Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of briefings
- List of fact files
- List of controversies
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface to the second edition
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Key terms and concepts
- How to use this book
- Introduction
- PART I The state: origins and development
- PART II The polity: structures and institutions
- PART III Citizens, elites and interest mediation
- 9 Political attitudes and behaviour
- 10 Pressure groups and social movements
- 11 The mass media
- 12 Voters and elections
- 13 Party government
- PART IV Policies and performance
- Postscript: How and what to compare?
- Glossary of key terms
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
12 - Voters and elections
from PART III - Citizens, elites and interest mediation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of briefings
- List of fact files
- List of controversies
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface to the second edition
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Key terms and concepts
- How to use this book
- Introduction
- PART I The state: origins and development
- PART II The polity: structures and institutions
- PART III Citizens, elites and interest mediation
- 9 Political attitudes and behaviour
- 10 Pressure groups and social movements
- 11 The mass media
- 12 Voters and elections
- 13 Party government
- PART IV Policies and performance
- Postscript: How and what to compare?
- Glossary of key terms
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
Elections determine who is to take control of government. From the research point of view they also have the advantage of involving a large number of citizens and of producing a large volume of reasonably reliable statistics, so they are one of the best topics for research on mass political behaviour. They tell us a lot about how ordinary citizens relate to politics, what they think is important and how they make up their minds about governments and issues.
Given their importance in any democratic system of government, a great many questions can be asked about voting and elections: How are democratic elections best organised? Who votes and should we worry about declining turnout? Who votes for what party and why? How have voting patterns changed in recent decades?
In this chapter we tackle these questions in the following sections:
Democratic elections
Voting systems
Voting turnout
Party voting
Theories of voting.
■ Elections
Democratic elections
Suffrage The right to vote.
Gerrymandering Drawing electoral boundaries to favour a particular party or interest.
The preconditions for democratic elections are demanding, and we should not take them for granted, even in advanced democracies. They include universal adult suffrage, a secret ballot, impartial administration of voting and vote counting, free and equal access to the polls, freedom for candidates and parties to contest elections and an absence of gerrymandering.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Foundations of Comparative Politics , pp. 245 - 267Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009