Elections and referenda / suffrage Books

Book SynopsisIn The Commander-in-Chief Test, Jeffrey A. Friedman offers a fresh explanation for why Americans are often frustrated by the cost and scope of US foreign policyand how we can fix that for the future.Americans frequently criticize US foreign policy for being overly costly and excessively militaristic. With its rising defense budgets and open-ended forever wars, US foreign policy often appears disconnected from public opinion, reflecting the views of elites and special interests rather than the attitudes of ordinary citizens.The Commander-in-Chief Test argues that this conventional wisdom underestimates the role public opinion plays in shaping foreign policy. Voters may prefer to elect leaders who share their policy views, but they prioritize selecting presidents who seem to have the right personal attributes to be an effective commander in chief. Leaders then use hawkish foreign policies as tools for showing that they are tough enough

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Book SynopsisThe true and complete story behind the Russiagate hoax, revealed for the first time. How wasa Clinton campaign dirty trick turned into an all-out effort by factions within the federal government to drive out a sitting president? The astonishing story is told from the perspective of a motley crew of Twitter users who, against all odds, exposed the intricate layers of a political scandal that shook the nation.Swiftboating America delves into how these citizen journalists identified the Steele dossiers primary source, Igor Danchenko, and how they revealed that Danchenko did not have access to the information in the dossier.It also explores how the FBI concealed Danchenko from the public eye for fouryears.The book reveals shocking new details about how the FBIs Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump campaign actually began and how Robert Muellers special counsel office attempted to cover up the FBIs misdeeds. Among many other revelations, the book pres

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Book SynopsisAnatomy of a Liberal Victory: Making Sense of the Vote in the 2000 Canadian Election provides a compressive account of the factors that led Canadians to vote the way they did in the Fall 2000 Canadian election, which resulted in a third consecutive Liberal majority government. The book explains the overall impact that these factors had on how well or poorly each of the parties did in the election. The authors address in particular the following questions: Why was turnout so low? What were Canadians' perceptions of the economy and how much impact did these perceptions have on vote choice? What were voters' opinions on the major issues of the day and did these opinions affect their decision on election day? What did voters think of the leaders and how much weight did these evaluations have on their choice? The study is based on mass surveys, involving more than 3,000 respondents, conducted both during the campaign and after the election. It also draws on a detailed content analysis of the parties' messages and nightly news broadcasts throughout the campaign and its aftermath. Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies; complimentary copies remain readily available to adopters and to academics very likely to adopt this title in the coming academic year. When adoption possibilities are less strong and/or further in the future, academics are requested to purchase the title at an academic discount, with the provison that University of Toronto Press will happily refund the purchase price (with or without a receipt) if the book is indeed adopted.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction * The Parties and their Messages * The Media: Getting Out the Messages * Why Was Turnout So Low? * The Vote: Stability and Change * A Multi-Stage Model of Vote Choice * The Social Bases of Party Support * Values and Beliefs * Partisan Loyalties * The Economy * The Issues * Liberal Performance * The Leaders * Strategic Voting Conclusion Appendix A: Multinomial Estimations of Vote Choice Outside Quebec Appendix B: Multinomial Estimations of Vote Choice in Quebec Appendix C: The Estimated Impact of Variables on the Propensity to Vote for the Parties Outside Quebec Appendix D: The Estimated Impact of Variables on the Propensity to Vote for the Parties in Quebec Appendix E: Description of Variables References

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Book SynopsisFor many of us, the presidential election of 2000 was a wake-up call. The controversy following the vote count led to demands for election reform. But the new voting systems that were subsequently introduced to the market have serious security flaws, and many are confusing and difficult to use. Moreover, legislation has not kept up with the constantly evolving voting technology, leaving little to no legal recourse when votes are improperly counted. How did we come to acquire the complex technology we now depend on to count votes? Douglas W. Jones and Barbara Simons probe this question, along with public policy and regulatory issues raised by our voting technologies. "Broken Ballots" is a thorough and incisive analysis of the current voting climate and it approaches American elections from technological, legal, and historical perspectives. The authors examine the ways Americans vote today, gauging how inaccurate, unreliable, and insecure our voting systems are. An important book for election administrators, political scientists, and students of government and technology policy, "Broken Ballots" is also a vital tool for any voting American.

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Book SynopsisA look at how Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and American voters invoked ideas of gender and race in the fiercely contested 2016 US presidential election Gender and racial politics were at the center of the 2016 US presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The election was historic because Clinton was the first woman nominated by a major political party for thepresidency. Yet it was also historic in its generation of sustained reflection on the past. Clinton's campaign linked her with suffragist struggles--represented perhaps most poignantly by the parade of visitors to Susan B. Anthony's grave on Election Day--while Trump harnessed nostalgia through his promise to Make America Great Again. This collection of essays looks at the often vitriolic rhetoric that characterized the election: "nasty women" vs. "deplorables"; "bad hombres" and "Crooked Hillary"; analyzing the struggle and its result through the lenses of gender, race, and their intersections, and with particular attention to the roles of memory, performance, narrative, and social media. Contributors examine the ways that gender and racial hierarchies intersected and reinforced one another throughout the campaign season. Trump's association of Mexican immigrants with crime, and specifically with rape, for example, drew upon a long history of fearmongering that stereotypes Mexican men--and men of other immigrant and minority groups--as sexual aggressors against white women. At the same time, in response to both Trump'smisogynistic rhetoric and the iconic power of Clinton's candidacy, feminist consciousness grew steadily across the nation. Analyzing these phenomena, the volume's authors--both journalists and academics--engage with prominent debates in their diverse fields, while an epilogue by the editors considers recent ongoing developments like the #metoo movement. CHRISTINE A. KRAY is Associate Professor of Anthropology, TAMAR W. CARROLL is Associate Professor of History, and HINDA MANDELL is Associate Professor in the School of Communication, all at Rochester Institute of Technology.Trade ReviewMight take on the mantle of opening salvo in what is likely to be a fruitful and troubling subfield of presidential history: Trump Studies. * HISTORY *Christine A. Kray, Tamar W. Carroll, and Hinda Mandell have assembled a superb interdisciplinary group of authors to analyze a recent political history in which the politics of identity played a large, as yet barely analyzed role. A must-read for organizers, scholars, politicians, and students of politics who are trying to reverse the effects of Trumpism on our national political culture. -- -- Claire Potter, The New SchoolNasty Women and Bad Hombres does it right. In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of scholars and writers comes together to think through how Donald Trump, a reality-TV star with no political experience, could pull off an electoral upset against Hillary Clinton, an intelligent, highly qualified candidate with years of experience in public service. Among other things, contributors illuminate the functionings of widespread internalized antifeminism among women, hashtag feminism, and slut-shaming; recognize African American women as torchbearers; and consider the use of misogynist and feminist popular cultural artifacts then and now. Simultaneously broad-based and focused, Nasty Women and Bad Hombres does an excellent job of laying out how we got here and pondering what to do next. -- -- Micaela di Leonardo, Northwestern UniversityAccessible and timely, this collection demonstrates the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration, with strong contributions from historians to political scientists, philosophers to communications scholars, with the added perspective of contemporary feminist activists. The focus on the gendered and racialized rhetoric of the 2016 campaign, and how it mobilized voters, both women and men, makes the collection a valuable contribution to intersectional scholarship of the American presidency. --Aidan Smith, Tulane University -- Aidan Smith, Tulane UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Historical Imagination and Fault Lines of the Electorate - Christine A. Kray and Tamar W. Carroll and Hinda Mandell PART 1. AGGRESSIVE AND SUBORDINATE MASCULINITIES From (Castrating) Bitch to (Big) Nuts: Genital Politics in 2016 Election Campaign Paraphernalia - Jane Caputi Trump in the Land of Oz: Pathologizing Hillary Clinton and the Feminine Body - Roy Schwartzman and Jenni M. Simon The Border, Bad Hombres, and the Billionaire: Hyper-Masculinity and Anti-Mexican Stereotypes in Trump's 2016 Presidential Campaign - Joshua D. Martin The Myth of Immigrant Criminality: Early Twentieth-Century Sociological Theory and Trump's Campaign - O. Nicholas Robertson America, Meet Your New Dad: Tim Kaine and Subordinate Masculinity - Beth L. Boser and R. Brandon Anderson PART 2. FEMINIST PREDECESSORS Please Put Stickers on Shirley Chisholm's Grave: Assessing the Legacy of a Black Feminist Pioneer - Barbara Winslow Commemoration and Contestation: Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama - Michael J. Brown Dressing Up for a Campaign: Hillary Clinton, Suffragists, and the Politics of Fashion - Einav Rabinovitch-Fox 100 Years of Campaign Imagery: From Woman Suffrage Postcards to Hillary Clinton - Ana Stevenson The Impossibilities of Hillary Clinton as a Self-Made Woman - Joanna Weiss PART 3. BAKING COOKIES AND GRABBING PUSSIES: MISOGYNY AND SEXUAL POLITICS The Woman They Love to Hate: Hillary Clinton and the Evangelicals - Mark Ward Sr. "Locker Room Talk" as "Small Potatoes": Media, Women of the GOP, and the 2016 Presidential Election - Jiyoung Lee "Locker Room Talk" as "Small Potatoes": Media, Women of the GOP, and the 2016 Presidential Election - Carol M. Liebler "Locker Room Talk" as "Small Potatoes": Media, Women of the GOP, and the 2016 Presidential Election - Neal J. Powless "I'm Not Voting for Her": Internalized Misogyny, Feminism, and Gender Consciousness in the 2016 Election - Pamela Aronson Confronting "Bimbo Eruptions" and the Legacy of Bill Clinton's Scandal: Slut-Shaming and the 2016 Presidential Campaigns - Leora Tanenbaum How to Turn a Bernie Bro into a Russian Bot - Steve Almond PART 4. ELECTION DAY: REWRITING PAST AND FUTURE #WomenCanStopTrump: Intimate Publics in the Twitterverse - Gina Masullo Chen and Kelsey N. Whipple A Renaissance of Feminist Ritual: Susan B. Anthony's Gravesite on Election Day - Christine A. Kray Birthing Family Narrative and Baby on Election Day - Hinda Mandell Left Behind - Rachel Parsons This is Vienna: Parents of Transgender Children from Pride to Survival in the Aftermath of the 2016 Election - Sally Campbell Galman Triumph of the Constitution: American Muslims and Religious Liberty - Asma Uddin PART5. THE FUTURE IS FEMALE(?): CRITICAL REFLECTIONS AND FEMINIST FUTURES "When they go low, we go high": African American Women Torchbearers for Democracy and the 2016 Democratic National Convention - De Anna J. Reese "When they go low, we go high": African American Women Torchbearers for Democracy and the 2016 Democratic National Convention - Delia C. Gillis Amnesia and Politics in the Mount Hope Cemetery: Toward a Critical History of Race and Gender - Katie Terezakis Beware! Benevolent Patriarchy: Election 2016 and Why No One Can Save Us but Ourselves - Jamia Wilson Epilogue: Public Memory, White Supremacy, and Reproductive Justice in the Trump Era - Tamar W. Carroll Epilogue: Public Memory, White Supremacy, and Reproductive Justice in the Trump Era - Hinda Mandell Epilogue: Public Memory, White Supremacy, and Reproductive Justice in the Trump Era - Christine A. Kray Chronology

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Book SynopsisEmphasizes the influence of regional demographics over the cult of Berlusconi's personalityTrade Review"This book presents a novel argument in a succinct manner, offering a new perspective on a big issue: the rise to prominence of Silvio Berlusconi. It adds considerably to our understanding of the Berlusconi phenomenon." Martin Bull, University of Salford "Short but detailed...The book is written in part as a reaction to notions that political geography no longer matters, and that personality and national media are dominant in Italian politics and Western politics generally...The most crucial chapters...detail how Berlusconi put together center-right coalitions with differing allies in different parts of Italy. Summing Up: Recommended." Choice "This book is not just another of the many explanations of why and how Berlusconi keeps returning to power. It is, rather, an impressive and, in my view, a much needed correction to overly facile claims about the effects on elections of modern systems of communication, and particularly of television... highly recommended." - Perspectives on Politics, March 2009 "Political geographers Michael Shin and John Agnew offer historians of contemporary Italy fresh insights with their in-depth study entitled Berlusconi's Italy. They challenge the common explanations for Berlusconi's rise in Italian politics...In sum, this is a thought-provoking book with a highly convincing argument." The Journal of Contemporary History, July 2009 "Shin and Agnew illustrate [their] argument with a convincing narrative sustained by sophisticated spatial analyses... In making [their] argument so well, sustained by careful analyses of the rich electoral data available, Shin and Agnew have not only illuminated Italy's recent electoral history as, in fact, a historical geography, but have also provided a paradigm for studies elsewhere. This short book is a worthy extension of Agnew's work on Italy and on the role of place in politics and a fine example of what geography has to offer to electoral analysis." Party Politics, May 2011Table of ContentsPreface; 1 Introduction; 2 The Geography of the New Bipolarity, 1994-2006; 3 Party Replacement, Italian Style; 4 The Geographical Secret to Berlusconi's Success; 5 What Went Up Later Came Down; 6 Conclusion; References

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Book SynopsisIn the sixty-four days between November 3 and January 6, President Donald Trump and his allies fought to reverse the outcome of the vote. Focusing on six states - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - Trump''s supporters claimed widespread voter fraud.Caught up in this effort were scores of activists, lawyers, judges and state and local officials, among them Rohn Bishop, enthusiastic chairman of the Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, Republican Party, who would be branded a traitor for refusing to say his state''s election was tainted, and Ruby Freeman, a part-time ballot counter in Atlanta who found herself accused of being a ''professional vote scammer'' by the President. Working with a team of researchers and reporters, Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague uncover never-before-told accounts from the election officials fighting to do their jobs amid outlandish claims and threats to themselves, their colleagues and their families. The Steal

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Book SynopsisWith new, updated material, P. J. O'Rourke covers the whole election process from the pig pile of presidential candidates circa June 2015, through his come-to-Satan moment with Hillary and the Beginning of End Times in November 2016, to the current shape of US politics.How the Hell Did This Happen? answers the key question of the 2016 presidential election: Should we laugh or should we cry or should we hurl? (They are not mutually exclusive.)Trade ReviewO'Rourke has a nice, world-weary way with the US's present political follies... He hasn't lost his gift for the brutally effective one-liner. * Guardian *scabrously witty, inventive and rich in historical detail... O'Rourke is never less than pleasurable company. There were chapters in this book I read twice just for the fun of it... I am already looking forward to the companion volume What The Hell Happens Next? * The Times *extremely funny * Sunday Times *O'Rourke has a real eye for the vagaries of American politics and, on occasion, piercing insight. * Observer *O'Rourke has been for decades the wittiest guide to America, and the usual ingredients are packed into this volume. How the Hell Did This Happen? is scabrously witty, inventive and rich in historical detail. * The Australian *Whether you agree with him or not, P.J. writes a helluva piece. * Richard Nixon *Who better than one of America's most-respected humourists to make sense of an election in which real life frequently appeared to approach satire? * The Week *P.J. O'Rourke is like S.J. Perelman on acid. * Chris Buckley *P.J. O'Rourke was really the first to inject non-liberal hilarity into political discourse . . . But more important, he was able to yank conservatives out of the hands of the humorless and shrill, and make such writing accessible . . . He changed my life. * Greg Gutfeld *[O'Rourke] occupies a rare place among the laughing class: He has somehow avoided the orifice obsession that captivates many of its members; he identifies as Republican; and he is no mere thumb-sucker, having visited more than 40 countries to report on wars, regime changes, economic revolutions and the experience of drinking cocktails garnished with the poison sacs of cobras. * Wall Street Journal *Outspoken conservatives have long been a minority in comedy, particularly in the mainstream media, which provided an opportunity for P.J. O'Rourke, who for decades cornered the market for prominent right-wing humorists . . . If his wry essays have a mission statement . . . it's this: Starchy ­Republicanism is really, really fun. * New York Times Book Review *As a cultural analyst, O'Rourke's ability and willingness to simultaneously lampoon and celebrate himself and his generation are unequaled. * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisWhat would it be like to sit down for an impassioned, entertaining conversation with Hillary Clinton? In Something Lost, Something Gained, Hillary offers her candid views on life and love, politics, liberty, democracy, the threats we face, and the future within our reach.She describes the strength she draws from her deepest friendships, her Methodist faith, and the nearly fifty years she’s been married to President Bill Clinton—all with the wisdom that comes from looking back on a full life with fresh eyes. She takes us along as she returns to the classroom as a college professor, enjoys the bonds inside the exclusive club of former First Ladies, moves past her dream of being president, and dives into new activism for women and democracy. From canoeing with an ex-Nazi trying to deprogram white supremacists to sweltering with salt farmers in the desert trying to adapt to the climate crisis in India, Hillary brings us to the front lines of our bi

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Book SynopsisThrough riveting inside accounts how Britain's maverick politicians exploit the behind-the-scenes struggles in the major parties, Newark takes us through the rise of protest voting in Britain. With entertaining portraits of the main players he exposes the astonishing feuds and raging rows that are happening behind the scenes.Trade Review'An entertaining romp.' Ian Birrell (David Cameron's speech writer), Observer; '[An] excellent and timely history of the decline of the old party system.' Nick Cohen, Spectator; 'Newark's pacey, racy gossip about political murky doings frequently made me chortle and also cleared up a few mysteries... This book is a treat: a political book which is the antidote to politics, You'll love it.' The Northern Echo; 'Charts the success of protest parties in modern times.' Grimsby Telegraph; 'Amusing, behind-the-scenes insight into why voters are fed up with the main political parties.' Ann Mallalieu Countryside Alliance; 'Brilliant and witty.' Andrew RobertsTable of Contents1 Funeral of a Maverick 2 The Ugly Voter 3 Nigel Farage 4 A Golden Touch 5 The Rabble Army 6 Green Trouble 7 When Labour Fell for Europe 8 Oops, We Let in a Million! 9 Marching on the Streets 10 Toxic Tories 11 Chasing Celebrity 12 White Riot 13 Boris-mania 14 Shattering the Mould 15 Bloom Gloom

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Book SynopsisThis Handbook provides an overview of interdisciplinary research related to social choice and voting that is intended for a broad audience. Expert contributors from various fields present critical summaries of the existing literature, including intuitive explanations of technical terminology and well-known theorems, suggesting new directions for research.Each chapter presents an expository primer on a particular topic or theme within social choice, with the aim of making the material fully accessible to students and scholars in economics, political science, mathematics, philosophy, law and other fields of study. Topics covered include preference aggregation, voting rules, spatial models, methodology and empirical applications.Scholars, graduate students and even advanced undergraduates in a variety of disciplines will find this introductory and relatively non-technical book an indispensable addition to the field. Contributors: J.F. Adams, W.T. Bianco, A. Blais, P.J. Coughlin, K.L. Dougherty, D.S. Felsenthal, T.H. Hammond, C. Hare, J.C. Heckelman, R.G. Holcombe, C. Kam, M.M. Kaminski, M. Machover, B.C. McCannon, I. McLean, N.R. Miller, S. Moser, E.M. Penn, K.T. Poole, R. Ragan, D.G. Saari, I. Sened, R.A. Smyth, N. TidemanTrade Review'Social choice theory is a branch of economics and political science that examines how individual preferences can be aggregated into social choices. Heckelman and Miller have designed and edited a superb overview of the field. . . . readers who see an up-to-date, thorough, and nuanced understanding of the field will find the book invaluable.' --R.E. O'Connor, Choice'This Handbook is a timely addition to the public/social choice literature. The editors have assembled an impressive list of authors who have contributed chapters covering a wide expanse of the literature starting with Iain McLean's chapter, which traces the public choice literature from Aristotle to the present, followed by surveys of recent developments like Keith L. Dougherty's excellent chapter on voting rules, and the equally fine chapter by Christopher Hare and Keith T. Poole on measuring ideology in Congress. Indeed, all contributions are of uniformly high quality. This Handbook is a welcome addition to my bookshelf.' --Dennis Mueller, University of Vienna, Austria'This book gives a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the rapidly expanding field of social choice and voting. Written in a non-technical style by a group of leading experts in the field, it makes a perfect reference book for scholars and students. The authors and editors are to be congratulated for making relatively complex ideas accessible even to readers with no background in the theory of voting. This makes the volume suitable not only for classroom use, but also for independent study.' --Hannu Nurmi, University of Turku, FinlandTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction: Issues in Social Choice and Voting Jac C. Heckelman and Nicholas R. Miller PART I PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL CHOICE 2. The Strange History of Social Choice Iain McLean 3. Unanimous Consent and Constitutional Economics Randall G. Holcombe 4. Rational Choice and the Calculus of Voting André Blais 5. Computational Social Choice Robi Ragan PART II PAIRWISE SOCIAL CHOICE 6. Majority Rule and Tournament Solutions Scott Moser 7. Supermajority Rules Keith L. Dougherty 8. The Measurement of a Priori Voting Power Dan S. Felsenthal and Moshé Machover 9. Condorcet Jury Theorems Bryan C. McCannon PART III SPATIAL MODELS OF SOCIAL CHOICE 10. The Spatial Model of Social Choice and Voting Nicholas R. Miller 11. A Unified Spatial Model of American Political Institutions Thomas H. Hammond 12. Competing for Votes James F. Adams 13. Probabilistic Voting in Models of Electoral Competition Peter J. Coughlin PART IV SOCIAL CHOICE FROM MULTIPLE ALTERNATIVES 14. Arrow’s Theorem and Its Descendants Elizabeth Maggie Penn 15. Properties and Paradoxes of Common Voting Rules Jac C. Heckelman 16. Voting Mysteries: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Donald G. Saari 17. Multiple-Winner Voting Rules Nicolaus Tideman PART V EMPIRICAL SOCIAL CHOICE 18. Measuring Ideology in Congress Christopher Hare and Keith T. Poole 19. The Uncovered Set and its Applications William T. Bianco, Christopher Kam, Itai Sened and Regina A. Smyth 19. Empirical Examples of Voting Paradoxes Marek M. Kaminski Index

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Book SynopsisCornerstone's Electoral Legislation covers the five principal kinds of UK elections: Parliamentary; European; Local Government; Parish; and Referendums. The legislation governing the conduct of elections is necessarily technical and highly prescriptive with electoral officers expected to absolutely adhere to the rules. As legislation is amended every year this title enables electoral officers ready access to up-to-date legislation. This is a new title in the ‘Cornerstone’ series which is published with the highly respected chambers. This title is included in Bloomsbury Professional's Local Government Law online service.Trade ReviewA useful single volume to carry into conferences or court... -- Daniel Greenberg * Statute Law Review *...an impressive and useful publication and one whose greatest asset is its ambitious and comprehensive coverage of election legislation in a small portable hard copy format...I will certainly be taking it with me to our next election count... -- David M G Lawson * Local Government Lawyer *Table of ContentsForeword Legislation Tables and Index

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Book SynopsisAs Ben Fountain sees it, the United States is facing its third existential crisis. The first was the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War. The second was the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialised world, which brought about the New Deal. The third, is Donald Trump. But how will it end?Taking in America's love affair with firearms, celebrity culture, Russia, Obamacare, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Trump himself, Beautiful Country Burn Again explores how the United States reached a new crisis point and asks how America really can be great again.Trade ReviewThe highly acclaimed novelist brandishes a full array of literary tools, including song, verse, historical anecdotes, piles of research and plenty of satisfying takedowns to keep you on his ride . . . Fountain wants the country to burn. No one gets out of his book unscathed . . . His brutal observations could easily be the main feature of his work, yet Fountain has more important things to say and more ingenious ways to say them * * New York Times * *Elegiac . . . Pitched halfway between political reportage and Great American Novel, it breathes literary life back into what has become a very familiar story * * Guardian * *No book published this year gave me more pleasure than Ben Fountain's Beautiful Country Burn Again, a wide-ranging collection of despatches about the Trump election campaign. Very much in the freewheeling tradition of Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer and Joan Didion, it's a stylistic tour de force and very funny * * New Statesman, Best Books of 2018 * *A masterpiece of a book, the true story of American possibility -- DAVID FINKEL, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE GOOD SOLDIERSHis eye for the absurd and ability to draw attention to the sheer strangeness of America made him a perfect observer of 2016 . . . Funny and also horrifying, Fountain has spectacular historical reach * * Guardian * *Fountain has the storytelling gifts to bring the world home to us and a moral compass set to true north -- GARY SHTEYNGARTFountain is a superb writer * * Irish Times * *An engaging meditation on two large questions that surely preoccupy many Americans these days: What on Earth happened in and to the United States in 2016? And why did it happen? . . . Fountain confronts both these riddles in creative and provocative ways that force a reader to think hard . . . The novelist's talents that won him the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk are on display on nearly every page * * Washington Post * *A powerful chronicle of the 2016 election and the most surreal year in American politics . . . There may be no writer alive today who better captures the manic, fevered, paranoid style in 21st-century America than Ben Fountain . . . In Fountain's hands, the story of what happened in 2016 reads anew, fresh, alive, told with a historian's rigor and a satirist's wit . . . Fountain writes brilliantly about the spectacle of the last election. At its best, Beautiful Country Burn Again sits alongside Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and Joan Didion's coverage of the 1988 presidential campaign as some of the best political writing of the past 50 years * * Rolling Stone * *Fountain brings a unique and thoughtful assessment to the subject matter. With fluid, captivating writing and hilarious quotes and descriptions, he details each candidate's foibles, blithely ticking off each month of the campaign . . . It's not a new message; many other writers have offered similar versions. But not only is Fountain more entertaining, he more clearly illustrates how a cultural undercurrent of divisive economic interests, which has caused this nation to go up in flames in the past, is once again driving a populist surge against the status quo * * Seattle Times * *

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Book SynopsisRecent U.S. elections have defied nationwide majority preference at the White House, Senate, and House levels. This work of interdisciplinary scholarship explains how ''winner-take-all'' and single-member district elections make this happen, and what can be done to repair the system. Proposed reforms include the National Popular Vote interstate compact (presidential elections); eliminating the Senate filibuster; and proportional representation using Ranked Choice Voting for House, state, and local elections. This timely analysis of election law and politics outlining key structural election reforms combines distinct analysis of presidential, Senate, and U.S. House elections reforms, while also addressing reforms at the state and local government level. The author argues for fundamental structural changes to U.S. elections like Proportional Representation and Ranked Choice Voting, without requiring any constitutional amendments. Analysis of recent political developments such as progress on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, the adoption of Ranked Choice Voting state-wide in Maine, and the 2018 Supreme Court gerrymandering cases add real-world relevance and applicability. This sharp examination of a flawed system is vital reading for students and scholars involved in election law and political science, and is approachable enough for lay readers interested in politics and reform as well. 'Rethinking US Election Law is a timely, well-written argument in favour of electoral reform in the United States. It advances achievable solutions that could go a long way towards solving the country's current democratic breakdown, and is an excellent read for anyone interested in ''unskewing the system''.' - Erica Frazier, LSE Review 'Steven Mulroy's Rethinking US Election Law is a concise and refreshing book on US election law. The book takes the reader on a tour through the various and profound shortcomings of the country's reliance on single-member districts (SMDs) and demonstrates that, so long as these SMDs remain the principal building block of US elections, little can be done to resolve the many ailments that afflict the process. It is a powerful, thoughtfully-reasoned and clearly-written argument in favor of electoral reform.. . . Mulroy offers a compelling argument for electoral reform that should be required reading for the next redistricting cycle or for any undergraduate class on voting rights and redistricting. Even the most skeptical critic would have difficulty refuting his analysis.' - American Political Science Association 'Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Rethinking US Election Law is a seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking. . . (it) is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community, academic, governmental Contemporary Political Science collections and supplemental studies reading lists for students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject.' - John Taylor, Midwest Book ReviewTrade Review'Mulroy unpacks the electoral systems of the United States, laying bare their shortcomings and proposing some imminently sensible reforms to bring our elections back in line with those basic democratic assumptions. . . Mulroy's depth of analysis, carefully thought-out conclusions and overall presentation deserve significant credit.' --FairVote'Professor Mulroy has written a bold prescription for a constructive path forward on the Electoral College, the Senate, and our winner-take-all consequences. His work is must-reading for those working to improve, perhaps save, our democracy.' --Don Beyer, US Representative, Virginia's 8th Congressional District'From the Electoral College to the Senate to partisan gerrymandering of the House and state legislatures, the U.S. election system skews to favor the interests of some over the interests of a majority of Americans. Steven Mulroy makes the case for unskewing and democratizing American politics, and he offers a path to get it done. A clear argument in favor of radical reform of American politics.' --Richard L. Hasen, University of California, Irvine, US and author of The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of DisruptionTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction 2. The Electoral College 3. The Senate 4. House Gerrymandering 5. Judicial Policing of Gerrymanders 6. Nonpartisan Redistricting Commissions 7. Instant Runoff Voting 8. Proportional Representation and the Single Transferable Vote 9. State and Local Applications 10. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis timely Research Handbook offers a systematic and comprehensive examination of the election laws of democratic nations. Through a study of a range of different regimes of election law, it illuminates the disparate choices that societies have made concerning the benefits they wish their democratic institutions to provide, the means by which such benefits are to be delivered, and the underlying values, commitments, and conceptions of democratic self-rule that inform these choices. Comparative Election Law features a wide scope of coverage, from distribution of the franchise, to candidate qualifications, to campaign speech and finance, to election administration, and more. Contributions from a range of expert scholars in the field are brought together to tackle difficult problems surrounding the definition of the democratic demos, as well as to lay bare important disjunctions between democratic ideals and feasible democratic regimes in practice. Furthermore, a comparative approach is also taken to examine democratic regimes at a theoretical as well as a descriptive level.Featuring key research in a vitally important area, this Research Handbook will be crucial reading for academics and students in a range of fields including comparative law, legal theory, political science, political theory and democracy. It will also be useful to politicians and government officials engaged in election regulation, due to its excellent perspective on the range of regulatory options and how to evaluate them.Trade Review‘This is a fabulous book by one of the leading thinkers of law and democracy. It fills a tremendous hole in the literature by emphasizing the importance of a comparative approach to helping us think anew about both old and new problems in law and democracy.’ -- Guy-Uriel Emmanuel Charles, Harvard Law School, US‘This rich edited volume belongs on the bookshelf of any serious student of election law anywhere in the world. The quality of the contributors and the depth of analysis is unparalleled, bringing together some of the most thoughtful scholars considering essential questions on the nature of democracy, election rules, and popular will. A must read!’ -- Richard L. Hasen, University of California, Irvine, USTable of ContentsContents: INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction: election law—universal or particular? 2 James A. Gardner PART I TWO VIEWS OF ELECTION LAW 2 Concepts and principles of electoral law in Europe 15 Anna Gamper 3 Comparative election law in Canada 32 Hoi L. Kong PART II PROBLEMS OF THE DEMOS 4 Representation in federations 51 Nicholas Aroney and Lauren Causer 5 Indigenous peoples and electoral law 71 Andrew Geddis 6 The fraud of John Locke: subnational challenges to democratic theory 90 Makau W. Mutua 7 Democracy and secessionism: constitutional firewalls and an emerging accommodational paradigm 115 Marc Sanjaume-Calvet PART III INSTITUTIONS AND STRUCTURES 8 Electoral systems and conceptions of politics 140 James A. Gardner 9 Constitutional design of political rights: the emerging model 158 Michael Pal 10 Political parties: private associations or public utilities? 177 Anika Gauja 11 Why representative democracy requires referendums 193 Dennis F. Thompson 12 The role of deliberative peace referendums in the constitutional settlement of conflict 212 Ron Levy and Ian O’Flynn PART IV VOTING 13 Elections, republicanism, and the demands of democracy: a view from the Americas 236 Roberto Gargarella 14 The long and unfinished road to universal suffrage and the development of electoral institutions: a Latin American perspective, 1810–1985 250 Eduardo Posada-Carbó 15 Constructing the demos: voter qualification laws in comparative perspective 272 Yasmin Dawood 16 Disenfranchisement due to crime 290 Chad Flanders PART V CANDIDATES 17 Qualifications to be an elected representative 305 Graeme Orr 18 A constitutional perspective on electoral gender quotas 322 Patricia Popelier 19 Designing and protecting presidential term limits 344 David Landau and Rosalind Dixon PART VI CAMPAIGN SPEECH AND FINANCE 20 Campaign speech and the universal dilemma in the common law of elections: a lesson from the Anglo-American divide 369 Jacob Eisler 21 Campaign finance and electoral speech in the media 388 Jacob Rowbottom 22 Regulating money in politics: from electoral integrity to democratic integrity 410 Joo-Cheong Tham PART VII ADMINISTRATION 23 Comparative election administration: a legal perspective on electoral institutions 436 Daniel P. Tokaji 24 Depoliticizing redistricting 459 Nicholas Stephanopoulos CONCLUSION 25 Conclusion: inequality, corruption, and climate change—rethinking election law in the twenty-first century 478 Timothy K. Kuhner Index

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Book SynopsisThis Handbook provides an overview of interdisciplinary research related to social choice and voting that is intended for a broad audience. Expert contributors from various fields present critical summaries of the existing literature, including intuitive explanations of technical terminology and well-known theorems, suggesting new directions for research.Each chapter presents an expository primer on a particular topic or theme within social choice, with the aim of making the material fully accessible to students and scholars in economics, political science, mathematics, philosophy, law and other fields of study. Topics covered include preference aggregation, voting rules, spatial models, methodology and empirical applications.Scholars, graduate students and even advanced undergraduates in a variety of disciplines will find this introductory and relatively non-technical book an indispensable addition to the field. Contributors: J.F. Adams, W.T. Bianco, A. Blais, P.J. Coughlin, K.L. Dougherty, D.S. Felsenthal, T.H. Hammond, C. Hare, J.C. Heckelman, R.G. Holcombe, C. Kam, M.M. Kaminski, M. Machover, B.C. McCannon, I. McLean, N.R. Miller, S. Moser, E.M. Penn, K.T. Poole, R. Ragan, D.G. Saari, I. Sened, R.A. Smyth, N. TidemanTrade Review'Social choice theory is a branch of economics and political science that examines how individual preferences can be aggregated into social choices. Heckelman and Miller have designed and edited a superb overview of the field. . . . readers who see an up-to-date, thorough, and nuanced understanding of the field will find the book invaluable.' --R.E. O'Connor, Choice'This Handbook is a timely addition to the public/social choice literature. The editors have assembled an impressive list of authors who have contributed chapters covering a wide expanse of the literature starting with Iain McLean's chapter, which traces the public choice literature from Aristotle to the present, followed by surveys of recent developments like Keith L. Dougherty's excellent chapter on voting rules, and the equally fine chapter by Christopher Hare and Keith T. Poole on measuring ideology in Congress. Indeed, all contributions are of uniformly high quality. This Handbook is a welcome addition to my bookshelf.' --Dennis Mueller, University of Vienna, Austria'This book gives a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the rapidly expanding field of social choice and voting. Written in a non-technical style by a group of leading experts in the field, it makes a perfect reference book for scholars and students. The authors and editors are to be congratulated for making relatively complex ideas accessible even to readers with no background in the theory of voting. This makes the volume suitable not only for classroom use, but also for independent study.' --Hannu Nurmi, University of Turku, FinlandTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction: Issues in Social Choice and Voting Jac C. Heckelman and Nicholas R. Miller PART I PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL CHOICE 2. The Strange History of Social Choice Iain McLean 3. Unanimous Consent and Constitutional Economics Randall G. Holcombe 4. Rational Choice and the Calculus of Voting André Blais 5. Computational Social Choice Robi Ragan PART II PAIRWISE SOCIAL CHOICE 6. Majority Rule and Tournament Solutions Scott Moser 7. Supermajority Rules Keith L. Dougherty 8. The Measurement of a Priori Voting Power Dan S. Felsenthal and Moshé Machover 9. Condorcet Jury Theorems Bryan C. McCannon PART III SPATIAL MODELS OF SOCIAL CHOICE 10. The Spatial Model of Social Choice and Voting Nicholas R. Miller 11. A Unified Spatial Model of American Political Institutions Thomas H. Hammond 12. Competing for Votes James F. Adams 13. Probabilistic Voting in Models of Electoral Competition Peter J. Coughlin PART IV SOCIAL CHOICE FROM MULTIPLE ALTERNATIVES 14. Arrow’s Theorem and Its Descendants Elizabeth Maggie Penn 15. Properties and Paradoxes of Common Voting Rules Jac C. Heckelman 16. Voting Mysteries: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Donald G. Saari 17. Multiple-Winner Voting Rules Nicolaus Tideman PART V EMPIRICAL SOCIAL CHOICE 18. Measuring Ideology in Congress Christopher Hare and Keith T. Poole 19. The Uncovered Set and its Applications William T. Bianco, Christopher Kam, Itai Sened and Regina A. Smyth 19. Empirical Examples of Voting Paradoxes Marek M. Kaminski Index

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Book SynopsisElgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This Research Agenda documents and establishes the thinking of leading scholars in the field of political marketing and related sub-fields, also encompassing additional social science disciplines that intersect at the crossroads of political marketing. Chapters address the complexity of how politicians and political parties leverage trust, credibility, and expertise across their policy positions, and how citizens formulate their attitudes and opinions. Contributors focus on the new challenges and opportunities for political parties and politicians around the globe when communicating about complex issues, such as science and technology. This Research Agenda will be an essential resource for political marketing researchers and practitioners looking to explore how marketing tactics may be used to shape, guide, and manage public opinion and policy discourse.Trade Review‘Expertly curated by Bruce and Todd Newman, this collection of articles by leading international scholars elegantly encapsulates the principles and practices of political marketing in the early twenty-first century. Particularly noteworthy is the topical focus on digital populism, political branding, and the role of scandal in electoral campaigns.’ -- Richard Tempest, University of Illinois, US‘Understanding contemporary politics is to understand marketing. Bruce and Todd Newman have edited a volume that can instruct modern princes on the virtue needed to gain and hold power. But democracy can prevail only if research in this arcana imperii is used also to educate and empower citizens as voters.’ -- Dejan Vercic, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia‘This fascinating book, with contributions from leading political marketing scholars worldwide, comes at a sadly propitiously time, as democracy is imploding amid the growth of ideologically extreme groups untethered to truth, ferociously marketing their political ideas. Co-editors Bruce Newman and Todd Newman, and their assemblage of assiduous scholars, have produced a book that addresses the multitude of issues facing contemporary political marketing, offering luminous insights on issues spanning digital populism, political disaffection, issues management, branding, ethical chasms, and the bête noire of political campaigning: propaganda. Students and researchers will come away with new perspectives from this stimulating book.’ -- Richard M. Perloff, Cleveland State University, US and author of The Dynamics of Political Communication (3rd. edition)Table of ContentsContents: 1 A triangle of influence: researching political power and social media in the wake of the 2020–21 U.S. succession crisis 1 Michael Cornfield 2 Political marketing from an ideological marketing perspective 21 Wojcieh Cwalina and Andrzej Falkowski 3 Stratified electioneering: the political marketing century 37 Dominic Wring 4 Issues management in science and technology: contestable matters of fact, value and policy, and areas for future research 53 Matt VanDyke and Nicole Lee 5 The management of political campaigns 69 Jody Baumgartner 6 The role of social media in political campaigns: a review and research agenda 85 Christine Williams 7 Political branding: a research agenda for political marketing 107 Christopher Pich 8 The continued relevance of mass media in campaigns: a critical review and research agenda 129 Daniel E. Bergan 9 Challenging political communication and marketing research: the measurement of implicit attitudes in the age of scandals 143 Roberto de Miguel Pascual and Rosa Berganza 10 The dark arts of political marketing: use of propaganda in political campaigns 159 Greg Simons Index

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Book SynopsisExamining the nature of public opinion in democratic societies, this Handbook succinctly illustrates the importance of public opinion as an instrument of popular control and democratic accountability. Expert contributors in the field provide a thorough review of a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of this timely topic.The concise but comprehensive chapters investigate the theoretical value of biological, contextual, psychological, sociological and economic perspectives when exploring public opinion. The Handbook also demonstrates useful insights that can be generated from quantitative or qualitative research designs from both an observational and experimental perspective. Furthermore, its informative assessment of the origins and structure of how public opinion is formed allows for a greater understanding of how policies are developed as a result.Providing a state-of-the-art review, this Handbook will be an excellent study resource for scholars of public opinion in political science, sociology and psychology. Political practitioners, particularly government officials, political operatives and pollsters will also find this informative and illuminating.Trade Review‘In the face of widespread polarisation, democracies in retreat, and crises of global proportions, a need has arisen to explore the individual and societal causes, interactions, and implications of these profound developments. This impressively comprehensive Handbook addresses this challenging task by focusing on the central role of public opinion, leaving hardly any question unanswered.’ -- Sonja Zmerli, Sciences Po Grenoble, France‘Two things make this volume entirely irresistible. The first is the line-up of quite prominent, well-versed, and insightful scholars contributing chapters, and the second is the breadth and depth of public opinion topics covered. I started reading this book by ticking off in the table of contents the chapters I wanted to read closely. I was then amazed to find that I had selected nearly all the chapters. This Handbook will prove invaluable for students of public opinion, including undergraduates, graduate students, and the professoriate.’ -- James Gibson, Washington University in St. Louis, USTable of ContentsContents: 1 Public opinion and democracy 1 Thomas J. Rudolph PART I THE MEANING AND MEASUREMENT OF PUBLIC OPINION 2 Diagnosing survey response quality 10 D. Sunshine Hillygus and Tina LaChapelle 3 The quantitative assessment of public opinion 26 Allyson L. Holbrook and Joanne M. Miller 4 The qualitative study of public opinion 41 Katherine J. Cramer 5 Implicit attitudes and mass political opinion 54 Efrén O. Pérez and Bianca V. Vicuña PART II THE ORIGINS OF PUBLIC OPINION 6 Genopolitics 71 Gergő Závecz and Levente Littvay 7 Personality, public opinion, and politics 83 Megan L. Remmel and Jeffery J. Mondak 8 Political socialization 99 Marc Hooghe PART III THE STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC OPINION 9 The conditional nature of ideology in mass publics 112 Nathan P. Kalmoe 10 Core values 128 Paul Goren 11 Ambivalence in mass politics 141 Marco Steenbergen 12 Partisanship and public opinion 168 Ianne S. Wang and Samara Klar 13 Race and public opinion: American dilemma, American divide 178 Davin L. Phoenix and Francisco Jasso 14 Public opinion and gender 193 Mary-Kate Lizotte 15 The religious politics of threat in religion and politics research 208 Paul A. Djupe PART IV ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON PUBLIC OPINION 16 Electoral geography, political behavior and public opinion 224 James G. Gimpel and Andrew Reeves 17 Media effects and news exposure: new forms of data to address old questions 241 Susan Banducci, Laszlo Horvath, Ekaterina Kolpinskaya and Daniel Stevens 18 Affective polarization in the American public 257 James N. Druckman and Jeremy Levy PART V THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC OPINION 19 Heuristics and cues 272 Cheryl Boudreau 20 Emotions in politics: The relevance of groups 283 Bethany Albertson and Benjamin T. White 21 Motivated reasoning in politics 298 Eric Groenendyk PART VI PUBLIC OPINION AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP 22 Political knowledge 313 Jennifer Wolak 23 Political tolerance in an age of liberal democratic backsliding 328 Mark Peffley and Robert Rohrschneider 24 New thrusts and new opportunities in the study of citizen performance in democratic societies 341 James H. Kuklinski and Benjamin Miller PART VII PUBLIC OPINION AND GOVERNMENT 25 The nature of political trust in mass publics 355 Marc J. Hetherington and Thomas J. Rudolph 26 On collective representation 369 Ross Buchanan, Megan Dias, and Christopher Wlezien 27 Courts and public opinion: a critical review 382 Brandon L. Bartels PART VIII PUBLIC OPINION AND PUBLIC POLICY 28 Economic opinion 399 Spencer Goidel and Paul M. Kellstedt 29 Economic self-interest in public opinion about immigration 411 Morris Levy and Matthew Wright 30 Public opinion and foreign policy: beyond the “electoral connection” 428 Peter Gries and Tao Wang Index

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Book SynopsisRecent U.S. elections have defied nationwide majority preference at the White House, Senate, and House levels. This work of interdisciplinary scholarship explains how ''winner-take-all'' and single-member district elections make this happen, and what can be done to repair the system. Proposed reforms include the National Popular Vote interstate compact (presidential elections); eliminating the Senate filibuster; and proportional representation using Ranked Choice Voting for House, state, and local elections. This timely analysis of election law and politics outlining key structural election reforms combines distinct analysis of presidential, Senate, and U.S. House elections reforms, while also addressing reforms at the state and local government level. The author argues for fundamental structural changes to U.S. elections like Proportional Representation and Ranked Choice Voting, without requiring any constitutional amendments. Analysis of recent political developments such as progress on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, the adoption of Ranked Choice Voting state-wide in Maine, and the 2018 Supreme Court gerrymandering cases add real-world relevance and applicability. This sharp examination of a flawed system is vital reading for students and scholars involved in election law and political science, and is approachable enough for lay readers interested in politics and reform as well. 'Rethinking US Election Law is a timely, well-written argument in favour of electoral reform in the United States. It advances achievable solutions that could go a long way towards solving the country's current democratic breakdown, and is an excellent read for anyone interested in ''unskewing the system''.' - Erica Frazier, LSE Review 'Steven Mulroy's Rethinking US Election Law is a concise and refreshing book on US election law. The book takes the reader on a tour through the various and profound shortcomings of the country's reliance on single-member districts (SMDs) and demonstrates that, so long as these SMDs remain the principal building block of US elections, little can be done to resolve the many ailments that afflict the process. It is a powerful, thoughtfully-reasoned and clearly-written argument in favor of electoral reform.. . . Mulroy offers a compelling argument for electoral reform that should be required reading for the next redistricting cycle or for any undergraduate class on voting rights and redistricting. Even the most skeptical critic would have difficulty refuting his analysis.' - American Political Science Association 'Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Rethinking US Election Law is a seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking. . . (it) is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community, academic, governmental Contemporary Political Science collections and supplemental studies reading lists for students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject.' - John Taylor, Midwest Book ReviewTrade Review'Mulroy unpacks the electoral systems of the United States, laying bare their shortcomings and proposing some imminently sensible reforms to bring our elections back in line with those basic democratic assumptions. . . Mulroy's depth of analysis, carefully thought-out conclusions and overall presentation deserve significant credit.' --FairVote'Professor Mulroy has written a bold prescription for a constructive path forward on the Electoral College, the Senate, and our winner-take-all consequences. His work is must-reading for those working to improve, perhaps save, our democracy.' --Don Beyer, US Representative, Virginia's 8th Congressional District'From the Electoral College to the Senate to partisan gerrymandering of the House and state legislatures, the U.S. election system skews to favor the interests of some over the interests of a majority of Americans. Steven Mulroy makes the case for unskewing and democratizing American politics, and he offers a path to get it done. A clear argument in favor of radical reform of American politics.' --Richard L. Hasen, University of California, Irvine, US and author of The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of DisruptionTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction 2. The Electoral College 3. The Senate 4. House Gerrymandering 5. Judicial Policing of Gerrymanders 6. Nonpartisan Redistricting Commissions 7. Instant Runoff Voting 8. Proportional Representation and the Single Transferable Vote 9. State and Local Applications 10. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe design of an electoral system is fundamental to any democracy. It is through electoral systems that the commitment of a society to a political system is achieved. The peculiarities of an electoral system assume significant importance in periods in which democratic polities seem caught between a crisis of confidence in their representative systems and mass apathy over the product of government - as has recently occurred in Italy.Electoral rules constrain available choice alternatives and therefore have profound effects on governance of a country since different electoral rules generate different outcome patterns even with no change in the identity of candidates. The two most common electoral schemes are proportional representation and plurality. The theoretical debate concerning these two systems is of intense interest not least because of the importance of finding a stable, democratic and representative institutional structure that can be employed worldwide. This topical book analyses the change of electoral rules in Italy from proportional representation toward plurality. While Italy is used as the illustrative case, the analysis has far-ranging theoretical and practical implications, and will therefore be of interest to academics and researchers of political economy, constitutionalism and public choice.Trade Review'The book reaches well beyond an evaluation of the immediate public choice consequences of operating under alternative voting rules. . . . This book offers insights into the dynamics of electoral reform and the political consequences of such reform that should fascinate all serious students of public choice and political science.' -- From the foreword by Charles K. Rowley, The Locke Institute and George Mason University, USTable of ContentsContents: Foreword by Charles K. Rowley Part I: Introduction 1. Overview 2. A History of the Italian Political System – 1913 to the Present Part II: Economics and Elections: The Key Tools 3. The Economics of Elections – A Review of the Literature 4. Electoral Systems, Electoral Formulae and Italian Electoral Rules Part III: Choices Between Rules 5. Information and Voting in Municipal Elections 6. Information, Proportionality and Power Dilution in Provisional Elections Part IV: Choices Subject to Rules 7. Party Electoral Strategies under the New Rules 8. Political Coalition Formation under the New Rules Part V: Rules, Choice and Strategy 9. Election Simulation and the Nature of Constitutional Choices 10. Summary and Evaluation Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExplores the many issues surrounding by-elections in the period which saw the extension of the franchise, the introduction of the ballot, and the demise of most dual member constituencies. Between the 1832 Great Reform Act and the outbreak of World War One in 1914, over 2,600 by-elections took place in Britain. They were triggered by the death, retirement or resignation of sitting MPs or by the appointment of cabinet ministers and were a regular feature of Victorian and Edwardian politics. They furnished political parties and their leaders with a crucial tool for gauging and mobilising public opinion. Yet despite the prominence of by-election contests in the historical records of this period, scholars have paid relatively little attention to them. As this book shows, these elections deserve to be taken as seriously today as people took them at the time. They providedimportant linkages between local and national politics, between the four parts of the United Kingdom and Westminster, and between foreign and domestic affairs. They are vital to understanding the evolving electioneering machineries, the varying language of electoral contests, the traction that particular issues had with a growing and frequently volatile electorate, and the fluctuating fortunes of the political parties. This book, consisting of original work by leading political historians, provides the first synoptic study of this important subject. It will be required reading for historians and students of modern British political history, as well as specialists in electoralhistory and politics. T. G. Otte is Professor of Diplomatic History at the University of East Anglia. He is the author and/or editor of some thirteen books. Among the most recent is The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy, 1865-1914; Paul Readman is Senior Lecturer in Modern British History at King's College London. He is the author of Land and Nation in England: Patriotism, National Identity and the Politics of Land 1880-1914. Contributors: Luke Blaxill, Angus Hawkins, Geoffrey Hicks, Phillips Payson O'Brien, T.G. Otte, Ian Packer, Gordon Pentland, Paul Readman, Kathryn Rix, Matthew Roberts, Philip Salmon, Anthony TaylorTrade ReviewFills a significant gap in the study of British politics... Anyone reading this volume will be left with much to think about, arguments to agree and disagree with, and their understanding of Victorian and Edwardian politics enriched. * JOURNAL OF LIBERAL HISTORY *An important and impressive collection that will convince students and specialists of modern British history that they should invest Victorian and Edwardian by-elections with the same significance as did contemporaries. * PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY *A stimulating and rewarding book. * JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES *A very important addition to the political history of the period [that] deserves to be intensively used by historians. * PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS *The first synoptic study of the subject, an important one for understanding of the movement and expression of political opinion in various parts of the country. * NORTHERN HISTORY *This new edited collection fills an important historiographical gap whilst also showcasing some of the newest and most innovative research in political and electoral history. [.]Making a strong and convincing claim for the significance of by-elections, it is an important addition and therefore comes highly recommended to academics and students alike. * REVIEWS IN HISTORY *Table of ContentsIntroduction - T. G. Otte and Paul Readman 'Plumping Contests': The Impact of By-elections on English Voting Behaviour, 1790-1868 - Philip Salmon Government Appointment By-elections: 1832-86 - Angus Hawkins 'We should have had 1,000': The By-elections of the 1874 Parliament - Geoffrey Hicks 'The Glamour of Independence': By-elections and Radicalism during the Liberal Meridian, 1869-83 - Antony Taylor 'The Swing of the Pendulum at Home': By-elections and Foreign Policy, 1865-1914 - T. G. Otte By-elections and the Modernisation of Party Organisation, 1867-1914 - Kathryn Rix 'A Terrific Outburst of Political Meteorology': By-elections and the Unionist Electoral Ascendancy in Late-Victorian England - Matthew Roberts Land Reform and By-elections, 1885-1914: Do By-elections Matter? - Ian Packer Edwardian By-elections - Paul Readman and Luke Blaxill Lloyd George, Limehouse and the Realignment of British Politics: The Bermondsey By-election of 1909 - Phillips Payson O'Brien By-elections and the Peculiarities of Scottish Politics, 1832-1900 - Gordon Pentland

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Book SynopsisElectoral and parliamentary arenas play a crucial role in the configuration and dynamics of modern polities. This book explores the practices of citizenship and unveils the fabric of representation in the Iberian countries, during a significant period of liberal politics, that is, from its apogee to its collapse (from the 1870s to the 1920s). Part One examines the evolution of electoral norms and behaviour, as well as the recruitment profile of MPs. Portugal and Spain share fundamental features, such as the extensive clientelistic mobilisation of voters, the dissemination of fraud and corruption, the supremacy of governmental parties and the prevalence of the politics of notables. Part Two focuses on Parliament, questioning constitutional models, internal procedures, legislative action and political activity, as well as coetaneous perceptions and images of the institution and its actors as portrayed in novels, newspaper chronicles, cartoons and photographic reports. This collection of essays offers a detailed and cogent analysis, as well as a vivid picture, of the politics of representation in Portuguese and Spanish liberalism, revealing significant similarities and differences through cross-country comparisons.Trade ReviewThis excellent volume, by leading authorities in the field, is a welcome addition to the steadily growing interest in the history of elections and parliaments in the Iberian world. -- Professor Eduardo Posada-Carbo, Oxford UniversityThe book opens a window onto political life that transforms our understanding of the emergence of modern politics in the southern edge of Europe. -- Professor Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard UniversityAn excellent, professional account of elections and parliaments in Spain and Portugal before democracy. -- Professor Jose Varela Ortega, Chairman of Jose Ortega y Gasset-Gregorio Maranon Foundation

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Book SynopsisIreland's Suffragettes is a collection of biographical essays introducing the suffragettes who influenced Ireland's struggle for women's rights. Many of the women were political activists while others became militant suffragettes between 1912 and 1914. The struggle of the suffragettes is different to that of the UK, in that many Irish suffragettes were also included in the struggle for independence and the inclusion of women in the trade unions movement. Drawing on primary sources located in the National Archives and the National Library, Ireland's Suffragettes will bring to life not only the most famous names in the suffragette movement but also the other women who made women's rights their lives work.

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Book SynopsisIn this important new book, Gordon Tullock, a founding father of the public choice school, provides a formal analysis of the foundations of decision making. Voting procedures are crucial to Western democratic governments but are also employed in dictatorial governments, private clubs, corporations and religious organizations. This comprehensive book examines the many techniques of voting and the different outcomes in different situations. Gordon Tullock's analysis begins by using a simple model in which individuals vote in terms of their own preferences. It is assumed that the voters are well informed, their preferences are reasonably firm and there are no trades or bargains made among voters. These assumptions are then relaxed in order to make the analysis more realistic. Special attention is given to Arrow's work and the idea that people do not always vote according to simple preferences. The author discusses the phenomenon of 'throwing a vote away' or the possibility of an individual voting against their preference if offered something in return. After considering strategic voting, situations where voters engage in trades between one another and the lack of perfect information, Gordon Tullock examines a voter's options and the idea that individuals may rank options in degrees of their preferred outcomes. He also explores the possibility of preferences changing over time, why some issues are put up to vote and others are not, and situations where individuals voting with the same preferences, but in different voting systems, result in different outcomes.On Voting expands present thinking in the Public Choice school and provides a forum for creating new paradigms in the school as well as changing the focus and scope of current studies. It encourages new research by suggesting areas where more work should be done. The book will be of special interest to political scientists as well as those interested in public policy and political economy.Trade Review'Gordon Tullock has once again written an insightful and stimulating book. While political scientists who are not familiar with the public choice literature will find the book accessible, it can also be recommended to public choice scholars who are interested in suggestions for future research. . . . Gordon Tullock . . . has once again written a highly interesting book in an entertaining style. This book is a valuable addition to the impressive work done by one of the pioneers of public choice.'Table of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction 2. Myths 3. Some Simple but Confusing Mathematics 4. Choice of Alternatives 5. Simple Vote Trades 6. Direct Voting with Log-Rolling 7. More Complicated Log-Rolling 8. Efficiency in Log-Rolling 9. Directions of Representives 10. Voting, Different Methods and General Considerations Appendix A Bouquet of Voting Methods Index

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Book SynopsisThroughout the formerly communist world a single party monopoly has been replaced by multi-party politics and competitive elections. Drawing on the most recent work of the leading specialists in modern Russian politics, this path-breaking volume marks a decisive advance in our understanding of the relationships between voters, political parties and the conduct of the government in what is still the world's largest country.Issues addressed include: the effects of the electoral system and of electoral campaigns regional dimensions of party support parties in the state Duma and the uncertain evolution of a post-communist party system< the turnout of voters for elections leader popularity and party development ideological divisions and party-building the divisions between the left and right Written in a clear, accessible style, this book links developments in Russia to general themes in political science, and especially to other post-communist countries. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of the development and transformation of post-communist politics, and by a wider readership in comparative politics.Trade Review -- Michael McFaul, Slavic Review 'Students of Russian public opinion and electoral behavior will find this book must reading. Particularly suitable for graduate students, researchers, and specialists.'– T.D. Clark, ChoiceTable of ContentsContents: 1. Elections and Voters in the New Russia 2. To Vote or Not to Vote 3. Regional Patterns of Voter Turnout in Russian Elections, 1993–96 4. The Emerging Structure of Partisan Divisions in Russian Politics 5. Leader Popularity and Party Development in Post-Soviet Russia 6. Ideological Divisions and Party-Building Prospects in Post-Soviet Russia 7. Ideology and Russian Mass Politics 8. The Mystery of Opponents of Economic Reform among the Yeltsin Voters 9. Consistency and Change among Russian Voters 10. The CPRF: Towards Social Democracy or National Socialism? Appendices Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first of its kind: a monograph devoted to a systematic critical examination and exposition of the theory of a priori voting power. This important branch of social-choice theory overlaps with game theory and is concerned with the ability of members in bodies that make yes or no decisions by vote to affect the outcome. The book includes, among other topics, a reasoned distinction between two fundamental types of voting power, the authors' discoveries on the paradoxes of voting power, and a novel analysis of decision rules that admit abstention.Formal mathematical statements are accompanied by reader-friendly informal explanations. The theory is applied and illustrated in extensive case studies. A series of US court cases concerning the application of the principle of 'one person, one vote' are critically examined in the light of the theory. The history of 'qualified majority voting' in the European Community's Council of Ministers is outlined and the distribution of voting power under this rule is analysed for each period of the community's growth. The measurement of voting power where abstention is a distinct option is illustrated with the examples of the US Congress and the UN Security Council.This important book breaks new ground and will be of interest to students and researchers in social choice, game theory, and in related disciplines such as political economy, business administration and constitutional law.Trade Review'The book under review is of exceptional interest for a wide range of potential readers: 1) for students and postgraduates as a basic textbook and a handbook; 2) for lecturers delivering courses connected with decision making as the source of mathematical models and real examples; 3) for researchers as a handbook as well as an inexhaustible source of unsolved problems.' -- V.G. Skobolev, Zentralblatt fur Mathematik und ihre Grenzgebiete'Felsenthal and Machover's book is a well-balanced mixture of overview, evaluation and new results. It is both a fine scholarly achievement and a most readable text. No one working in the field of formal political theory, institutional design and/or applied social choice theory can afford to ignore it.' -- Hannu Nurmi, European Journal of Political Economy'. . . provides a systematic critical examination and exposition of the foundations and methodological presuppositions of the theory of a priori voting power. . . . it will prove to be a very valuable source of reference and a starting point for every scholar doing research in the field of voting power analysis. The book or parts of it could also be used as a standard textbook for a course on voting power at an advanced graduate level . . . The Measurement of Voting Power is an excellent book, full of stimulating insights and with some suggestions for future research. It is mathematically rigorous, but at the same time very reader-friendly due to informative informal explanations. It is at the cutting edge of research in the theory and measurement of a priori voting power, but it is also of practical and political relevance, insofar as it provides a sound basis for the analysis of real-life decision-making processes.' -- Matthias Sutter, Public Choice'This book provides an extensive survey in the field of voting power measurement (and further), well documented and self contained. . . . The book provides a very up-to-date and exhaustive bibliography, but does not neglect to remind and often clear up the historical origin of the various theoretical developments. Covering its subject widely, it presents not only the groundwork of the theory of voting power measurement and its main tools . . . but also the related backgrounds, applications and discussions, with wide incursions into the US and European voting systems. Read it: its a must!' -- Gisele De Meur, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium'To say that this book is excellent would be an understatement. It is really remarkable. Not only would it help people using power indices to redirect their analysis, but it could also incite game theorists in general to reconsider the bad opinion they have of cooperative game theory (must I say that there are several texts that exist on game theory in which cooperative game theory is hardly mentioned?). In brief, it is very highly recommended to social choice theorists, game theorists (and mathematical economists using game theory), and mathematically-inclined political scientists.' -- Maurice Salles, Social Choice and Welfare'This is an excellent book. Felsenthal and Machover do a remarkable job of weaving together extended discussions of real-world voting systems, the philosophical and historical aspects of measuring power in such contexts, and the paradoxes of voting power - including the striking examples from their own recent work with Zwicker. Anyone interested in voting and social choice, mathematicians, economists, political scientists, philosophers should own a copy.' -- Alan Taylor, Union College, US'The history of the power indices goes back more than fifty years and is told accurately and completely, for the first time, in this volume. More important, Felsenthal and Machover elucidate the conceptual foundations of the power indices, discover new paradoxes to which the various indices are vulnerable, and draw important lessons, using empirical cases, about the proper measurement and interpretation of voting power.' -- Steven Brams, New York University, US'Dan Felsenthal and Moshe Machover have been writing stimulating and important papers on the voting power indices for several years. This book collects them together and adds new material. It is both mathematically rigorous and politically important. It will become a required reference for anyone working on weighted voting games, whether in US legislatures or the European Union.' -- Iain McLean, Nuffield College, Oxford University, UK'This book pulls no punches in exposing confusions in the orthodox approach to voting power. Its clarity and good sense point the way to a better founded theory.' -- Ken Binmore, University College London, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Groundwork of the Theory 3. Power as Influence 4. Weighted Voting in the US 5. Weighted Voting in the CMEC 6. Power as a Prize 7. Paradoxes and Postulates 8. Taking Abstention Seriously Appendix

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Book SynopsisIn 1807, 23,007 voters travelled to York to cast their votes for two county members in the general election. This study illustrates the working of the political process, with an account of what it meant to mobilise, convey, feed, lodge and deploy vast armies of supporters with military precision over a polling period of 15 days.

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Book SynopsisAs the aftermath of Brexit continues to unfold, people around the world are wondering just how Brexit happened, where post-referendum Britain is heading, and what lessons might be learned by the global community. Gary Gibbon, a preeminent political broadcaster who had extraordinary access to both sides of the campaign leading up to the referendum, explores all of these issues in Breaking Point. Examining official and off-the-record meetings with both senior politicians and ordinary voters, Gibbon addresses tough questions that are troubling the entire European continent: Now that the United Kingdom has voted for Brexit, to what extent can it truly “leave” a set of relationships that extend to the country’s doorstep? And will the decision be a lethal blow to the European Union, perhaps spurring on copycat secession movements?

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses multiple ways of voting in a democratic system and explains the basis of more consensual politics. Without delving into too much technical argument or too many mathematical examples, it aims to show that binary decision-making is blunt, primitive, divisive, and sometimes inaccurate; prove that other methodologies are more accurate and, therefore, more democratic; highlight more inclusive and effective voting procedures; discuss electoral reforms for national parliaments and international forums like the UN Security Council and COP26/27. The book is written not just for academia, or for the politicians and journalists, or for other specialists; it is for the general public: for students still at school, for voters in society at large, and for activists in umpteen NGOs.“…the West's relentless pursuit of binary voting… has been a cause of countless tragedies. This book is brilliant: political controversies should rarely if ever be 'resolved' by majority vote.”Arend Lijphart, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of California, San Diego“[for] those who do not believe in a black-or-white world… a very important and extremely timely contribution…”Věra Stojarová, Associate Professor of Political Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic“Peter’s challenge to the binary “win-lose” approach is urgently necessary, as is his proposal for an eminently more reasonable, accountable, and participatory system.”Dr. Valery Perry, Democratization Policy Council, Sarajevo“…the preferential points vote… would be the more accurate way to make decisions, and the consequences far more peaceful.”Lord Boyce, House of Lords“He builds a case for a specific version of preferential procedure, not only for elections, but for decision making as well.”Hannu Nurmi, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Turku, Finland“A particularly strong plea in favour of voting procedures… which go far beyond the usual 'yes or no' ballots. [He uses] an alert prose and a wealth of illuminating and easily graspable examples.” Maurice Salles, Emeritus Professor, Université de Caen NormandieTrade Review“The Punter’s Guide, he gives a survey of voting and of decision making processes and systems … . He looks beyond just ‘western’ practices ... he makes it easy to understand through explanation as well as his engaging style of writing. Throughout his work he offers a different model for elections or other decisionmaking processes. ... Emerson’s long history of work on this issue remains evergreen, and the tools being freely offered online remove any excuses … .” (Valery Perry, democratizationpolicy.org, October, 2023)Table of ContentsChapter 1. AI, Artificial Incompetence – The Ubiquitous Use of Binary Voting.- Chapter 2. Oh Lord, Give Me Consensus, but not Yet – Pluralism is Possible.- Chapter 3. The Art and Science of Compromise.- Chapter 4. The GOAT is a GNU – Electing an All-party Power-sharing Executive.- Chapter 5. “The People Have Voted… the [Expletives]!” – Comparing Electoral Systems.- Chapter 6. A Little Long History of Voting Systems.- Chapter 7. A Consensual Milieu.

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