Electoral Laws, Parties, and Party Systems in Latin America

Parties, Electoral Systems and Taxation 1870-1945

In this paper I argue that the effect of ideology on tax structure depends on the electoral system. Earlier research has argued that left wing governments tax more progressively, but in light of recent empirical work, this has been challenged. The dominant approach instead posits that the left taxes regressively while spending progressively. That is, the left still redistributes more, but it ta...

Minor Parties in Plurality Electoral Systems

Present research on minor party performance consists largely of singlecountry studies or pooled studies including a raft of widely varying electoral systems. This study examines the topic from a cross-national perspective, but is limited to democratic polities with single-member districts and first-past-the-post rules. An original dataset is compiled including 217 elections drawn from 37 countr...

Challenges of Party- Building in Latin America

Political parties are the basic building blocks of representative democracy. Political scientists have long argued that democracy is “unworkable” (Aldrich 1995: 3) or even “unthinkable” (Schattschneider 1942: 1) without them. Yet four decades into the third wave of democratization, parties remain weak in much of Latin America. Since 1990, major parties have weakened dramatically or collapsed al...

Do Parties Benefit from Electoral Manipulation? Electoral Laws and Heresthetics in Poland, 1989-1993

Electoral heresthetics, or the manipulation of electoral systems to a political player’s advantage, had profound political consequences for post-communist transitional Poland. Choices of di¤erent electoral systems contributed ...rst to the fall of communism and later to the reclaiming of power by the postcommunists. Despite high stakes and top priority attached by political players to electoral...

Campaign Promises, Economic Performance, and Electoral Accountability in Latin America