Elections, Electoral Systems and Volatile Voters

Elections and parties are obvious cornerstones of democratic regimes. Though intensively researched and lively debated through the post-war literature, these topics deserve continuous attention to keep up with an accelerating rate of change of both collective actors, legal rules, and their socio-political environment. The book gives a full account of past experience, present structures and processes, and probable developments, of the voters- party-electoral systems nexus in twenty-one advanced Western democracies. A special focus is devoted to volatility, i.e., the growing instability of voting choices. This -- is argued -- is the indicator of a wholesale crisis of the electors-parties trust relationship and the underlying cause of an unprecedented party fragmentation and a decreasing effectiveness of electoral rules. The analysis, descriptive, interpretative, and explanatory, is based on an original 1945-2007 comparative data set including all relevant political and institutional variables.

Table of Contents:
PART I What Democratic Elections Are, and What They Are Not Electoral Systems in Contemporary Advanced Democracies: Basic Principles and their Mechanics Majoritarian Systems Proportional Systems Mixed-Member Systems PART II Electoral Rules: How Effective and Why The French 2RS: Suited for Comparative Research? Re-Designing Cases and Indicators From Theory to Evidence: Updating and Re-Testing Lijphart Systemic Consequences, Past and Future

About the Author :
GIANFRANCO BALDINI is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Salerno, Italy, and Research Director at the Istituto Cattaneo of Bologna, where he is also Co-director of a book series on the politics of advanced democracies (Elezioni, governi, democrazie). He has recently co-edited, together with Marc Lazar, the first book of this series on France's political system after the 2007 Presidential and Legislative elections La Francia di Sarkozy. At the Istituto Cattaneo he is also coordinator of the yearbook Italian Politics, whose 2009 edition will be co-edited by himself and A. C. Bull. ADRIANO PAPPALARDO is Professor of Political Science at the University of Salerno, Italy, and Visiting Scholar at the Ecole Doctorale of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris. His research interests embrace formal coalition analysis, consociational and democratic theory, comparative macro-economic management, electoral systems, and the Italian political transition. He has co-authored Democrazie e Decisioni and Sistemi Elettorali e Partiti nelle Democrazie Contemporanee. In English, he has most recently published Italian Bipolarism and the Elections of 2006: End of the Line or just a Connecting Stop?, Journal of Modern Italian Studies and Electoral Systems, Party Systems: Lijphart and Beyond.

Review :
'This book deserves a special place in the voluminous literature on electoral systems. Its explicit aim is to show that, although often declared 'mature', the study of this subject and their effects has neglected some important questions that need theoretical probing and new empirical tests. At both levels, Baldini and Pappalardo put forward insightful analyses and convincing comparative evidence. The book is thus an excellent example of the cumulative dynamics which characterizes the best work in political science and a compelling opportunity for reopening the agenda of the post-Duvergerian debate.' - Arend Lijphart, Research Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, USA