The results strongly argue that there is a high level of representation in contemporary democracies, and elections serve as a dynamic steering method to keep government in synch with their publics.

How many political parties are there, really? A new measure of the ideologically cognizable number of parties/party groupings

We offer a new measure of the ideologically cognizable number of political parties/party groupings that is intended to be complementary to the standard approach to counting the effective number of political parties – the Laakso–Taagepera index (1979). This approach allows the possibility of precise measurement of concepts such as polarized pluralism or fragmented bipolarism and is applicable to both unidimensional and multidimensional representations of party locations. Using recent CSES (Comparative Study of Electoral Systems) data on one-dimensional representations of party locations in four real-world examples (two of which are available in an online appendix), we find that Slovenia, treated initially as a five-party system, has its optimal reduction as a two-bloc/party system, as does Spain, which is treated initially as a four-party system. However, Canada, treated initially as a four-party system, has its optimal reduction as a three-bloc/party system if we look at a unidimensional representation of the party space, while it remains a four-bloc system if we draw on Johnston’s two-dimensional characterization of Canadian political competition. Finally, the Czech Republic, initially a five-party system, is optimally reduced to a system with four party groupings.

Reconstructing Galicia: Mapping the Cultural and Civic Traditions of the Former Austrian Galicia in Poland and Ukraine

This article examines the cultural legacy of Galicia, a region comprising parts of Poland and Ukraine, once united under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Using survey data compiled by the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, we reconstruct the region of Galicia electoral district by electoral district, finding that Galicians today are far more civic than their compatriots. Sharing higher levels of political efficacy, Galicians are more likely to vote, and when they do, they are more likely to support parties who oppose the successor left. The vehicle for this cultural persistence, we argue, could be the (Greek) Catholic Church, which Galicians attend at far higher rates than the rest of Ukraine or Poland.

It’s About The Benefits

This article approaches the question of turnout by focusing on the benefits term in the classic equation through an examination of the relationship between the quality of the choice environment, ideological proximity and participation in 28 democracies. Using data from the CSES (Comparative Study of Electoral Systems), I find that electoral contexts that feature choice-rich environments, measured both at the individual level by ideological proximity and the contextual level by the coverage of the ideological continuum, are associated with a higher probability that any single voter will participate in an election. These findings hold in the presence of individual and institutional controls, and are confirmed using both robust standard errors and against estimated variance in individual over-reporting of turnout.

Relative Extremism and Relative Moderation

This article investigates the ways in which parties stake out left—right positions that deviate from the mean positions of their supporters. Previous research has shown that parties tend to adopt positions that are more extreme than those of their supporters, but there are at least two arguments that also imply the presence of relative moderation—a tendency for moderate parties to be more moderate than their supporters. Using surveys covering 34 countries compiled by the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, this investigation shows that parties in coalitional systems display both phenomena.

Social Structure and Party Support in the East Asian Democracies

A stable and effective party system depends on consistent and enduring support from social groups. Using the Lipset-Rokkan paradigm as a point of departure, this article tests the relationship between social structure and party support in four East Asian democracies (Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan) and two Western democracies (Australia and New Zealand) using the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Using Australia and New Zealand as a reference point, the results show that the four Lipset-Rokkan social cleavages are only loosely related to party support in the four East Asian nations, mainly through center-periphery and urban-rural divisions. The absence of an owner-worker cleavage is explained by the suppression of labor-based parties in these countries. More generally, the results suggest the importance of the socializing experiences associated with the democratic transitions in each of the four newer democracies.

The Dutch Electoral System on Trial

As in several other countries, the electoral system in the Netherlands is a matter of dispute. The main purpose of this special issue is to assess to what extent the comparative study of electoral systems offers a solid body of knowledge on the possible effects of various proposals to change the electoral system. Such an assessment is not only useful for the ongoing discussion in the Netherlands but also produces a state-of-the-art of the comparative study of electoral systems. In this introduction, we first present an overview of the main characteristics and the historical background of the current Dutch electoral system. Subsequently, we discuss the critique evoked by this extremely proportional system. We then summarize the main objectives of a recent proposal of the Dutch government to change the electoral system. In the second half of this introduction, we present the outline of this special issue. Finally, we evaluate what we have learned about the relevance of the study of electoral systems for specific attempts to reform electoral systems.

Duverger's Law and the Study of Electoral Systems

Since its first publication in 1951, Duverger's Political Parties has influenced an entire branch of political science devoted to the study of the political consequences of electoral laws. This essay examines the two propositions known as Duverger's law and Duverger's hypothesis, both concerned with how electoral institutions shape party systems. First explaining the propositions and their context, the essay examines their influence on political science, and concludes by assessing where future research in the area might be best concentrated.

Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior

Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior. By Pippa Norris. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 390p. 25.99 paper.Over 20 years ago, William Riker proposed that the study of electoral systems and their consequences constituted the best-developed research program in contemporary political science. Scores of scholars followed Maurice Duverger's lead, emphasizing how institutions affect the strategic environment facing political actors and the contours of party systems. Other researchers followed Seymour Martin Lipset's and Stein Rokkan's lead, privileging social cleavages as the main features influencing party system development. Recently, scholars have attempted to reconcile or integrate the competing approaches. Pippa Norris's new book fits into this trend by evaluating the two schools of thought side by side, harnessing valuable data produced by the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES).

Rein Taagepera's approach to the study of electoral systems

Rein Taagepera's approach to the study of electoral systems

Electoral systems: a comparative introduction

The Study of Electoral Systems.- The Single Member Plurality System and its Cousins.- Majority Electoral Systems: Two-Round Systems and the Alternative Vote.- The List Systems of Proportional Representation.- Mixed-Member Systems.- The Single Transferable Vote System of Proportional Representation.- The Consequences of Electoral Systems.- The Politics of Electoral System Design.- Electoral Systems and Electoral Institutions .- Electoral Systems and Stability.

Seats and votes: the effects and determinants of electoral systems

A study of electoral systems which describes the electoral rules of different nations, reviews the state of knowledge about their effects and offers guidelines for designing new systems.

How Democracies Vote. A Study of Electoral Systems

How Democracies Vote. A Study of Electoral Systems

How democracies vote: A study of electoral systems

How democracies vote: A study of electoral systems

The Protection of Minorities By the Electoral System

AMONG THE instructions given to its electoral commission by the Parliament of newly independent Ceylon was a provision that the electoral law should be such as to protect the minorities.1 More recently the French government has been hopeful that the protection of the French Algerian minority could be obtained through an adequate electoral system even if separate electorates were to be ruled out.2 The idea of using the electoral system to take care of minority problems is not new. Prior to World War I Emperor Francis Joseph had hoped that universal suffrage combined with a proper redistricting of the country would reduce the tension between the various national groups of Austria.3 How effectively can the electoral system be used to protect minorities? 4 Such a question does not lend itself to generalizations. It cannot be said that one type of electoral system to the exclusion of the others will always tend to protect minorities. All that can be done is to classify the electoral techniques which might be used to protect minorities and set forth in each case what conditions are necessary for such protection to be effective. A study of electoral systems involves a study of (a) the right to vote and (b) the electoral system proper.