Description and Objectives
If you think that electoral systems is a dry academic subject with little relevance to real politics, think again! In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidential election. In the 1996 House elections, the Democratic Party received more votes than the Republican Party but won fewer seats in the House. How is that possible?
The media and pundits blame inaccurate voter rolls, confusing ballot designs, obsolete and unreliable voting equipment (yes, those
punch card and lever machines were designed and made back in the 1920s!), improvised procedures for vote counting, to name just a
few most egregious shortcomings of elections in America. But this is only part of the story and, I argue, the less important part.
The point is that even the most fair and transparent election process and the most reliable and user-friendly voting equipment cannot guarantee that a candidate with more popular votes will be elected the president or that a party that receives nationwide more votes will also receive more seats in the House or the Senate. Thus, the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2002 and similar legislation at the state level cannot prevent election results that do not faithfully reflect the will of the people and make some voters question the legitimacy of not only some elected officials but the political system as a whole.
The point is that even the most fair and transparent election process and the most reliable and user-friendly voting equipment cannot guarantee that a candidate with more popular votes will win the presidency or that a party with most votes nationwide will win more House seats than the runner-up. Thus, the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2002 and similar legislation at the state level cannot prevent election results that do not faithfully reflect the will of the American people and make some voters question the legitimacy not only of some elected officials but of the political process as a whole.
The fact is that the outcome of an election often depends not only on the fairness of the voting process or the accuracy of vote counting but also on a set of rules known as electoral system which regulate how fairly cast and accurately counted votes are aggregated and “converted” into legislative or executive seats. It is these rules of election that will be the object of our study in this seminar.
The seminar is divided into two parts. In part I, after a short introduction, we will examine “mechanics” of various electoral systems. In part II, we will focus on political consequences of electoral systems and various ways and means of reforming them. As the name itself suggests, we will approach the subject comparatively by examining various electoral systems in use in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, the Netherlands, and Scotland.
No math skills are required beyond calculation of percentages.
Required Texts
