Search

In light of the pivotal 2024 US elections, this comprehensive study delves into the imperative of cross-party collaboration within American politics. Amidst a backdrop of heightened partisan divisions, this paper argues for a paradigm shift towards a more synergistic political atmosphere that transcends mere party affiliations. It articulates the essentiality of fostering transparency, mutual respect, tolerance, and proactive dialogue as foundational pillars for bridging ideological divides. This study not only accentuates the pivotal roles of accountability and equitable representation in cultivating mutual respect and cooperation across party lines but also spotlights the influential role of the electorate. It posits that a robust civic education is crucial for equipping citizens with the tools necessary to engage thoughtfully and critically in political discourse. By championing these core principles, this paper envisions a trajectory towards a more conciliatory and democratic political landscape, poised to invigorate the democratic spirit as the nation approaches the critical juncture of the 2024 elections. Through a combination of theoretical insights and empirical analysis, this study seeks to ignite a renewed commitment to collaborative governance, essential for the flourishing of democracy and the betterment of society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand and clamour for electoral reforms in Africa are among one of the most pressing issues of today. Existing research has documented how citizens of several African countries have flooded the streets in anti-regime protests demanding electoral reforms from their respective governments. Less well researched, however, is how, (to what extent), and (with what) effect do opposition parties utilise collective action approaches in pushing for electoral reforms. By focusing on Zimbabwe, this article contributes to this relatively underexplored area by critically examining the motive, extent, strategies and collective action approaches utilised by the political opposition parties—specifically the Movement for Democratic Change Tsvangirai (MDC-T), later named the MDC-Alliance (MDC-A) in demanding electoral reforms post the Government of National Unity (GNU) era of 2009–2013. This entails exploring the efficacy of protest action, litigation, lobbying, petitioning, parliamentary debates and dialogue to spearhead and realise electoral reforms against an intransigent regime ahead of the 2018 harmonised elections in Zimbabwe. By drawing on documentary analysis of primary and secondary literature, interviews with party elites, and personal observations, the article established that it is challenging to realise wide-ranging electoral reforms in a context were bi-partisan interests are high and also in contexts were incumbents stand to benefit from an unreformed electoral system.

Objective/context: In 2019, promoted by President Martín Vizcarra, the Congress of the Republic of Peru sanctioned a law on mandatory primary elections for voters and political parties. However, the regulation was not implemented, given that it was suspended by the Legislative Branch for the general elections in 2021 and the regional elections in 2022. Methodology: This paper studies the reform process of mandatory, simultaneous, and open primaries (PASO, for its acronym in Spanish) in Peru and its counter-reform based on its suspension on two occasions (2021 and 2022). Twenty-three key actors were interviewed for this research, including congresspersons, ministers, electoral officials, and researchers, in addition to the revision of secondary sources and newspapers of legislative sessions. Conclusions: The paper concludes that PASO were a “decorative” reform, i.e., a law passed without the intention of implementing it. Its sanction was the product of a reformist coalition between civil society and the President of the nation, where the objectives of increasing popular support for President Vizcarra and the need to improve the legitimacy of the political system converged. The reform was resisted by congresspersons who formed two counter-reformist coalitions that suspended the PASO on two occasions. Originality: The research shows that these counter-reform coalitions are intrinsically linked to the atomization and personalization of the Peruvian party system, characterized by hyper-personalism and a lack of party structures. In addition, it generates theoretical contributions to studying the processes of reforms and counter-reforms in the context of institutional weakness.

Objective/context: In 2019, promoted by President Martín Vizcarra, the Congress of the Republic of Peru sanctioned a law on mandatory primary elections for voters and political parties. However, the regulation was not implemented, given that it was suspended by the Legislative Branch for the general elections in 2021 and the regional elections in 2022. Methodology: This paper studies the reform process of mandatory, simultaneous, and open primaries (PASO, for its acronym in Spanish) in Peru and its counter-reform based on its suspension on two occasions (2021 and 2022). Twenty-three key actors were interviewed for this research, including congresspersons, ministers, electoral officials, and researchers, in addition to the revision of secondary sources and newspapers of legislative sessions. Conclusions: The paper concludes that PASO were a "decorative" reform, i.e., a law passed without the intention of implementing it. Its sanction was the product of a reformist coalition between civil society and the President of the nation, where the objectives of increasing popular support for President Vizcarra and the need to improve the legitimacy of the political system converged. The reform was resisted by congresspersons who formed two counter-reformist coalitions that suspended the PASO on two occasions. Originality: The research shows that these counterreform coalitions are intrinsically linked to the atomization and personalization of the Peruvian party system, characterized by hyper-personalism and a lack of party structures. In addition, it generates theoretical contributions to studying the processes of reforms and counter-reforms in the context of institutional weakness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Latin American and other Global South countries adopted gender quotas during democratic transitions. What explains late-adopting cases like Chile? We analyze two instances: the 2015–2016 electoral reforms, which finally introduced a 40-percent gender quota, and the 2020–2023 constitutional process, which introduced gender parity. Using a qualitative analysis that draws on 39 elite interviews, we posit that efforts to redesign national political institutions in order to address democratic deficits create transition-like moments. In turn, these moments create windows of opportunity for quota advocates. We show how quota advocates in the parties, congress, and civil society leveraged growing voter discontent to pressure their resistant colleagues and ultimately secure gender quotas (and later gender parity) as part of larger reform efforts. Our analysis of the Chilean case elevates two factors explaining quota adoption: the long arc of democratization and women's role as protagonists in electoral reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new democracy, Tunisia is quite vulnerable to democratic erosion. The implementation of democracy in the country was quite effective during the leadership of Beji Caid Essebsi, resulting in a high democracy index driven by various policies that supported the implementation of this system. However, Tunisia’s quality of democracy significantly declined since President Kais Saied took power in 2019. The dissolution of Parliament, the prime minister's dismissal, the introduction of freedom of expression for council members, and unilateral electoral reforms aimed at consolidating his power are some cases of proof. This pattern raises questions about the recurring nature of democracy after presidential changes. Therefore, this research highlights the importance of studying the leadership traits and political beliefs of incumbent leaders in shaping the direction of democracy. This research aims to extrapolate the leadership characteristics of the two presidents, assessing their ideological orientation to determine their attitudes toward democracy and its impact. This study implements a combination of Leaders Trait Analysis (LTA) as part of a quantitative approach and Process Tracing techniques as a qualitative part by revealing public appearances (interviews and speeches) and combining them with historical events as empirical evidence that will show a comprehensive leader's personality to explain the cognitive and dispositional attributes that encompass various tendencies toward democratization.

We study the effect of Law 81/1993, which introduced a different rule for the election of mayors, on the technical efficiency of Italian cities over the period 1998–2006. Since 1993, municipalities below 15,000 inhabitants vote with a single‐ballot system, whereas cities above 15,000 inhabitants are subject to a double ballot. We first estimate the output‐oriented technical efficiency of municipalities through data envelopment analysis, and then we perform a regression discontinuity design analysis by exploiting the exogenous change in the electoral scheme at the 15,000 inhabitants cut‐off. We find evidence that municipalities voting under a double‐ballot rule show lower levels of efficiency—in terms of provision of public goods—compared with cities voting under a single‐ballot scheme, by about 6.5%. This effect is driven by inefficiencies registered in specific sectors, that is, police, education, and maintenance of roads. Furthermore, the overall lower efficiency of municipalities voting under runoff is related to the different level of educational attainment of elected mayors, whereas it is not driven by the features of Law 81/1993 relating to the number of lists forming a coalition in support of mayoral candidates and to disjoint votes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electoral reform of parity and alternation, applied in Peru for the first time at the subnational level in the regional and municipal elections of 2022, generates spaces for political participation for women and also for other historically excluded groups such as youth and Indigenous people. This article examines this issue. From an intersectional approach, the inclusion of these groups is analyzed in the lists of candidates and among those who are elected. In addition, the main obstacles encountered by female candidates during the electoral campaign are presented, including political financing and media coverage. The methodology is based on the analysis of databases belonging to electoral entities, with an emphasis placed on the proportions of women, young women, and Indigenous women who registered as candidates; those who accessed representation; and the obstacles they faced in their races. Using a comparative approach, the before and after indicators are contrasted with respect to the previous electoral process to identify the effects of the regulations. It is concluded that there is indeed a positive change in the inclusion of women - considering their intersectional characteristics, specifically at the level of elected authorities in regional and municipal councils. Likewise, it is evident that the difficulties of participation are transversal to the candidacies, although with greater gaps for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argentina and Brazil illustrate how distinctive electoral designs impact candidate selection for subnational elective offices. In Argentina, the provinces' autonomy to establish their own electoral rules extends to the selection of candidates. Their adherence to the national law is optional. In Brazil, although all states share the same electoral legislation, the rules for choosing candidates are established by each political party, whether at the national or subnational level. This study analyzes how the political reforms carried out in both countries in recent years have affected the selection of subnational candidates. By applying a top-down approach for a multilevel analysis, we argue that political reforms driven from the national level in both countries have posed multilevel tensions that have had various effects on these electoral and party systems, impacting the degree of plurality and the transparency of the elections. In Argentina, the failed process of vertical homogenization of candidate selection through open, simultaneous, and obligatory primaries (PASO) has impacted subnational electoral reforms and practices among provincial political actors. In the Brazilian case, national jurisprudence and reforms have emerged to foster coordination between parties at both levels of government. Both cases show a tendency towards nominations of closed and vertical candidacies as a result of multilevel tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the development of representative democracy in Croatia from its independence to today. During the 1990s, Croatia changed its electoral system several times and had a bicameral parliament. With the constitutional changes implemented in 2001, the legislative power was organized on a unicameral principle. At the same time, the previous semi-presidential system was replaced by a parliamentary one. These changes represent only the basic framework within which representative democracy in Croatia developed over time. An important milestone in this development was the introduction of preferential voting at the national elections in 2015, which allowed the voters to vote for a particular list and a specific candidate on that list. According to some, this improved the problematic state of inner-party democracy, although, for others, the reform was not far-reaching enough. Given that representative democracy does not function in a vacuum, the article also considers the impact of direct democracy on the functioning of representative democracy in Croatia. Referring to the Croatian experience, it argues that this complementary form of democracy had a positive impact on the quality of representative democracy in the country. Nevertheless, in the face of representative democracy in Croatia, many open questions still need to be addressed. The most important one is how to increase the turnout in the elections, which is still comparatively low and arguably related to the low trust in politics.

This study explores how natural language processing (NLP) can supplement content analyses of political documents, particularly the manifestos of political parties. NLP is particularly useful for tasks such as: estimating the similarity between documents, identifying the topics discussed in documents (topic modeling), and sentiment analysis. This study applies each of these techniques to the study of political party manifestos. Document similarity may be used to gain some insight into the way parties change over time and which political parties are successful at bringing attention to their policy agenda. Categorizing text into topics may help objectively categorize and visualize the ideas political parties are discussing. Finally, sentiment analysis has the potential to show each political party's attitude towards a policy area/topic. This study specifically applies these techniques to the manifestos produced by the political parties of New Zealand, from 1987 to 2017 (a period of significant party system change in New Zealand). It finds that NLP techniques provide valuable insights, although there is a need for significant fine-tuning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electoral reforms offer an opportunity to incumbents to change the rules strategically, for their own benefits. From this aspect, the low number of studies addressing the effect of incumbents' potential strategic manipulations of the electoral rules is striking. Most research analyses single reform cases, offering an overview of the context, the negotiations, and the outcome of the reform process. Comparative research on strategic electoral manipulation, however, is scarce, and almost non-existent on non-transitional settings or established democracies. To fill this gap, the present study examines whether European electoral reforms have served the short-term interest of the incumbent parties, analysing data in 30 European countries of all relevant electoral reforms carried out between 1960 and 2011. Interestingly, the results do not support the assumption that incumbent parties generally benefit from carrying out a reform. Moreover, it finds no substantial differences in this regard between major and minor reforms, and neither the age of democracies nor the timing of the reform has a significant effect on reformers' gains. The paper discusses possible explanations for the negative effect found, and it concludes that, apart from promoting self-interest and the unpredictability of the reforms' effects, the most probable causes are the reformers' alternative goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electoral rules are assumed to influence turnout. However, assessing this empirically is challenging because they rarely change and, when they do, counterfactuals are hard to come by. In 2012, Chile moved from voluntary and permanent registration and mandatory voting to automatic registration and voluntary voting. We study how electoral rules influence turnout by analyzing variations in turnout for presidential elections before and after this reform, with an original approach and using novel data. We estimate changes attributable to voluntary voting among the registered population as the increase in abstention rates among them and changes attributable to both automatic registration and voluntary voting among the non-registered population as the increase in turnout among them. We estimate counterfactual abstention and registration rates based on past behavior and use bounds to account for uncertainty. Our estimates suggest that while automatic registration and voluntary voting brought 7.1% of eligible population who were unregistered to the polls, voluntary voting pulled away 12% who were previously registered. The explicit purposes of this reform were to increase turnout and reduce the age bias in voting. We estimate a reduction in turnout of almost 5% of eligible population and a 39% reduction in the age bias of voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Proportional electoral rules are associated with more substantial women's representation than majoritarian ones. To provide causal evidence that electoral rules affect women's representation and the qualification of politicians, we collect panel data on the universe of Italian politicians from all levels of government over the period 1987–2013 and analyse an Italian reform which, in 2005, changed the electoral rule for national elections from (mostly) majoritarian to proportional, but did not affect subnational level elections. We find that this reform increased the number of women elected by 5%, while not decreasing the overall qualification levels of politicians, measured by the level of education and political experience. We provide evidence that the highest qualification women are not elected and that the overall qualification of elected politicians could have increased (rather than remain constant) if the best women candidates had been elected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on forms of particularism explores the impact of institutional variables on what is denoted, alternatively, as constituency service, pork-barrel politics, or corruption. Attention has mostly been given to electoral systems, but other institutional provisions and political factors, such as party strength, are also relevant. The present contribution investigates the likely effects of electoral reforms on corruption control and seeks confirmation of the hypothesis that single member plurality (even within mixed member) systems are conducive to a type of particularism that might help fight corruption, taking Italy as a case. We test the impact of two electoral reforms and three electoral systems enacted in Italy between 1996 and 2016, whose primary aim was bolstering enfeebled party leaderships and facilitating the formation of durable governments, and we compare the effort at corruption control of the Italian governments born under these different electoral systems with those of other European democracies.

This study explores how natural language processing (NLP) can supplement content analyses of political documents, particularly the manifestos of political parties. NLP is particularly useful for tasks such as: estimating the similarity between documents, identifying the topics discussed in documents (topic modeling), and sentiment analysis. This study applies each of these techniques to the study of political party manifestos. Document similarity may be used to gain some insight into the way parties change over time and which political parties are successful at bringing attention to their policy agenda. Categorizing text into topics may help objectively categorize and visualize the ideas political parties are discussing. Finally, sentiment analysis has the potential to show each political party’s attitude towards a policy area/topic. This study specifically applies these techniques to the manifestos produced by the political parties of New Zealand, from 1987 to 2017 (a period of significant party system change in New Zealand). It finds that NLP techniques provide valuable insights, although there is a need for significant fine-tuning.

Purpose: This paper aims to propose Block-chain based Online Voting System over traditional voting systems for fair and transparent elections. Unlike traditional voting systems, under the proposed one there is no central tallying authority. Voting is done on a proof-based mechanism and each vote is stored as a permanent, unalterable block in the block-chain encrypted by cryptographic hash. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed system VaultVote uses Ethereum blockchain as a network, a smart contract in solidity as backend and HTML and JavaScript as frontend. As the eth-voting is implemented on Ethereum blockchain so the information is immutable, no one can change any data including casted votes. It works on a decentralized server, as a result no single person or organization can own it. Ganache has been used across the entire development cycle; enabling to develop, deploy, and test dApps in a safe and deterministic environment. Findings: In Our study we had deployed a comprehensive system, VaultVote which is a block-chain based voting system using Ethereum network. The proposed system is cost efficient with transparent handling, offering voter's privacy and auditability. Our proposed system VaultVote is tested on Ganache local network with five participants as contesting candidates and 100 voters for casting the votes. The system is comprehensive one and satisfies all the requirements of a secret, trustworthy and completely online voting system. Originality: There are several solutions for voting involving differing degree of benefits and drawbacks. Institutions conducting elections are always in search of a solution which may resolve the significant issues like lack of transparency and auditability. Block-chain technology may surely emerge as the most sought after solution to such teething problems which are faced by election commissions/agencies across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Argentine provincial elections in 2019 consolidated the control governors had over their own territories. Despite a profound economic crisis, provincial politics reinforced patterns of continuity rather than change. This was possible thanks to a series of institutional reforms enacted since the 1980s designed to protect governors and their parties, and whose lock-in effects are still in force. In some districts, power-concentrating reforms such as removing gubernatorial term limits and electoral laws with majoritarian effects solidified governors' powers. In other provinces, power-sharing reforms that established term limits and enacted proportional representation electoral systems provide fertile ground for the emergence of new political parties. In both districts, the strategic use of the prerogative of choosing the date of provincial elections helped create provincial safe-havens. This article delves into the foundations of provincial incumbency advantage and sheds light on the institutional mechanisms that set it in motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La reforma electoral de 2014 le otorgó al Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) la rectoría en la organización de los comicios locales en México, lo cual suscitó dudas respecto a su relación con los organismos públicos locales electorales (OPLES). Por ello, el presente trabajo tiene como objetivo caracterizar la coordinación entre el INE y el Instituto Estatal Electoral de Hidalgo (IEEH) durante la organización de las elecciones de la entidad en 2015-2016. Al sistematizar las experiencias de 39 servidores electorales mediante grupos de enfoque, se percibieron deficiencias importantes en la profesionalización de los funcionarios locales. Por lo anterior, el INE tuvo que aportar la experiencia de su personal y hacer uso de su autoridad para garantizar el apego a la normatividad durante el proceso. /

This article examines the reasons for the failure of electoral reform in Nigeria. It argues that two key issues explain that failure, namely a wrong conception of the reform programme and the overbearing self-interest of the reformers. To make electoral reforms more effective, the article suggests a shift of emphasis from institutional to state reform. This will, argues the author, involve a change in the focus, target and drivers of reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young voters make up the largest portion of the electorate but vote at the lowest rates of any age group. While scholars have studied how culture affects youth political participation, few studies have analyzed how institutional barriers affect youth voting—even though these laws have been found to affect turnout of other disadvantaged groups. Considering younger citizens are more likely to be non-habitual voters with less political knowledge, efficacy, and resources, it is possible that these laws have magnified effects for youths. This could explain why new voters, facing new restrictions to voting, are participating at lower percentages than youths of earlier cohorts. Using the 2004–2016 Current Population Survey (N = 360,000) and the Cost of Voting Index to test the effects of restrictive electoral environments on youth turnout, we find that restrictive environments disproportionately hurt young voters by decreasing the probability they turn out by 16 percentage points, compared with older voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American elections underwent a series of reforms that weakened partisan control over elections. The variation in the electoral rules during this period offers scholars a unique opportunity to examine how electoral institutions and reforms structure election outcomes. In this article, I examine how electoral rules translated voter preferences into outcomes for the selection of two prominent positions, governors and U.S. senators. These two elected positions offer an interesting comparison because while they are chosen to represent the same geographic constituency, there is notable variation in the rules used to elect each office. Based on analysis of more than 350 senate-gubernatorial election pairs, I find that varying levels of partisan control over elections throughout time conditioned the likelihood that the partisan outcome of these elections mirrors one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Mexico's democracy since 1996 to understand the motivations of party leaders in creating and manipulating laws that shape competition and collusion. It finds that party leaders negotiated institutional outcomes that allowed them to cheat in the short-term and leave consequences of a non-cooperative strategy to future leaders. However, at each stage of the political game, leaders continue to follow the same strategy of non-compliance, which can ultimately lead to electoral disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on forms of particularism explores the impact of institutional variables on what is denoted, alternatively, as constituency service, pork-barrel politics, or corruption. Attention has mostly been given to electoral systems, but other institutional provisions and political factors, such as party strength, are also relevant. The present contribution investigates the likely effects of electoral reforms on corruption control and seeks confirmation of the hypothesis that single member plurality (even within mixed member) systems are conducive to a type of particularism that might help fight corruption, taking Italy as a case. We test the impact of two electoral reforms and three electoral systems enacted in Italy between 1996 and 2016, whose primary aim was bolstering enfeebled party leaderships and facilitating the formation of durable governments, and we compare the effort at corruption control of the Italian governments born under these different electoral systems with those of other European democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the study of the electoral system of the Belgian House of Representatives and its electoral reforms. Belgium was the first European country to adopt an electoral system of proportional representation and, since then, its main elements have exhibited extraordinary stability. However, with the turn of the century, the coalition government headed by the liberal Guy Verhofstadt put the debate on institutional reforms at the center of the political agenda. This led to an electoral reform that involved several novelties: the «provincialization» of the electoral map, the establishment of a 5 percent threshold and the reduction of the list vote weight by half. In 2012, there was the last electoral reform, which consisted of the division of the controversial constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. This last episode shows the complexity of the Belgian federal model, consociational, bipolar and with centrifugal dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Estudios Políticos is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The history of Italy is plenty of reforms of the electoral system. Many are those implemented since the country's unification: from the majority system to the limited vote, from proportional representation to the majority premium in the liberal era; and, again, in the Republican era, the return to proportional representation and then the use of mixed systems, combining PR with plurality or majority premium. And many other are the reforms which, discussed and sometimes even approved, as in the case of the italicum, have remained dead letter or never saw the light. What explains this Italic obsession with the electoral systems? Why have their reforms been on the parties' and governments' political agenda for so long? The goal of this article is to answer these questions. In the end, electoral reforms have played as instruments of coordination and adaptation in the political strategies pursued by the parties in specific time periods and also as substitute instruments of institutional engineering in the absence of broader agreements on major constitutional reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains the causes and effects of institutional change in political contexts where there is no guarantee of strict compliance with the rules. Analyzing the political reform of 2005 that made it possible for prefects or governors to be elected for the first time in Bolivia by popular vote, evidence was found that when there is a crisis of legitimacy, declining coalitions push for inclussive changes that reduce future electoral losses and cannot be reversed by the rising coalitions that come to power. These coalitions, nonetheless, attempt to limit the degree of inclusion of rules through lower-level policy changes that reduce political competition. El presente artículo explica las causas y efectos del cambio institucional en contextos políticos en los que no hay garantía sobre el cumplimiento estricto de las reglas. Analizando la reforma política de 2005 que posibilitó (por primera vez) que en Bolivia los prefectos o gobernadores puedan ser elegidos por voto popular, se halla evidencia que indica que cuando hay crisis de legitimidad, las coaliciones declinantes impulsan cambios inclu-yentes que reducen sus futuras pérdidas electorales y no pueden ser revertidos por las coaliciones ascendentes que llegan al poder. No obstante, éstas intentan limitar el grado de inclusión de las reglas a través de cambios normativos de menor nivel que disminuyen la competencia política.

Copyright of Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Estudios Políticos is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since the return of Nigeria to civil democracy in 1999, elections and their administration by the electoral body, like they were in the previous defunct republics, have been rather problematic to the effect that many observers have even doubted whether electoral democracy could fit in into the country's social milieu. However, in recent times, following the controversial and widely condemned elections of 2003 and 2007, a series of electoral reforms have been initiated to improve the quality of elections in the country. This article, adopting descriptive and historical methodology, examines how the series of reforms initiated by the Electoral Management Body (EMB), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the 2015 general elections impinged on the overall outcome of the exercises. The article notes that there were tremendous improvements in the administration of the 2015 General elections by INEC. It argues that the improved electoral administration of the 2015 General elections may be connected with the reforms initiated by the elections body prior to the 2015 elections. It concludes that, even though, INEC may have fared better in comparison with how it handled similar endeavors in the past, yet more works still need to be done in order to have even better outcomes in the 2019 round of elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An elected Senate and the party-list system are two institutional innovations of the 1997 Thai Constitution designed to support political reforms. This paper sheds light on one unintended effect of these reforms: they have allowed scores of political families to maintain or even tighten their grip on Parliament. Combining aggregate data and case studies, this paper shows that a sizable number of elected senators and party-list parliamentary members are related, by birth or marriage, to other parliament members elected in the post-1932 period. The well-intended reforms have concentrated parliamentary power in the hands of these families, many of which represent the excesses of Thailand's full-blown electoral democracy. The survival and resilience of these families diminish reform opportunities by further entrenching corruption, clientelism, violence, and electoral fraud, as well as by deepening dynastic rule that militates against political pluralism and inclusiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of electoral reforms on entry barriers in political markets. The discussion starts by delineating the theoretical boundaries of various political markets, such as those for participation, parties and government. By taking a cue from industrial organisation theory, the article offers an analysis of entry barriers, both hard and soft, along with their operationalisation for empirical research. Based on this theoretical framework, a single hypothesis is investigated. It posits that the modification of the entry barriers in the market for parties leads to changes in the concentration of the popular vote for party lists. An observable implication of this relationship would be if an electoral reform that raises entry barriers led to subsequent increases in the Herfindahl index (a measure of market concentration), and vice versa. This proposition is empirically tested by a comparative analysis of a new database covering Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The analysis offers support for the following proposition: in most cases the changes in the entry barriers led to a corresponding change of concentration in the market for parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Have electoral reforms to reduce the incumbency advantage worked as intended? I articulate a theory wherein reforms may contribute to a weakening incumbency advantage, or may counterintuitively weaken challengers by changing party incentives. Combining causal inference techniques on a set of 70,000 U.S. state legislative elections, I estimate changes to the annual incumbency effect after the implementation of two popular reforms, term limits and staffing cuts. This test arbitrates between two competing expectations of how reforms should change the incumbency effect. My findings show that the reforms did not work as intended. The incumbency effect grew faster in term-limited states than in states without term limits, while staff cuts failed to slow the growth of the incumbency effect. I conclude that party incentives ought to be considered when citizens engage in future policy reforms regarding the incumbency advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doubts about electoral integrity, whether justified or groundless, can undermine faith in the legitimacy of the democratic process. We investigate the reasons for such doubts in the case of the 2016 Federal elections in Australia. A three-wave panel survey of the electorate established that one third of Australians believed (falsely) that the outcome was fraudulent – a remarkable level of scepticism in an established democracy with a long history of clean and well-run contests. One reason was that many Australians misunderstood their electoral system. Media stories of electoral maladministration also led Australians – especially electoral losers -- to be suspicious and to embrace reforms. The results suggest that officials seeking to restore public confidence should strengthen civic education and improve electoral administration, particularly where the rules of the game are complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Politicae is the property of Studia Politicae and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)