Format:
1 online resource (xii, 228 pages)
,
digital, PDF file(s).
ISBN:
9781107484139
,
9781139382137
,
9781107031616
Content:
Amel Ahmed brings new historical evidence and a novel theoretical framework to bear on the study of democratization. Looking at the politics of electoral system choice at the time of suffrage expansion among early democratizers, she shows that the electoral systems used in advanced democracies today were initially devised as exclusionary safeguards to protect pre-democratic elites from the impact of democratization and, particularly, the existential threat posed by working-class mobilization. The ubiquitous use and enduring nature of these safeguards calls into question the familiar picture of democracy moving along a path of increasing inclusiveness. Instead, what emerges is a picture that is riddled with ambiguity, where inclusionary democratic reforms combine with exclusionary electoral safeguards to form a permanent part of the new democratic order. This book has important implications for our understanding of the dynamics of democratic development both in early democracies and in emerging democracies today.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015)
,
Cover; Contents; Figures; Tables; Acknowledgements; 1 Introduction: contradictions and ambiguities of democratization; The great electoral transformation; Explaining electoral system choice; Partisan electoral engineering; Endogenous institutions; Reading history forward; 1. Understanding the starting point; 2. Pre-democratic parties and working-class mobilization; 3. The existential threat; Engineering electoral dominance; Plan of the book; 2 Strategies of containment: the role of repression and accommodation; Working-class mobilization and strategies of containment; "Right" parties
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Containment: repression and accommodationRepression; Accommodation; Strategies of containment, working-class mobilization, and the existential threat; Electoral viability; Ideological radicalism; Conclusions; 3 Strategies of competition: the logic of electoral system choice, single member plurality (SMP) vs. proportional representation (PR); Preexisting electoral systems; SMP and PR as electoral safeguards; Logic of the choice; No viable workers' party; Workers' party electorally viable, ideologically moderate; Workers' party electorally viable, mixed ideological platform
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Workers' parties electorally viable, ideologically radicalCase study analysis; 4 The United States: pre-industrial democratization and the origins of SMP; Pre-industrial democratization and working-class mobilization; Minority representation and the adoption of SMP; Post-war politics and the campaign for PR; The push for PR in Congress; State-level reform; New York; Illinois; Municipal reform and PR; The success of containment and the defeat of PR; Conclusions; 5 The United Kingdom: safeguarding the Reform Acts with SMP; Democratization and working-class mobilization
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PR and the Reform Act of 1867The Reform Act of 1884 and the adoption of SMP; Post-1884: SMP retained; Conclusions; 6 France: the tumultuous path of electoral system choice in the Third Republic; Containment and competition in the early years; Electoral system choice in the early years: the regime question; Return to the district system; Working-class mobilization and the pre-war movement for PR; Post-war politics: the experiment with PR; Conclusions; 7 Belgium: minimizing the existential threat with PR; Democratization and working-class mobilization; Early attempts to establish safeguards
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The adoption of PRConclusions; 8 Conclusions: rethinking democracy's determinisms; Findings of the study; Cross-regional analysis; Case study analysis; Within-case analysis; Implications of the work; Institutionally structured outcomes; Democratization as politics; APPENDIX The existential threat: electoral viability and ideological radicalism; Electoral viability; Ideological radicalism; Bibliography; Index;
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9781107031616
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9781107031616
Language:
English
Subjects:
Political Science
Keywords:
Electronic books
DOI:
10.1017/CBO9781139382137
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