Elections and Voters

by van der Eijk, Cees; Franklin, Mark

• ISBN13: 9781403941275
• ISBN10: 1403941270
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-15
• Publisher: Red Globe Pr

Summary

This major new text by two leading authorities in the field provides a state-of-the-art assessment of what we know about voting behavior and the character, consequences and significance of elections in democratic states. Uniquely broad-ranging in scope, it shows how patterns of electoral behaviour have evolved over time and also assesses the varying extents to which voters in different countries are able to affect the direction of government policies in practice.

Author Biography

Cees Van Der Ejik is Professor of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Mark N. Franklin is Reitemeyer Professor of International Politics, Trinity College.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes	p. viii
Preface and Acknowledgements	p. xi
Why Elections?	p. 1
Political parties	p. 1
Functions of elections	p. 4
The turnout paradox	p. 6
Limitations of elections	p. 7
Recurring themes	p. 10
Voters, electorates, parties and party systems	p. 12
The axis of political competition and the median voter	p. 13
Representation	p. 14
Electoral change	p. 15
Topics	p. 18
Countries	p. 21
Institutional arrangements	p. 21
Voters and the puzzle of the ignorant electorate	p. 24
Plan of the book	p. 25
Studying Elections, Parties and Voters	p. 27
The political context: party systems	p. 27
The Institutional context	p. 29
Problems of parliamentary government	p. 34
Problems of presidential systems	p. 38
Government formation	p. 39
How elections condition coalition bargaining	p. 41
Institutional influences on the structure of political life	p. 44
Habits and routines	p. 46
Socialization, immunization and party identification	p. 49
Preferences and choice	p. 53
Institutional change	p. 56
Electoral Institutions	p. 58
Free and fair elections	p. 58
votes and outcomes	p. 59
Electoral rules	p. 63
Trade-offs designing an electoral system	p. 69
Electoral reform	p. 71
Rules of the game for government formation	p. 74
The role of the voters	p. 78
The majoritarian and proportional visions	p. 81
Dispersed versus concentrated power	p. 83
Presidents and monarchs in parliamentary systems	p. 84
Voters and Parties	p. 87
Party immunization and generational differences	p. 89
Group loyalties	p. 92
The decline of cleavage politics	p. 95
The rise of issue voting	p. 98
Long-term changes in electoral competition	p. 101
Strategic considerations	p. 103
The role of the Prime Minister in parliamentary regimes	p. 108
Tactical voting	p. 109
Candidate evaluations	p. 113
Implications	p. 114
Outcomes of Elections	p. 118
Consequences of electoral shifts	p. 119
Incumbency and terms limits	p. 121
Accountability	p. 123
Fairness in election outcomes	p. 125
Trade-offs between proportional and majoritarian systems	p. 127
Bias in election outcomes	p. 129
Turnout and bias	p. 130
Protest voting	p. 131
The structuring effects of strategic considerations	p. 136
Split-ticket voting, 'balance' and mid-term loss	p. 138
Consequences of party positions	p. 140
Leadership	p. 143
Learning from elections	p. 144
The Role of Public Opinion	p. 146
Ways of studying public pinion	p. 146
Why do people hold the opinions that they do?	p. 147
The puzzle of the ignorant electorate	p. 154
From issues to issue spaces	p. 157
The issue space and proximity (smallest distance) theory	p. 161
Party competence and issue ownership	p. 166
The directional theory of party support	p. 168
The responsiveness of public opinion	p. 170
The swing of the pendulum	p. 174
A sophisticated electorate?	p. 177
Voter Orientations	p. 179
The decline of partnership	p. 179
Generational replacement and electoral change	p. 182
Political change and political realignments	p. 183
The hands of the past	p. 187
The dynamics of generational replacement	p. 189
Events and economic news	p. 194
Studying party preferences	p. 194
What accounts for preferences?	p. 199
Mandates versus accountability (prospective versus retrospective voting)	p. 207
Effects on preferences in newly established and consolidating democracies	p. 208
Assessing Electoral Democracy	p. 213
Representing citizens'; preferences	p. 213
Do elections matter?	p. 220
What we have learned	p. 222
The quality of electoral processes	p. 223
Evaluating the institutional arrangements for electoral democracy	p. 228
What role for electoral democracy?	p. 232
Possibilities for reform	p. 234
A work in progress	p. 239
Appendix: Use of Statistical Analysis	p. 240
Notes	p. 247
Guide to Further Reading	p. 252
Bibliography	p. 265
Author Index	p. 292
Subject Index	p. 298
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