Electoral rules, political systems, and institutional quality (original) (raw)

The Character of Democracy: How Institutions Shape Politics

2014

The Character of Democracy: How Institutions Shape Politics offers a uniquely comprehensive overview of the major democratic institutions found around the world, including electoral systems, party systems, presidential and parliamentary governments, legislatures, federalism, and constitutional courts. The authors first present five broad categories of democratic ideals that reflect the consent of the governed--meaningful elections, fair representation, accountability, majority rule and minority rights, and the functionality of the state--and then explain how well different institutional designs live up to these democratic ideals. For each institution, they provide an in-depth treatment of its related literature, describe variations in how it is structured around the world, and explain why these variations are important to how democratic political systems work. Case studies of the political structures found in Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United S...

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Electoral Institutions on Campaigns

A long tradition of studies in political science has unveiled the effects of electoral institutions on party systems and parliamentary representation, while their effects on campaigning and electioneering remain overlooked. In this article, we shed some light on what the effects of electoral institutions are on campaign activity, using data from the Comparative Candidates Survey project. While the study of electoral campaigns has exponentially grown in recent times, research in this tradition lacks a strong comparative element able to explore the role of electoral institutions on individual-level campaigns during first-order parliamentary elections.

Electoral rules, corruption, inequality and evaluations of democracy

European Journal of Political Research

Features of electoral systems have been found to have positive effects on evaluations of democracy. We propose that there are larger social forces that must be accounted for in such analyses. Using European Social Survey measures of democratic expectations and the 'satisfaction with democracy,' item, we test for effects of electoral rules on perceptions of democracy. We find that multipartyism / proportionality and preferential ballot structure appear to correspond with positive evaluations of elections, parties, and with greater satisfaction with how democracy is functioning. However, these relationships dissipate when corruption and income inequality are accounted for. This suggests substantial limits to the capacity of electoral reforms to enhance democratic legitimacy. It also suggests that studies of mass perceptions of democratic performance may overestimate effects of electoral rules if country-level corruption and income inequality are not accounted for.

Political Institutions and Policy Choices: Evidence from the United States

A rich array of institutional diversity makes the United States an excellent place to study the relationship between political institutions and public policy outcomes. This essay has three main aims. First, it reviews existing empirical evidence on the relationship between institutional rules, political representation and policy outcomes. It aims to place the literature into a broader context of theoretical and empirical work in the field of political economy. Second, it develops a parallel empirical analysis that updates studies in the literature and reexamines some of the claims made, in a setting unified both in terms of policy outcomes and the period under study. Third, the paper develops some new directions for research, presenting a small number of novel exploratory results.

Political Institutions and Policy Choices: Empirical Evidence from the United States

2001

The rich array of institutional diversity makes the United States an excellent testing ground for studying the relationship between political institutions and public policy outcomes. This essay has three main aims. First, it reviews existing empirical evidence on the relationship between institutional rules, political representation and policy outcomes. It aims to place the literature into a broader context of theoretical and empirical work in the field of political economy. Second, we develop a parallel empirical analysis which updates some studies in the literature as well re-examing some of the claims in a unified setting (both in terms of policy outcomes and the time period in question). Third, the paper develops some new directions for research, presenting a small number of novel exploratory results.

ELECTORAL LAWS AS POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES: Explaining the Origins and Change of Electoral Institutions

In this review article, I identify the key questions raised by the treatment of electoral systems not as causal influences on party systems but as effects or byproducts of party systems. Framing these questions in the context of the classic consequences-oriented study of electoral institutions, I first review the classic approach, which treats electoral systems as causes, and explore the potential implications when electoral systems are viewed instead as outcomes of party systems. I then survey a variety of principal explanations of the origins and change of electoral laws, followed by a focus on several of the more explicitly defined models of this process. I conclude by discussing—and contesting—the notion that except for exceptional founding episodes of institutional choice, electoral systems eventually stabilize as equilibrium institutions.

Electoral Systems and Economic Policy

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2008

This article discusses recent empirical and theoretical research on the electoral rule, which is one feature of modern democracies. It determines that the electoral rule systematically shapes economic policy. An outline of some key objectives of electoral rules is presented in the first section; it further notes the stability and systematic selection that characterize real-world constitutions. It then introduces the main concepts that categorize different electoral rules, and explains how these elements help shape the accountability of government and the size of political rents and corruption. Finally, the article deals with representation in government and a variety of fiscal policy choices.