Electoral Systems and the Balance of Consumer-Producer Power
Electoral Systems and the Balance of Consumer-Producer Power

Author: Eric C. C. Chang

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-11-22

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1139492187

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book investigates the effects of electoral systems on the relative legislative and, hence, regulatory influence of competing interests in society. Building on Ronald Rogowski and Mark Andreas Kayser's extension of the classic Stigler–Peltzman model of regulation, the authors demonstrate that majoritarian electoral arrangements should empower consumers relative to producers. Employing real price levels as a proxy for consumer power, the book rigorously establishes this proposition over time, within the OECD, and across a large sample of developing countries. Majoritarian electoral arrangements depress real prices by approximately ten percent, all else equal. The authors carefully construct and test their argument and broaden it to consider the overall welfare effects of electoral system design and the incentives of actors in the choice of electoral institutions.

Consumer Democracy
Consumer Democracy

Author: Margaret Scammell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-02-10

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0521836689

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book argues that marketing is inherent in competitive democracy, explaining how we can make the consumer nature of competitive democracy better and more democratic. Margaret Scammell argues that consumer democracy should not be assumed to be inherently antithetical to "proper" political discourse and debate about the common good. Instead, Scammell argues that we should seek to understand it - to create marketing-literate criticism that can distinguish between democratically good and bad campaigns, and between shallow, cynical packaging and campaigns that at least aspire to be responsive, engender citizen participation, and enable accountability. Further, we can take important lessons from commercial marketing: enjoyment matters; what citizens think and feel matters; and, just as in commercial markets, structure is key - the type of political marketing will be affected by the conditions of competition.

Political Institutions and Practical Wisdom
Political Institutions and Practical Wisdom

Author: Maxwell A. Cameron

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-06-19

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0190694351

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Societies create rules that govern our practices. Such rules can only be effective, however, if the intermediaries between rules and practices--institutions--harness the skill, knowledge, and motivation of practitioners. Yet, everywhere institutions seem to be failing. Over-reliance on rules and incentives has not only corrupted the intrinsic motivations that arise from practice, it has also promoted the spread of competitive utility maximizing and thereby discouraged the kind of moral agency necessary for institutions to work well. In Political Institutions and Practical Wisdom, Maxwell Cameron takes this basic insight as his starting point to argue that the rapid spread of the tenets of a neoliberal political-economic philosophy in our era has contributed to the erosion of institutional capacity. The book contributes to an emerging field of social science research grounded in the Aristotelian idea of phronesis, or practical wisdom. Drawing on a wide range of examples, Cameron not only shows how good institutions depend on wise practitioners, he argues that contemporary democratic institutions are being assaulted by excessive partisanship and the hollowing-out of democratic deliberation, by the corrupting effects of money in politics, and by the use of neoliberal techniques of governance that are designed to foster competition rather than the pursuit of common goods. At once a valuable guide to designing effective institutions and a trenchant critique of contemporary institutional failure, Political Institutions and Practical Wisdom promises to reshape our understanding of one of the most basic building blocks of contemporary social and political life.

The Price of a Vote in the Middle East
The Price of a Vote in the Middle East

Author: Daniel Corstange

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-09

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1107106672

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Some ethnic communities receive generous material rewards for their political support, whilst others only receive very modest payoffs.

Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism
Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism

Author: Susan C. Stokes

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-09-16

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1107435757

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism addresses major questions in distributive politics. Why is it acceptable for parties to try to win elections by promising to make certain groups of people better off, but unacceptable - and illegal - to pay people for their votes? Why do parties often lavish benefits on loyal voters, whose support they can count on anyway, rather than on responsive swing voters? Why is vote buying and machine politics common in today's developing democracies but a thing of the past in most of today's advanced democracies? This book develops a theory of broker-mediated distribution to answer these questions, testing the theory with research from four developing democracies, and reviews a rich secondary literature on countries in all world regions. The authors deploy normative theory to evaluate whether clientelism, pork-barrel politics, and other non-programmatic distributive strategies can be justified on the grounds that they promote efficiency, redistribution, or voter participation.

Coalitions of the Well-being
Coalitions of the Well-being

Author: Joel Sawat Selway

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-06-26

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 131630096X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Why do some developing countries have more efficient health systems and better health outcomes? Contrary to existing theory that posits the superiority of proportional representation (PR) rules on public-goods provision, this book argues that electoral rules function differently given the underlying ethnic structure. In countries with low ethnic salience, PR has the same positive effect as in past theories. In countries with high ethnic salience, the geographic distribution of ethnic groups further matters: where they are intermixed, PR rules are worse for health outcomes; where they are isolated, neither rule is superior. The theory is supported through a combination of careful analysis of electoral reform in individual country cases with numerous well-designed cross-country comparisons. The case studies include Thailand, Mauritius, Malaysia, Botswana, Burma and Indonesia. The theory has broad implications for electoral rule design and suggests a middle ground in the debate between the Consociational and Centripetal schools of thought.

Multi-Ethnic Coalitions in Africa
Multi-Ethnic Coalitions in Africa

Author: Leonardo R. Arriola

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1107021111

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Africa's long-ruling incumbents stay in power because opposition politicians struggle to secure the finances required to build electoral coalitions.

Comparing Democracies
Comparing Democracies

Author: Lawrence LeDuc

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2014-04-07

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 1473905087

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book provides you with a theoretical and comparative understanding of the major topics related to elections and voting behaviour. It explores important work taking place on new areas, whilst at the same time covering the key themes that you’ll encounter throughout your studies. Edited by three leading figures in the field, the new edition brings together an impressive range of contributors and draws on a range of cases and examples from across the world. It now includes: New chapters on authoritarian elections and regime change, and electoral integrity A chapter dedicated to voting behaviour Increased emphasis on issues relating to the economy. Comparing Democracies, Fourth Edition will remain a must-read for students and lecturers of elections and voting behaviour, comparative politics, parties, and democracy.

The Scarce State
The Scarce State

Author: Noah L. Nathan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-01-31

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 100926110X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

States are often minimally present in the rural periphery. Yet a limited presence does not mean a limited impact. Isolated state actions in regions where the state is otherwise scarce can have outsize, long-lasting effects on society. The Scarce State reframes our understanding of the political economy of hinterlands through a multi-method study of Northern Ghana alongside shadow cases from other world regions. Drawing on a historical natural experiment, the book shows how the contemporary economic and political elite emerged in Ghana's hinterland, linking interventions by an ostensibly weak state to new socio-economic inequality and grassroots efforts to reimagine traditional institutions. The book demonstrates how these state-generated societal changes reshaped access to political power, producing dynastic politics, clientelism, and violence. The Scarce State challenges common claims about state-building and state weakness, provides new evidence on the historical origins of inequality, and reconsiders the mechanisms linking historical institutions to contemporary politics.

Fair Enough?
Fair Enough?

Author: Charlotte Cavaillé

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-08-31

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1009366068

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Analyzes why rising inequality does not translate into mass support for redistributive social policies.