Citizen Representation and Electoral Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ferland ◽  
Matt Golder
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Citizen Preferences ◽  
The Government ◽  
Ideological Dimension ◽  
Ideological Congruence

One common way to think about citizen representation is in terms of the ideological distance between citizens and their representatives. Are political elites ideologically congruent with citizen preferences? Electoral systems are an especially important political institution to consider when studying citizen representation because they influence the size and ideological composition of party systems, how votes are translated into legislative seats, the types of governments that form after elections, and the types of policies that get implemented. In effect, electoral institutions affect each stage of the representation process as one moves from citizen preferences to policy outcomes. Research on ideological congruence indicates that electoral rules can cause distortions in citizen-elite congruence to emerge and disappear as one moves through the representation process. In this regard, studies show that proportional electoral systems enjoy a representational advantage over majoritarian systems when it comes to legislative congruence (the ideological distance between the median legislative party and the median citizen) but that this advantage disappears when it comes to government congruence (the ideological distance between the government and the median citizen). Although research on citizen-elite ideological congruence has made significant progress over the last two decades, several new lines of inquiry are still worth pursuing. One is to move beyond the traditional focus on the left–right ideological dimension to evaluate citizen representation in a truly multidimensional framework. Another is to develop a unified theoretical framework for thinking about ideological congruence and ideological responsiveness. For too long, scholars have conducted studies of citizen-elite congruence and responsiveness in relative isolation, even though they address fundamentally related issues. In terms of measurement issues, progress can be made by developing better instruments to help locate citizens and elites on a common metric and paying more attention to the policymaking dynamics associated with minority and coalition governments. Existing studies of ideological congruence focus on the United States and the parliamentary democracies of Western Europe. Scholars might fruitfully extend the study of citizen representation to presidential democracies, other regions of the world, and even authoritarian regimes. Among other things, this may require that scholars think about how to conceptualize and measure citizen representation in countries where parties are not programmatic or where elites are not necessarily elected.

Electoral Systems and Citizen-Elite Ideological Congruence

2017 ◽  
pp. 212-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Golder ◽  
Benjamin Ferland
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Citizen Preferences ◽  
Ideological Congruence

Electoral rules play an important role in determining citizen-elite ideological congruence. This is because they influence each stage of the representation process as one moves from citizen preferences to policy outcomes. Electoral rules directly affect ideological congruence due to the way they shape citizen preferences and the composition of party systems, legislatures, and governments. Electoral rules can also have an indirect effect on ideological congruence through the incentives they create for elite responsiveness and their impact on descriptive representation. In addition to reviewing the existing literature, this chapter suggests new avenues for future research. In particular, it suggests that significant gains can be made by addressing ideological congruence and responsiveness in a unified theoretical framework and by having more interaction between scholars of ideological congruence and those interested in descriptive and substantive representation.

Informal norms trump formal constraints: the evolution of fiscal policy institutions in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER T. CALCAGNO ◽  
EDWARD J. LÓPEZ
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Institutional Evolution ◽  
Informal Rules ◽  
The Government ◽  
Elected Office ◽  
Formal Constraints

AbstractTwo shifts of informal rules occurred in the decades around the turn of the 20th century that continue to shape U.S. fiscal policy outcomes. Spending norms in the electorate shifted to expand the scope of the government budget to promote economic security and macroeconomic stability. Simultaneously, norms for elected office shifted to careerism. Both norms were later codified into formal rules as legislation creating entitlement programs, macroeconomic responsibility, and organizational changes to the fiscal policy process. This institutional evolution increased demand for federal expenditures while creating budgetary commons, thus imparting strong motivations to spend through deficit finance in normal times. Despite the last four decades of legislative attempts to constrain spending relative to taxes, the informal norms have trumped the formal constraints. While the empirical literature on deficits has examined the constraining effects of informal rules, this paper offers a novel treatment of shifting norms as having expansionary effects on deficits.

scholarly journals ARGENTINA EN EL MUNDO: ¿IDAS Y VUELTAS?

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-135
Author(s):  
Alejandro SIMONOFF
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Government ◽  
Policy Agendas

The article seeks to find the reasons why Argentina’s foreign policy is shown to be oscillating, fundamentally thinking about the latest institutional change, and to explore some of the keys aspects of this event. Argentina’s foreign policy has gone through different stages and the last presidential elections have shown potential changes regarding the future of this agenda. The article begins with a brief review of the foreign policy implemented in the government of Mauricio Macri, based on an alignment with the United States, Western Europe and Japan as world powers. The next section presents analytical perspectives for foreign policy agendas. Subsequently, the article presents an analysis of the notable movements of the government of Mauricio Macri in foreign policy.

The Vote of Confidence in Parliamentary Democracies

1996 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Huber
Keyword(s):  
Formal Model ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Vote Procedure ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Conflict ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Significant Control ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
The Government

I present a formal model of the confidence vote procedure, an institutional arrangement that permits a prime minister to attach the fate of a particular policy to a vote on government survival. The analysis indicates that confidence vote procedures make it possible for prime ministers to exercise significant control over the nature of policy outcomes, even when these procedures are not actually invoked. Neither cabinet ministers, through their authority over specific portfolios, nor members of parliament, through the use of no-confidence motions, can counteract the prime minister's policy control on the floor of parliament. The analysis also illuminates the circumstances under which prime ministers should invoke confidence vote procedures, focusing attention on the position-taking incentives of the parties that support the government, rather than on the level of policy conflict between the government and parliament.

Party Systems and Government Stability

1971 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Taylor ◽  
V. M. Herman
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Government Stability ◽  
Strong Relation ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Opposition Parties

Arguments are presented for and against a series of hypotheses about the influence of the parliamentary party system on the stability of governments, and the hypotheses are tested against data on 196 governments in parliamentary democracies since 1945. A strong relation is found between the duration of governments and the fragmentation of the parliamentary party system and of the government parties, but the fragmentation of the opposition parties seems not to affect stability. One-party governments are more stable than coalition governments, and majority governments more than minority governments. The ideological dispersion of the parties—in the whole parliament, in the government, or in the opposition—does not explain stability any better than fragmentation, which is based upon only the number and sizes of parties; but the proportion of seats held by ‘anti-system’ parties (communists and neo-fascists, mainly) is a good indicator of stability. The best explanation of government stability found here is the combined linear influence of the size of the anti-system parties and the fragmentation of the pro-system parties.

Legislative Review and Party Differentiation in Coalition Governments

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 242-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID FORTUNATO
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
External Support ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Legislative Proposals ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Legislative Review

Multiparty governance requires compromise and this compromise can lead to electoral losses. I argue that coalition members are motivated to differentiate themselves from their cabinet partners to mitigate potential electoral losses resulting from voters perceiving them as not rigorously pursuing their core policy positions or not possessing strong policy stands. I test this argument with original data on the scrutiny of over 2,200 government bills gathered from three parliamentary democracies incorporating information on voter perceptions of partisan ideology and parties’ policy preferences as derived from their manifestos. I find that coalition partners that are perceived as more similar will amend one another’s legislative proposals more vigorously in an effort to differentiate in the eyes of the electorate—to protect their brand—and therefore provide evidence for “pure” vote-seeking behavior in the legislative review process. Furthermore, these original data provide answers to several open questions regarding the policy motivations of cabinet parties in legislative review and the role of committee chairs and external support parties on policy outcomes.

scholarly journals Real Austerity

2021 ◽  
pp. 269-273
Author(s):  
Mark Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Austrian School ◽  
Retirement Benefits ◽  
The People ◽  
Growing Economy ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
Spending Cuts ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

Austerity has been hotly debated as either an elixir or a poison for tough economic times. But what is austerity? Real austerity means that the government and its employees have less money at their disposal. For the economists at the International Monetary Fund, «austerity» may mean spending cuts, but it also means increasing taxes on the beleaguered public in order to, at all costs, repay the government’s corrupt creditors. Keynesian economists reject all forms of austerity. They promote the «borrow and spend» approach that is supposedly scientific and is gentle on the people: paycheck insurance for the unemployed, bailouts for failing businesses, and stimulus packages for everyone else. Austrian School economists reject both the Keynesian stimulus approach and the IMF-style high-tax, pro-bankster «Austerian» approach. Although «Austrians» are often lumped in with «Auste-rians,» Austrian School economists support real austerity. This involves cutting government budgets, salaries, employee benefits, retirement benefits, and taxes. It also involves selling government assets and even repudiating government debt. Despite all the hoopla in countries like Greece, there is no real austerity except in the countries of eastern Europe. For example, Latvia is Europe’s most austere country and also has its fastest growing economy. Estonia implemented an austerity policy that depended largely on cuts in government salaries. There simply is no austerity in most of western Europe or the U.S. As Professor Philipp Bagus explains, «the problem of Europe (and the United States) is not too much but too little austerity—or its complete absence.»

scholarly journals Investigatingthe challenges of refinery construction in Nigeria: A snapshot across two-timeframes over the past 55 years

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-72
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Iheukwumere ◽  
◽  
David Moore ◽  
Temitope Omotayo ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
News Media ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Local Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Oil Refinery ◽  
Petroleum Resources ◽  
The Government

he sub-optimal performance of state-owned refineries in Nigeria has led to a significant gap in the supply of refined petroleum products (RPPs) in the country. More so, the growing demand for these products has further widened the gap to the range of 500,000 –600,000 barrels per day (bpd). Consequently, most of the imports for RPPs in Nigeria are being filled from the United States and North-Western Europe at the expense of the Nigerian economy. However, given the abundance of petroleum resources in Nigeria and its long history in the production of oil, it is unfortunate that the local refineries are hardly maintained to meet the needs of the local population. In addition, the inability of the Nigerian state to build additional refining capacity to cushion its domestic supply gap for RPPs has become a major concern. With more than 40 licenses issued to private companies since 2002, only two companies (Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Refinery and Dangote Oil Refinery) have made noticeable progress in new refinery construction.This paper is focused on investigating the current challenges of refinery construction in Nigeria. This is done with a view of comparing the drivers and enablers of productivity in construction in this sector during the period of 1965 –1989 and how they differ from the current period of 2000 -2019 in Nigeria.A systematic literature review within the academic journals, source documents from the industry, relevant interviews from published news media and consulting organisations were used to identify and categorise these challenges. The findings of this study were validated by interviews from experts across key industries in this sector.The study reveals that change of ownership structures from the government sector to the private sector between the two eras, present additional challenges. These challenges cut across availability of capital, inconsistent government priorities and access to land for construction. Others include cronyism and corruption, weak political will, unstructured refinery licensing scheme, security challenges and economic factors regarding the regulated downstream market inNigeria. Key recommendations proffered to help solve these problems include a private sector-led partnership with the government in the form of public private partnerships (PPPs), a review of existing methods for licensing refineries for private organisations, the development of local manpower with relevant technical skills to help lower the cost of expatriate labour and the establishment of more designated clusters as free trade zones within the oil-producing Niger Delta. These recommendations will help lower the entry barriers for private organisations in this sector

Verán ustedes las chozas más humildes. El discurso de pobreza en la diplomacia pública cardenista dirigida a Estados Unidos

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas ◽  
The New Deal

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.

The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Laurence
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Integration Problems ◽  
Muslim Minorities

This book traces how governments across Western Europe have responded to the growing presence of Muslim immigrants in their countries over the past fifty years. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews with government officials and religious leaders in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Turkey, the book challenges the widespread notion that Europe's Muslim minorities represent a threat to liberal democracy. The book documents how European governments in the 1970s and 1980s excluded Islam from domestic institutions, instead inviting foreign powers like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Turkey to oversee the practice of Islam among immigrants in European host societies. But since the 1990s, amid rising integration problems and fears about terrorism, governments have aggressively stepped up efforts to reach out to their Muslim communities and incorporate them into the institutional, political, and cultural fabrics of European democracy. The book places these efforts—particularly the government-led creation of Islamic councils—within a broader theoretical context and gleans insights from government interactions with groups such as trade unions and Jewish communities at previous critical junctures in European state-building. By examining how state–mosque relations in Europe are linked to the ongoing struggle for religious and political authority in the Muslim-majority world, the book sheds light on the geopolitical implications of a religious minority's transition from outsiders to citizens. This book offers a much-needed reassessment that foresees the continuing integration of Muslims into European civil society and politics in the coming decades.

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