Dieter Nohlen, Bernard Thibaut, and Michael Krennerich (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198296454
- eISBN:
- 9780191600036
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198296452.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
Elections in Africa is the first volume of a series of election data handbooks published by OUP; it covers all the 53 states in Africa. Elections have always been an integral part of ...
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Elections in Africa is the first volume of a series of election data handbooks published by OUP; it covers all the 53 states in Africa. Elections have always been an integral part of post‐independence African politics and have assumed the utmost importance in the course of recent democratization processes. However, comparative research on political development in Africa lacks reliable electoral data. Elections in Africa fills this gap. Following the overall structure of the series, an initial comparative introduction on elections and electoral systems is followed by chapters on each state of the region. These contributions examine the evolution of institutional and electoral arrangements from independence to the present (1999), and provide systematic surveys of the up‐to‐date electoral provisions and their historical development. Exhaustive statistics on national elections (presidential, parliamentary, and constitutional assembly), referendums and coups d’état are included within each chapter; these cover electoral bodies and voting, electoral participation of parties and alliances, vote distribution, parliamentary composition, and power holders. The data are presented in the same systematic manner for all countries in order to provide electoral statistics in line with internationally established standards of documentation, so that the data can be easily compared. The book, therefore, provides a definitive and comprehensive set of data on elections in order to facilitate comparative research. Together with the other books of this series, Elections in Africa is a highly reliable resource for historical and cross‐national comparisons of elections and electoral systems worldwide.Less
Elections in Africa is the first volume of a series of election data handbooks published by OUP; it covers all the 53 states in Africa. Elections have always been an integral part of post‐independence African politics and have assumed the utmost importance in the course of recent democratization processes. However, comparative research on political development in Africa lacks reliable electoral data. Elections in Africa fills this gap. Following the overall structure of the series, an initial comparative introduction on elections and electoral systems is followed by chapters on each state of the region. These contributions examine the evolution of institutional and electoral arrangements from independence to the present (1999), and provide systematic surveys of the up‐to‐date electoral provisions and their historical development. Exhaustive statistics on national elections (presidential, parliamentary, and constitutional assembly), referendums and coups d’état are included within each chapter; these cover electoral bodies and voting, electoral participation of parties and alliances, vote distribution, parliamentary composition, and power holders. The data are presented in the same systematic manner for all countries in order to provide electoral statistics in line with internationally established standards of documentation, so that the data can be easily compared. The book, therefore, provides a definitive and comprehensive set of data on elections in order to facilitate comparative research. Together with the other books of this series, Elections in Africa is a highly reliable resource for historical and cross‐national comparisons of elections and electoral systems worldwide.
Josep M. Colomer
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199241835
- eISBN:
- 9780191598975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924183X.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Small, homogeneous communities in medieval and early modern times were able to make consensual social choices by voting with relatively broad voting rights. In complex societies in modern times, the ...
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Small, homogeneous communities in medieval and early modern times were able to make consensual social choices by voting with relatively broad voting rights. In complex societies in modern times, the enlargement of the electorate until introducing universal suffrage rights was developed with different enfranchisement paces, electoral rules, and party systems, producing different degrees of political instability.Less
Small, homogeneous communities in medieval and early modern times were able to make consensual social choices by voting with relatively broad voting rights. In complex societies in modern times, the enlargement of the electorate until introducing universal suffrage rights was developed with different enfranchisement paces, electoral rules, and party systems, producing different degrees of political instability.
Anne Phillips
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294153
- eISBN:
- 9780191600098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294158.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Civil rights litigation in the USA successfully interpreted the 1965 Voting Rights Act as implying the right of minority voters to elect the candidates of their choice. This gave the impetus to ...
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Civil rights litigation in the USA successfully interpreted the 1965 Voting Rights Act as implying the right of minority voters to elect the candidates of their choice. This gave the impetus to ‘race‐conscious districting’, which created voting districts in which minority citizens (primarily Black and Latino) formed a voting majority. This chapter explores the success of this in raising the proportion of black representatives but also the problems this mechanism has generated. It uses this case study to argue the importance of combining a politics of ideas with a politics of presence.Less
Civil rights litigation in the USA successfully interpreted the 1965 Voting Rights Act as implying the right of minority voters to elect the candidates of their choice. This gave the impetus to ‘race‐conscious districting’, which created voting districts in which minority citizens (primarily Black and Latino) formed a voting majority. This chapter explores the success of this in raising the proportion of black representatives but also the problems this mechanism has generated. It uses this case study to argue the importance of combining a politics of ideas with a politics of presence.
Josep M. Colomer
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199241835
- eISBN:
- 9780191598975
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924183X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The more complex the political institutions, the more stable and socially efficient the outcomes will be. This book develops an extensive analysis of this relationship. The discussion is theoretical, ...
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The more complex the political institutions, the more stable and socially efficient the outcomes will be. This book develops an extensive analysis of this relationship. The discussion is theoretical, historical, and comparative. Concepts, questions, and insights are based on social choice theory, while an empirical focus is cast on about 40 countries and a few international organizations from late medieval times to the present. Political institutions are conceived here as the formal rules of the game, especially with respect to the following issues: who can vote, how votes are counted, and what is voted for. Complexity signifies that multiple winners exist, as in plural electorates created by broad voting rights, in multi‐party systems based upon electoral systems of proportional representation, and in frameworks of division of powers between the executive and the legislative or between the central government and noncentral units. The efficiency of outcomes is evaluated for its social utility, which is to say, the aggregation of individuals’ utility that is obtained with the satisfaction of their preferences. This is a book that emphasizes the advantages of median voter's cabinets and presidents, divided government, and federalism. Pluralistic democratic institutions are judged to be better than alternative formulas for their higher capacity of producing socially satisfactory results.Less
The more complex the political institutions, the more stable and socially efficient the outcomes will be. This book develops an extensive analysis of this relationship. The discussion is theoretical, historical, and comparative. Concepts, questions, and insights are based on social choice theory, while an empirical focus is cast on about 40 countries and a few international organizations from late medieval times to the present. Political institutions are conceived here as the formal rules of the game, especially with respect to the following issues: who can vote, how votes are counted, and what is voted for. Complexity signifies that multiple winners exist, as in plural electorates created by broad voting rights, in multi‐party systems based upon electoral systems of proportional representation, and in frameworks of division of powers between the executive and the legislative or between the central government and noncentral units. The efficiency of outcomes is evaluated for its social utility, which is to say, the aggregation of individuals’ utility that is obtained with the satisfaction of their preferences. This is a book that emphasizes the advantages of median voter's cabinets and presidents, divided government, and federalism. Pluralistic democratic institutions are judged to be better than alternative formulas for their higher capacity of producing socially satisfactory results.
George P. Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195156287
- eISBN:
- 9780199872169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195156285.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter discusses the paradoxical ways that the Civil War served to strengthen states’ rights. Abolition was countered in many states by the enactment of “the Black Codes”, undermining the ...
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This chapter discusses the paradoxical ways that the Civil War served to strengthen states’ rights. Abolition was countered in many states by the enactment of “the Black Codes”, undermining the voting rights and equal protection that had ostensibly been granted to newly freed slaves. The author argues that these developments affect American life to this day, in the forms of felon disenfranchisement and discrimination, and in instances of denial of equal justice under law, such as the 1973 Rodriguez case.Less
This chapter discusses the paradoxical ways that the Civil War served to strengthen states’ rights. Abolition was countered in many states by the enactment of “the Black Codes”, undermining the voting rights and equal protection that had ostensibly been granted to newly freed slaves. The author argues that these developments affect American life to this day, in the forms of felon disenfranchisement and discrimination, and in instances of denial of equal justice under law, such as the 1973 Rodriguez case.
Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195149326
- eISBN:
- 9780199943975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149326.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter begins by reviewing arguments that supporters of felon disenfranchisement have used to frame the public debate. But the contemporary arguments in support of felon disenfranchisement do ...
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This chapter begins by reviewing arguments that supporters of felon disenfranchisement have used to frame the public debate. But the contemporary arguments in support of felon disenfranchisement do not help us understand how these laws came into existence in the first place. We must instead look to the legal, political, and historical record to understand how we got to this point. The denial of political rights to criminal offenders can be found under very different types of democratic (and protodemocratic) regimes, and the practice has been a hot topic of philosophical debates since at least Aristotle. Understanding this history requires exploration of premodern political regimes and legal systems, classical philosophical writings, and their enduring traces in contemporary legal and political discourses. That is the goal of this chapter. But before exploring how and why societies disenfranchise, we must first ask why the right to vote became—and has remained—a bedrock of democratic governance.Less
This chapter begins by reviewing arguments that supporters of felon disenfranchisement have used to frame the public debate. But the contemporary arguments in support of felon disenfranchisement do not help us understand how these laws came into existence in the first place. We must instead look to the legal, political, and historical record to understand how we got to this point. The denial of political rights to criminal offenders can be found under very different types of democratic (and protodemocratic) regimes, and the practice has been a hot topic of philosophical debates since at least Aristotle. Understanding this history requires exploration of premodern political regimes and legal systems, classical philosophical writings, and their enduring traces in contemporary legal and political discourses. That is the goal of this chapter. But before exploring how and why societies disenfranchise, we must first ask why the right to vote became—and has remained—a bedrock of democratic governance.
Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195149326
- eISBN:
- 9780199943975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149326.003.0015
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Chapters 1 and 2 endeavored to describe and analyze the origins of modern felon disenfranchisement laws, as well as highlight the peculiarities of the American case. This chapter now asks who these ...
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Chapters 1 and 2 endeavored to describe and analyze the origins of modern felon disenfranchisement laws, as well as highlight the peculiarities of the American case. This chapter now asks who these disenfranchised citizens are. How many are there? How and when are their rights restricted? When are they restored? And do the laws have a disproportionate racial impact today?Less
Chapters 1 and 2 endeavored to describe and analyze the origins of modern felon disenfranchisement laws, as well as highlight the peculiarities of the American case. This chapter now asks who these disenfranchised citizens are. How many are there? How and when are their rights restricted? When are they restored? And do the laws have a disproportionate racial impact today?
Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195149326
- eISBN:
- 9780199943975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149326.003.0055
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter considers a range of policy and political proposals for reenfranchisement. It suggests that the key long-term reforms require reconsideration of all voting restrictions on ...
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This chapter considers a range of policy and political proposals for reenfranchisement. It suggests that the key long-term reforms require reconsideration of all voting restrictions on disenfranchised felons. The issue can be broken down into three separate questions: restoring voting rights for people who have completed their entire sentence (ex-felons); restoring voting rights for people who remain under supervision of the criminal justice system on probation or parole, but live in their communities (nonincarcerated felons); and restoring voting rights for currently incarcerated felons.Less
This chapter considers a range of policy and political proposals for reenfranchisement. It suggests that the key long-term reforms require reconsideration of all voting restrictions on disenfranchised felons. The issue can be broken down into three separate questions: restoring voting rights for people who have completed their entire sentence (ex-felons); restoring voting rights for people who remain under supervision of the criminal justice system on probation or parole, but live in their communities (nonincarcerated felons); and restoring voting rights for currently incarcerated felons.
Oliver Hart
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198288817
- eISBN:
- 9780191596353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198288816.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
In a public company, ownership is dispersed among small shareholders, causing a separation between ownership and control. This chapter discusses the role of takeovers and voting rights in limiting ...
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In a public company, ownership is dispersed among small shareholders, causing a separation between ownership and control. This chapter discusses the role of takeovers and voting rights in limiting the ability of a management team to pursue its own goals rather than maximizing the company's public value. Using a general model of the effects of security‐voting structure on control transactions, it is shown that, under a reasonable set of assumptions, the optimal structure is a single class of shares with votes attached (‘one share‐one vote’). The author also discusses situations in which departures from ‘one share‐one vote’ may be optimal and relates the results to the empirical evidence.Less
In a public company, ownership is dispersed among small shareholders, causing a separation between ownership and control. This chapter discusses the role of takeovers and voting rights in limiting the ability of a management team to pursue its own goals rather than maximizing the company's public value. Using a general model of the effects of security‐voting structure on control transactions, it is shown that, under a reasonable set of assumptions, the optimal structure is a single class of shares with votes attached (‘one share‐one vote’). The author also discusses situations in which departures from ‘one share‐one vote’ may be optimal and relates the results to the empirical evidence.
Joan Petersilia
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195160864
- eISBN:
- 9780199943395
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195160864.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter discusses the growing number of citizens who have criminal records and the ways in which those records are increasingly being openly shared with the public. It also reviews the evidence ...
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This chapter discusses the growing number of citizens who have criminal records and the ways in which those records are increasingly being openly shared with the public. It also reviews the evidence on how a criminal record affects an offender's right to vote, qualify for public assistance, find work, or retain his parental rights. The restrictions on employment and housing create formidable obstacles to law-abidingness. One has to question whether we are jeopardizing public safety by making it so difficult for released prisoners to succeed.Less
This chapter discusses the growing number of citizens who have criminal records and the ways in which those records are increasingly being openly shared with the public. It also reviews the evidence on how a criminal record affects an offender's right to vote, qualify for public assistance, find work, or retain his parental rights. The restrictions on employment and housing create formidable obstacles to law-abidingness. One has to question whether we are jeopardizing public safety by making it so difficult for released prisoners to succeed.
