Electoral Reform Under Limited Party Competition: The Adoption of Proportional Representation in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel L. Negretto ◽  
Giancarlo Visconti
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Political Liberalization ◽  
New Parties ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe adoption of proportional representation in Western Europe has been portrayed as either a defensive or an offensive competition strategy used by established parties to deal with the rise of new parties under majoritarian electoral rules. Neither explanation accounts for PR reform in other regions of the world, where the change took place in the absence of increased party competition. Analyzing the history of electoral reform in Latin America, this article argues that in a context of limited party competition, the initial adoption of PR was part of a strategy of controlled political liberalization promoted by authoritarian rulers. Subdividing this general reasoning, the article shows that PR reform followed different paths depending on the nature of the authoritarian regime and the events that called into question the existing majoritarian electoral system. This argument is supported with a comparative historical analysis of cases within and across each route to reform.

Deciding on the Electoral System: Chile's Adoption of Proportional Representation in 1925

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Gamboa ◽  
Mauricio Morales
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
New Parties ◽  
District Magnitude ◽  
Strategic Coordination ◽  
Cumulative Voting ◽  
Voting System

AbstractIn 1925 a new electoral system was introduced in Chile. This reform changed the electoral formula from a cumulative voting system to a proportional one (d'Hondt) and established new rules about district magnitude and form of voting. It has been argued that this reform was motivated by the emergence of new parties or the expansion of the electorate. This article offers an alternative explanation: in the case of Chile, the main reason for the electoral reform was the parties' need to solve problems of strategic coordination stemming from the characteristics of the Chilean cumulative voting system. In this context, the Chilean case shows that there are many routes to proportionality.

scholarly journals Setting the Rules of the Game: The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies

1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 609-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carles Boix
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
History Of ◽  
Electoral Regime ◽  
Developed World ◽  
Rules Of The Game

Looking at the history of democracies in the developed world, I show that electoral systems derive from the decisions the ruling parties make to maximize their representation according to the following conditions. As long as the electoral arena does not change and the current electoral regime benefits the ruling parties, the electoral system is not altered. As the electoral arena changes (due to the entry of new voters or a change in voters' preferences), the ruling parties modify the electoral system, depending on the emergence of new parties and the coordinating capacities of the old parties. When the new parties are strong, the old parties shift from plurality/majority to proportional representation if no old party enjoys a dominant position, but they do not do this if there is a dominant old party. When new entrants are weak, a system of nonproportional representation is maintained, regardless of the structure of the old party system.

Wahlsystemreform in Deutschland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Matauschek
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Parallel Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
Suitable Alternative ◽  
Representation Systems ◽  
District Magnitude ◽  
Alternative Vote

Is plurality or majority electoral reform a sensible option in Germany’s muddled electoral system debate? Yes, it is. Since Germany’s mixed-member proportional system fails to concentrate the party system in a sufficient way, Peggy Matauschek searches for a suitable alternative to the principle of proportional representation. She discusses the following options according to their contextual conditions: single-member plurality and majority electoral systems—like the alternative vote system—, parallel systems, proportional representation systems with a low district magnitude and majority bonus systems. In light of its balanced performance, the study advocates the introduction of a system with a majority bonus for a coalition.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Stephen G. Rabe
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
South America ◽  
National Security ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
History Of

This introductory chapter provides an overview of U.S. policies toward Latin America during Henry Kissinger's career as national security adviser and secretary of state. Henri Kissinger directed inter-American relations between 1969 and 1977. Like his predecessors, Kissinger judged relations with Western Europe, the Soviet Union, and China as strategically more important than relations with Latin America. But Kissinger launched noteworthy initiatives, such as the attempt to normalize relations with Cuba and to transfer the canal to Panama. The Kissinger years were also historically significant for Latin Americans. The 1970s represented the most violent period in the history of post-independence (1825) South America. This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the foreign policies of the Nixon and Ford administrations toward Latin America and Kissinger's central role in formulating and implementing those policies.

The Battle Has Already Begun

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Erika Helgen
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Religious Competition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Os Sertoes ◽  
Brazilian Northeast ◽  
Modern Latin America

This chapter provides a background on Catholic–Protestant relations in the Brazilian Northeast. It talks about how the Brazilian Northeast became famous as a place of economic backwardness, political feuds, crippling droughts, popular unrest, and, religious fanaticism following the publication of Euclides da Cunha's Os sertões in 1902. It also looks into da Cunha's account of the Brazilian military's confrontation and eventual destruction of the allegedly fanatical millenarian community of Canudos, which made regional and national elites continuously fearful of the violent potential of northeastern religiosity. The chapter suggests a new religious history of modern Latin America that puts religious pluralism at the center rather than at the margins of historical analysis. It seeks to understand the ways in which religious competition and conflict redefined traditional relationships between church and state, lay and clergy, popular and official religion, and local and national interests.

Footprints on the Future: Looking Forward to the History of Health and Medicine in Latin America in the Twenty-First Century

2011 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Emanuelle Birn ◽  
Raúl Necochea López
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
First Century ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Health Politics ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Brazilian Science ◽  
Opening Up

Abstract This essay analyzes the current state of the field of history of health and medicine in Latin America and proposes questions and areas for further investigation. Using a variety of databases to identify relevant historiographical sources from across the Americas, the authors focus on a range of subjects that have substantially engaged contemporary historians while opening up still more research avenues. These include the health of diverse populations; new perspectives on religion and on women’s health; the historicizing of health systems, health politics, and social medicine; and the local-global nexus in Latin American health and medicine. These themes both draw from and extend beyond those addressed in pathbreaking works such as Nancy Leys Stepan’s Beginnings of Brazilian Science. Among the most stimulating developments of recent years are the incorporation of interdisciplinary perspectives on historical analysis, and the elucidation of regional patterns of and preoccupations with the interrelations among state, society, and medicine. The proliferation of historical knowledge regarding the health and medical landscape of Latin America has made this one of the most dynamic fields in historical scholarship today. The authors conclude by discussing emerging methodological and theoretical challenges, including Cold War studies and postcolonialism, and by reflecting on the shared scholarly and political responsibilities of Latin Americanists.

scholarly journals A Companion to the History of the Book, 2nd edition. Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose, eds.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Jessie Sherwood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Book History ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
History Of

When he declared, “the physical book really has had a 500-year run” in a 2009 interview, Jeff Bezos might well be forgiven for thinking that the book began with Gutenberg. Histories of the book have tended to give the impression that it emerged with movable type and existed largely, if not exclusively, in Mainz, New York, London, Paris, Venice, and environs. The first edition to A Companion to the History of the Book, first published in 2007, was a welcome, albeit modest, corrective to this narrow focus. While the bulk of its attention was on print in Western Europe and the United States, it incorporated chapters on manuscripts, books in Asia and Latin America, and the Hebraic and Islamic traditions, broadening the scope of book history both chronologically and geographically.

scholarly journals An italic obsession: electoral reforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Alessandro Chiaramonte
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Specific Time ◽  
Electoral Reforms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Mixed Systems

The history of Italy is plenty of reforms of the electoral system. Many are those implemented since the country’s unification: from the majority system to the limited vote, from proportional representation to the majority premium in the liberal era; and, again, in the Republican era, the return to proportional representation and then the use of mixed systems, combining PR with plurality or majority premium. And many other are the reforms which, discussed and sometimes even approved, as in the case of the italicum, have remained dead letter or never saw the light. What explains this Italic obsession with the electoral systems? Why have their reforms been on the parties’ and governments’ political agenda for so long? The goal of this article is to answer these questions. In the end, electoral reforms have played as instruments of coordination and adaptation in the political strategies pursued by the parties in specific time periods and also as substitute instruments of institutional engineering in the absence of broader agreements on major constitutional reforms.

The Competitive Road to Proportional Representation

2009 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Calvo
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Electoral Reforms ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Number Of Parties

One of the most noteworthy political regularities in the early twentieth century was the shift away from majoritarian electoral rules in Western Europe. The conventional wisdom suggests that proportional representation (PR) was introduced by elites who believed that under the existing majoritarian rules (simple plurality, block-vote, two-ballot rules) they would soon lose power to rapidly growing socialist parties. But this does not explain why many electoral reforms were carried out in countries with weak or nonexistent socialist parties. The author shows that increasing the number of parties distorts the seat-vote properties of electoral rules to a larger degree than previously anticipated. Under increasing party competition, electoral regimes display larger partisan biases than those observed in two-party races and crowd out minority parties that have territorially dispersed constituencies in favor of minority parties that have territorially concentrated constituencies. Using a dynamic Bayesian model for seats and votes, the author measures the partisan biases brought about by the expansion of voting rights in the late nineteenth century to explain the drive to reform majoritarian electoral systems.

scholarly journals The Changing Cleavage Politics of Western Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ford ◽  
Will Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
European Politics ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Western European

How are the contours of Western European politics shifting? To what extent do these shifts reflect changes in the underlying social and economic structure of European polities? In this article, we reflect on insights from the classic literature on how cleavages structure party systems and consider how the emergence and persistence of new parties and new ideological conflicts are leading to both shifts of dividing lines of party competition and the fragmentation of party systems. While increasing attention has been given to the so-called second dimension of European electoral politics, we highlight the relatively limited focus on structural changes that are helping to drive this transformation. We identify some socio-demographic developments that are potentially generating new cleavages in Western European democracies: the expansion of higher education; mass migration and the growing ethnic diversity of electorates; the aging of societies and sharpening of generational divides; and increased geographical segregation of populations between prospering, globalized major cities and declining hinterlands.

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