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This article tells the story of a contested provincial election for sheriff which took place in Norwich during 1627. In light of recent scholarly critiques of studies that frame the early-modern period in terms of binary opposites, this article demonstrates that 1620s political culture is hard to define in such stark terms. Through a close reading of the events, characters, and outcomes of the election, this article also shows the importance of embedding local peculiarities into wider historiographical narratives of change, or continuity, and reveals the essential role of the urban middling sorts in shaping the political narratives of the Stuart period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do elections reduce or increase the risk of autocratic regime breakdown? This article addresses this contested question by distinguishing between election events and the institution of elections. The authors propose that elections stabilize autocracies in the long term but at the price of short-term instability. Elections are conducive to regime survival in the long run because they improve capacities for co-optation and repression but produce short-term instability because they serve as focal points for regime opposition. Drawing on data from 259 autocracies from 1946 to 2008, the authors show that elections increase the short-term probability of regime failure. The estimated effect is retained when accounting for the endogeneity of autocratic elections; this finding is critical, since some autocrats may or may not hold elections because of perceived effects on regime survival. The authors also find that this destabilizing effect does not operate in the long term. They find some, although not as strong, evidence that elections stabilize autocratic regimes in the medium to long term, despite their destabilizing immediate effects. These temporal effect patterns are present for both executive and legislative elections, and they are robust to using different measures, control variable strategies, and estimation techniques. In line with expectations, both effect patterns are much clearer for multiparty autocratic elections than for completely uncontested elections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the extent to which personal characteristics of heads of lists differ from those of all other candidates. It draws upon an original dataset on the candidates to the Portuguese Parliament in five parliamentary elections between 1983 and 2009. The results reveal that candidates with public visibility – famous politicians, public figures, and candidates with more parliamentary experience – have a greater probability of being placed in the top positions of the lists than candidates having a prominent local profile. This pattern does not vary significantly when we consider district magnitude, type of party, or the amount of time since democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the conditions under which democratic elections encourage citizens to identify with ethnicity. We argue that there are two mechanisms through which elections strengthen ethnic identification. First, the stronger ethnic parties are, the more intensive, ethnically exclusive political campaigns they carry out as an election approaches, resulting in strengthening citizens' ethnic identity. Second, ethnic party mobilization drives members of other ethnic groups to develop stronger identity to their own ethnicity because such mobilization poses a serious political threat to the out-group members. Data analysis of approximately 18,000 respondents in five waves of the New Baltic Barometer supports the hypotheses. A case study of Latvia follows to illustrate that ethnic party mobilization for elections creates ethnic cleavages among the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En el marco de una caída de los precios de las materias primas, las elecciones de 2015 dieron paso a la alternancia gubernamental en Argentina. La llegada de un nuevo Presidente, que no es ni peronista ni radical, abre la posibilidad de un cambio en el sistema político argentino. En este artículo repasamos las principales tendencias observadas en las elecciones de 2015, analizando datos a nivel nacional, provincial y municipal como así también el contexto económico en el que se dieron los comicios y los desafíos que genera para el próximo gobierno. Finalmente, nos enfocamos en la derrota del peronismo en la provincia de Buenos Aires tras veintiocho años de gobierno hegemónico para ejemplificar el carácter estratégico de los votantes argentinos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an attempt to forecast the outcome of the 2013 election to the German Bundestag. In contrast to the predominant academic approach to forecast incumbent vote shares from measures of government popularity, economic conditions and other fundamental variables, we entirely relied on data from published trial heat polls. Opposite to common practice in the news media, we did not take isolated polls as election forecasts in their own right. Instead, we used historical data to assess empirically the relationship between polls and election outcomes, and combined extrapolations from current polls in a Bayesian manner. The forecast was published one month ahead of the election. The retrospective evaluation of our method was added after the election. While our method is parsimonious and provides a large lead time, the performance at the 2013 election was underwhelming. We offer additional suggestions how the approach can be improved in future scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay aims to analyze one of Charles Reis Felix's novels, namely Da Gama, Cary Grant, and the Election of 1934, published in 2005. Most of Felix's work depicts his Portuguese- American legacy and this short novel is no exception. The point of view in the novel is conveyed through an omniscient narrator who follows the experiences of Seraphin, a Portuguese-American teenager growing up in the fictitious town of Gaw, which comprises a multitude of immigrant communities. The relationship between the individual and community as well as the bond between the individual and his/her family are some of the main themes of the novel and thus will be analyzed within the broader framework of the Portuguese-American experience and the American dream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, studies have documented how autocrats use elections as a way of legitimising and stabilising their regimes. Simultaneously, a literature on negative external actors (also known as 'black knights') has developed, emphasising how various international actors use anti-democracy promotion strategies to undergird authoritarian regimes. In this article, these two literatures are fused in an attempt to shed light on the external dimension of authoritarian elections and what is termed 'black knight election bolstering'. First, five mechanisms are elucidated, through which external assistance increases the chances of 'winning' elections in authoritarian settings (signaling invincibility, deterring elite defection, undermining opposition activities, dealing with popular protests, and countervailing pressure from foreign democracy promoters). Second, it is argued that external actors are most likely to offer election bolstering when they face a particularly acquiescent partner or when electoral defeat is perceived to lead to radical and undesired regime change. The relevance of both factors is augmented when uncertainty of the electoral outcome is high. Finally, four cases of Russian intervention during elections in three authoritarian neighbour countries ( Ukraine in 2004, Belarus in 2006, and Moldova in 2005 and 2009) are analysed. The case studies corroborate the theoretical arguments: not only does Russia engage in all five types of black knight election bolstering, but it does so only when one or more of the three explanatory factors are present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the effects of war as a performance issue in elections are different for a right-wing than a left-wing leader. War is consistent with the reputation of right-wing, hawkish governments, but does not fit the reputation of left-wing, dovish governments, and necessitates a turn away from the domestic issues the public expects left-wing governments to prioritize. War therefore varies in its effects on perceptions of right-wing and left-wing leaders. War also provides more temptation for left-wing supporters to defect to the incumbent under a right-wing government than for right-wing supporters to defect under a left-wing government. The War in Iraq and elections in the United States and UK provide a unique case to test these arguments. The results confirm that Blair paid a higher political price as a left-wing leader, because perceptions of Blair's trustworthiness became central to evaluations of him. Conversely, positive perceptions of strength became central to evaluations of Bush as a right-wing leader. The war also had asymmetric effects on supporters of the opposition party in the UK that resulted in higher costs to Blair. These findings imply that the risks of going to war are greater for left-wing leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the political issues and events in Fiji in 2014. Topics discussed include the finalization of the Strategic Framework for Change in March, resignation of Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama as military commander, and formation of the political party FijiFirst. Information regarding the history of election in the country is also provided.

This article overviews the history of autocratic elections since 1815 and then tests how a country's experience with autocratic elections influences both democratization and democratic survival. To comprehensively capture this history, the study employs original measures of Robert Dahl's electoral dimensions of contestation and participation. First, it shows that autocratic elections have been common for centuries, but that their character has changed dramatically over time. Whereas high contestation almost always preceded high participation prior to 1940, the opposite occurs in modern regimes. Secondly, it demonstrates that a country's history of contestation predicts both democratization and democratic survival, whereas participation is positive for survival but generally negative for democratization. Thus, democracies are more likely to survive if they experience autocratic elections prior to democratizing, which has implications for democracy promotion and future political development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on a wide range of evidence - corporation records, pollbooks, newspapers, squibs and broadsides, and private correspondence and accounts - to put forward some significant revisions to the electoral history of the borough of Newcastle-under- Lyme in the early 19th century. In the process, the article contributes to our understanding of the conflict between 'oligarchy' and 'independence' which characterised politics in this and other freeman boroughs. The independent party in the town emerges as a powerful force in its own right, one which came to monopolise access to the 'rhetoric of independence', rather than being a mere vehicle for ambitious candidates. The ability of the corporation to influence events by manipulation of the voting roll is also reassessed, and is seen to have been less significant than has been supposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the 1896 election in Quincy, Illinois at the grassroots. Topics covered include the significance of the election which marked the transition from the third to the fourth party system, how the party systems approach remained an important analytical framework for understanding changes in aggregate voting behavior and shifts in public policy and the New Deal coalition created by Quincy.

Evidence for the conflict between two rival candidates for the bishopric of Rome following the death of Zosimus at the end of 418 comes from a group of twenty-five letters, most of which are official letters to and from Emperor Honorius (the rest being from other imperial officials and the emperor's sister), all but one of which are found in the Collectio Avellana. Interestingly, we have nothing preserved from the two episcopal claimants about this matter. The group of letters chronicle imperial concern for the preservation of public order. Do we have here an example of imperial interference in episcopal elections in Rome? In this article a careful examination of the letters reveals that Honorius was concerned only that the Roman church's procedures had been followed ( Collectio Avellana, Ep. 15), which should determine who was lawful bishop. Sociological Conflict Theory is employed to investigate the nature of the evidence to address issues of the nature of the dispute and its participants, what values were contested, how it escalated, and how it was resolved. Such an approach makes clear that our evidence focuses on the role of the emperor and only incidentally tells us of the thinking and strategy of the two candidates. The final decision was made not on the merits of the candidates and the legality of one of the two elections, but upon Eulalius' violation of the conditions imposed upon the two rivals while the dispute was to be settled. Despite the emperor's concern only to facilitate the church settling this conflict itself, in the end it was an imperial measure that determined the outcome of the disputed election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom holds that voters in developing countries fail to punish pervasive pre-electoral fiscal manipulation. However, we argue that governments are unlikely to engage in pre-electoral fiscal manipulation when facing a high risk of speculative currency attacks. In particular, under fixed exchange rates, governments are less likely to engage in fiscal electioneering when either their real exchange rate is highly appreciated or their foreign exchange reserves are low. In contrast, under a flexible exchange rate, neither a country's real exchange rate nor its reserves affects governments' decision to engage in fiscal manipulation. Our argument receives support through a quantitative analysis of government budget balances in 97 developing countries from 1975 to 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the concept of the 1980 elections in the Republic of China and in Taiwan and highlights the competition of the political parties and non-political parties in the national and local elections.

This article examines the anxiety and frustration of the Irish Free State government faced with the uncertainty of which party was going to become the next British government in 1923–24. The Free State government had only recently emerged victorious in its own fratricidal civil war and its moral and political legitimacy was still challenged in Ireland itself. The most contentious issue an incoming British government had to deal with on Ireland was the final demarcation of the boundary between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland which, according to Article 12 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, would be determined by a boundary commission. The Free State government remained unconvinced that any incoming British Labour government had the competence, understanding or commitment to resolve this issue and contribute to long-term stability in Ireland, given Labour's perceived lack of knowledge and interest in Irish politics and its commitment to social and economic issues taking precedence. This apprehension was articulated in contemporary Irish government papers and personal correspondence and proved well founded, given the legalistic and cautious approach of the Labour government to establishing the Irish Boundary Commission. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Breathtaking parades of black kings and their courts enlivened the streets of cities in Europe and the Americas between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Sumptuously dressed queens and kings and their resplendent attendants processed to the sound of music, lifted, temporarily, from the grim the life of enslavement or institutionalized inferiority many of them lived in the age of Atlantic slavery. Drawing from a recent analysis of a prominent ritual performance from the central African kingdom of Kongo called sangamento, this article offers a new interpretation of the black kings festivals, beyond their interpretation as carnivalesque pomp emulating and destabilizing European rule. On both shores of the Atlantic, the performances combined African and European regalia and pageantry to express and enact central African collective identity, political power, and social unity. Restaging performances and reshaping ideas honed in the Kongo, enslaved central Africans not only preserved the memory of their region of origins, but also crafted empowered responses to enslavement and the colonial system at large. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan is an international giant in economic and industrial terms but remains an insular nation in some other respects, perhaps as a result of a tendency towards requiring its politicians to build a high level of consensus on issues where attitudes and opinions are strongly polarised.  The Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in the December 2012 general election, committed to kick-starting the economy with more aggressive spending and monetary policies; there is also speculation that it may prove a more nationalistic government at a time of greater tension in the Japan/China relationship, although so far it is pursuing pragmatism rather than confrontation [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the efforts of recognizing and preserving democracy in India and Sri Lanka. Topics discussed include history of adult franchise in 1950s to establish electoral democracy, ensuring the liberty of individuals, and complications of India Pakistan dispute over Kashmir, and political unrest in Sri Lanka by the Tamils.

The article introduces this themed issue of the journal, which contains contribution dedicated to the comparative history of elections in Europe and North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly with regard to their social and cultural aspects.

The vitality of ASEAN derives from its core. Until the mid 1990s, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand provided the dynamism of ASEAN and their national leaders the regional leadership so necessary for the Association's existence. Entering its fifth decade, the Association seems posited at a 'mid-life crisis'. The ASEAN Charter has proposed bold ideas in community-building. Yet the 'loss' of a strong leadership impetus has cast a shadow of uncertainty over the extent to which ASEAN may reduce the gap between the richer and poorer nations of Southeast Asia. The extant two-tiered nature of ASEAN is problematic to its cohesion as each with its defining set of characteristics and views of regionalism. Can the more structured approach make up the leadership deficit and enable ASEAN to reconcile the division in its quest for regional unity? The prolonged Myanmar embarrassment seems to suggest an unconfident 'yes' at best. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a systematic, in-depth evaluation of the Kuwait (tribal) elections, tracing their development since 1975 and studying their impact on the Kuwaiti political system. The first section of the paper sketches a general framework where the concept of primaries is defined, mostly in regards to Kuwait primary elections. Section two of the paper reveals how Kuwait's primary elections are organised and the impact they have on Kuwaiti political systems and section three deals with the merits and disadvantages of these elections. Section four discloses the different measures undertaken to fight this phenomena. Section five discusses the new redistricting law of 2006. In the last section, concluding remarks speculate on the future political development of Kuwaiti primary elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the use of mass media in Japanese election campaigns, with a particular focus on elections held in 1925 and 1926 following the enactment of universal male suffrage. The author investigates to what extent this reform measure persuaded political parties to appeal to a broad audience and to encourage popular participation in the political process. Emphasis is given to campaign efforts by the Rikken Seiyūkai (Society of Friends of Constitutional Government) and the Rikken Minseitō (Constitutional Democratic Party). Details related to the role of the elite in election campaigns are also presented. Topics discussed include posters, propaganda, radio broadcasting, socialism, and class identity.

This article attempts to clarify the actual conditions of election campaign supporters known as "divisor" and "gratiosus" in late republican Rome, in order to explain the reason why the former appeared on the public electoral scene at that time. The "divisor" has been understood in the research to date as a person engaged by a politician to distribute bribes with the aim of buying the votes of each "tribus." His employment in electoral campaigns was widely denounced and also viewed as illegal. On the other hand, the "gratiosus" appears in the sources as a person whose support an electoral candidate needed to win. The recent research on Roman elections, by neglecting to clarify the similarities and differences between these two figures, implies that a "gratiosus" can be considered as identical to a "divisor." The aim of the present article is to investigate whether similarities and differences do exist between the two. By focusing on the actual character of these personages, the author finds that both belonged to the wealthier classes and enjoyed a certain level of influence within their "tribules," which are the reasons why their electoral support was sought by politicians. On the other hand, while the "gratiosus" implied indiscriminately throughout the wealthier classes, the "divisor" never implied the senator and indicated only supporter of rival candidates. These facts lead the author to conclude that among the influential figures, "gratiosus," those who supported the rival candidates and belonged to the equestrian order and below were on occasion called "divisor." As to the reason why the "divisor" appeared on the electoral scene in late republican Rome, after the Social War, powerful figures throughout Italy, "principes," who had newly obtained Roman citizenship were able to increase their influence within their "tribules" and thus became valued as important "gratiosi." This development consequently led to a relative weakening of the influence exerted by the existing ruling establishment, which was then forced to rely on the support of these "gratiosi" in order to maintain the status quo. Electoral campaigns to gain the support of "gratiosi" through bribery spread, and the pejorative term "divisor" was coined by electoral candidates in condemning opponents who dared wage such campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the strengths and weaknesses of the main available measures of political regime and extend the dichotomous regime classification first introduced in Alvarez et al. (Stud. Comp. Int. Dev. 31(2):3–36, 1996). This extension focuses on how incumbents are removed from office. We argue that differences across regime measures must be taken seriously and that they should be evaluated in terms of whether they (1) serve to address important research questions, (2) can be interpreted meaningfully, and (3) are reproducible. We argue that existing measures of democracy are not interchangeable and that the choice of measure should be guided by its theoretical and empirical underpinnings. We show that the choice of regime measure matters by replicating studies published in leading journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the shift from majoritarian rules to proportional representation by examining Parliamentary seat allocations in nations with growing Socialist parties during the early 20th century. Seat maximization by political elites or established political parties and the protection of cultural minorities within the electoral system are examined. Particular focus is given to the history of electoral regimes in European nations including Belgium, Denmark, and Great Britain. The effect of majoritarian biases and partisan biases are also discussed.

This article reports results of a content analysis of U.S. media coverage of the 2004 European Union expansion and elections. Findings indicate that this historic event was not a salient topic in the U.S. media and that coverage was frequently vague and superficial. Issue-specific and generic frames were identified that represent the U.S. view of the European Union. Each story was coded as being either positive (Pro-EU), negative (EU-Skeptic), or neutral. Findings indicate that of the 79 stories overall, 38 percent were negative, 33 percent were neutral, and 29 percent were positive. These close results indicate fairly balanced coverage that only skewed slightly negative. This study also investigated how the European Parliament was represented and broadly how the EU was portrayed, and findings suggest that the media do not provide a clear portrayal of the EU, which may be due, in part, to an incongruent or practically nonexisting political communication or marketing strategy on the part of the EU itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes legislative performance in a nascent presidential bicameral democracy, taking Brazil as a case. The author argues that the timing and outcomes of legislative production are functions of bicameral incongruence, types of bicameralism, sequence of examination, and legislative bargaining. These hypotheses are tested using a new legislative data set from Brazil that covers over 3,000 bills submitted to the National Congress since 1988. Event history analyses of these bills show that presidential bicameral (coalitional) majorities, presidential elections, initiation by the lower house, and bills proposing provisional changes raise the chances of a bill's approval. The results also indicate that the effects of many of these variables are time dependent. In contrast, bicameral incongruence, symmetric bicameralism, and legislative elections either raise the risks of a bill's rejection or delay the timing of its approval. Economic crises increase legislative activities in general in both approving and rejecting bills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Carl B. Stokes was elected the first African-American mayor of a major U.S. city (Cleveland) in 1967, it was considered a symbol of achievement for the nation's ongoing civil rights movement. Although national and local mainstream media paid considerable attention to his successful campaign, little attention has been given to the role his city's African-American newspaper played. The Cleveland Call and Post did not merely chronicle Stokes' campaign; it actively mobilized the African-American community to realize its political strength, and it challenged the white community to exercise racial tolerance to make history. The paper's crusade further exemplified the role and viability of the African-American press during their struggle to find their place among daily media sources that also covered the African-American community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) electoral history in India, and the 2006 assembly elections in Pakistan. According to the author, people were denied basic rights to elect in the 2006 election to the AJK legislative assembly, due to restrictions including free expression of dissent. It offers the history of election in Pakistan, and the controversies in the 2006 AJK elections.

In this article the author introduces the point/counterpoint section of the journal in which the abolition of the U.S. Electoral College is debated pro and con. Also included in the piece is a brief history of the Electoral College and an examination of the 2000 U.S. presidential election. That contest was decided by the Supreme Court, which awarded Florida's electors to Republican Party candidate George W. Bush who became president as a result. The method for altering or abolishing the Electoral College under provisions of the U.S. constitution is described.

Electoral theories of governmental accountability assume that competitive elections produce responsive governments because they allow voters to punish or reward the performance of incumbent politicians at the ballot box. This research note investigates whether the increasing competitiveness of municipal elections in Mexico during the 1990s has improved the performance of local governments by focusing on the provision of potable water and drainage. The empirical evidence does not seem to support the electoral accountability hypothesis, but rather suggests that municipal governments are more responsive to the influence of socioeconomic modernity, as well as to the direct pressure of politically mobilized citizens. The findings cast doubts on the idea that competitive elections, by themselves, will significantly improve the quality of local governments in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his article, entitled "Forcing Them to be Free," Peceny (1999) presents and empirically tests an argument that while most U.S. military interventions are not successful in bringing about democracy, those cases of intervention in which the U.S. also pushes for "free and fair elections" are likely to produce long-term democratic outcomes in target countries. Our research challenges Peceny's work in two ways. First, we replicate his analysis, finding that military interventions with democratizing intent are not necessarily as successful as his work suggests. Second, we investigate whether these interventions are likely to lead to a broader concept of democracy and good governance using a series of alternative measures of democratic performance and alternate statistical analyses. Again, we generally find that interventions that attempt to "force" free and fair elections do not have a particularly beneficial effect on long-term democratic outcomes. Our results suggest that more work needs to be done before a "forcing them to be free" hypothesis can be considered to be an advancement in the literature on democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the history of by-elections in the British Parliament. Functions of by-elections in the country; Implications of by-elections for the stability of British politics; Connection between a series of by-elections and the relationship of Great Britain with China.

This article suggests that it is important to look at the early decades of elections in New Zealand's political history, a time when many believe that politics was undemocratic and political participation was low. In order to evaluate this issue statistics on the numbers voting and electorates contested have been generated by extensive newspaper research for the general elections in the period 1853 to 1876, on which there is little information. In these early elections the issues lay more in the failure to register on the electoral rolls and considerable numbers of uncontested electorates than in exclusion due to the property franchise or failure to vote by those registered. The article concludes that politics was more democratic and participation higher than usually thought In the latter part of the nineteenth century increases in registration and in voter turnout are examined as a precursor for political parties and high levels of political participation that became characteristic of modern-day electoral politics in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elections under hybrid systems may serve both the conventional purposes of elections in democracies and the legitimating function more commonly found in authoritarian regimes. We evaluate the functionality of the 2004 Legislative Council election in Hong Kong in this regard and analyse the consequences for the political system. We argue that the election weakened rather than strengthened the legitimacy of the system and that it was dysfunctional for the attainment of some of the traditional functions of elections in democracies such as political recruitment, informed debate and the selection of a representative assembly. The election also raised questions about the degree to which bias in the present system towards the election of pro-government, pro-China forces can be sustained in the face of an electoral outcome that shows majority support among voters for democratic candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on parliamentary borough elections in Devon and Cornwall in southwestern England during the 15th century. Leading men from the parliamentary boroughs of Devon and Cornwall that were regularly found attesting the shire indentures in their counties; Increasing frequency with which country gentlemen were returned as borough members; Blurring of the dividing lines between the urban and shire representatives; Breadth of the borough franchises.

Discusses how the electoral procedures in Italy during the Renaissance helped lay the foundations for northern Italy's social capital. Ways in which competing factions might have come to accept an external and communal resolution of their disputes; Gap that existed between the language of republican politics and the actual problems that it hoped to resolve; Potentially explosive relationship between the distribution of office and factional conflict; Centrality of public office as the most significant route to honor and status; Renaissance republican method of installing individuals into government offices.

The abiding motif of election campaigns in the USA is not the spot ad, nor the candidate debate, nor even the campaign Web site, but instead remains the campaign button. It should be consigned to history by [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]