UID:
edocfu_9958998816602883
Format:
1 online resource
ISBN:
9781442662735
Content:
Though sharing broadly similar processes of economic and political development from the mid-to-late nineteenth century onward, western countries have diverged greatly in their choice of voting systems: most of Europe shifted to proportional voting around the First World War, while Anglo-American countries have stuck with relative majority or majority voting rules. Using a comparative historical approach, Wrestling with Democracy examines why voting systems have (or have not) changed in western industrialized countries over the past century.In this first single-volume study of voting system reform covering all western industrialized countries, Dennis Pilon reviews national efforts in this area over four timespans: the nineteenth century, the period around the First World War, the Cold War, and the 1990s. Pilon provocatively argues that voting system reform has been a part of larger struggles over defining democracy itself, highlighting previously overlooked episodes of reform and challenging widely held assumptions about institutional change.
Note:
Frontmatter --
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Contents --
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Acknowledgments --
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1. Introduction --
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2. Contextualizing Democracy --
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3. Prologue to the Democratic Era --
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4. Facing the Democratic Challenge, 1900-1918 --
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5. Struggling with Democracy, 1919-1939 --
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6. The Cold War Democratic Compromise, 1940-1969 --
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7. The Neoliberal Democratic Realignment, 1970-2000 --
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8. Conclusion --
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Notes --
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Select Bibliography --
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Author Index --
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Subject Index
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In English.
Language:
English
DOI:
10.3138/9781442662735
URL:
https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442662735
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