From Open Secrets to Secret Voting

From Open Secrets to Secret Voting PDF

Author: Isabela Mares

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-06-17

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 131630079X

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The expansion of suffrage and the introduction of elections are momentous political changes that represent only the first steps in the process of democratization. In the absence of institutions that protect the electoral autonomy of voters against a range of actors who seek to influence voting decisions, political rights can be just hollow promises. This book examines the adoption of electoral reforms that protected the autonomy of voters during elections and sought to minimize undue electoral influences over decisions made at the ballot box. Empirically, it focuses on the adoption of reforms protecting electoral secrecy in Imperial Germany during the period between 1870 and 1912. Empirically, the book provides a micro-historical analysis of the democratization of electoral practices, by showing how changes in district level economic and political conditions contributed to the formation of an encompassing political coalition supporting the adoption of electoral reforms.

Should Secret Voting Be Mandatory?

Should Secret Voting Be Mandatory? PDF

Author: James Johnson

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-11-10

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 1509538178

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The secrecy of the ballot, a crucial basic element of representative democracy, is under threat. Attempts to make voting more convenient in the face of declining turnout – and the rise of the “ballot selfie” – are making it harder to guarantee secrecy. Leading scholars James Johnson and Susan Orr go back to basics to analyze the fundamental issues surrounding the secret ballot, showing how secrecy works to protect voters from coercion and bribery. They argue, however, that this protection was always incomplete: faced with effective ballot secrecy, powerful actors turned to manipulating turnout – buying presence or absence at the polls – to obtain their electoral goals. The authors proceed to show how making both voting and voting in secret mandatory would foreclose both undue influence and turnout manipulation. This would enhance freedom for voters by liberating them from coercion or bribery in their choice of both whether and how to vote. This thought-provoking and insightful text will be invaluable for students and scholars of democratic theory, elections and voting, and political behavior.

Super PACs

Super PACs PDF

Author: Louise I. Gerdes

Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC

Published: 2014-05-20

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 0737768649

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The passage of Citizens United by the Supreme Court in 2010 sparked a renewed debate about campaign spending by large political action committees, or Super PACs. Its ruling said that it is okay for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want in advertising and other methods to convince people to vote for or against a candidate. This book provides a wide range of opinions on the issue. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.

From Open Secrets to Secret Voting

From Open Secrets to Secret Voting PDF

Author: Isabela Mares

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-06-17

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1107100216

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This book presents an account of the adoption of electoral reforms democratizing electoral practices in nineteenth century European countries.

Secrecy and Publicity in Votes and Debates

Secrecy and Publicity in Votes and Debates PDF

Author: Jon Elster

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-06-26

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1107083362

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In the spirit of Jeremy Bentham's Political Tactics, this volume offers the first comprehensive discussion of the effects of secrecy and publicity on debates and votes in committees and assemblies. The contributors - sociologists, political scientists, historians, and legal scholars - consider the micro-technology of voting (the devil is in the detail), the historical relations between the secret ballot and universal suffrage, the use and abolition of secret voting in parliamentary decisions, and the sometimes perverse effects of the drive for greater openness and transparency in public affairs. The authors also discuss the normative questions of secret versus public voting in national elections and of optimal mixes of secrecy and publicity, as well as the opportunities for strategic behavior created by different voting systems. Together with two previous volumes on Collective Wisdom (Cambrige, 2012) and Majority Decisions (Cambridge, 2014), the book sets a new standard for interdisciplinary work on collective decision-making.

The Politics of Social Risk

The Politics of Social Risk PDF

Author: Isabela Mares

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-07-07

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9780521534772

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The book provides a systematic evaluation of the role played by business in the development of the modern welfare state. When and why have employers supported the development of institutions of social insurance that provide benefits to workers for various employment-related risks? What factors explain the variation in the social policy preferences of employers? What is the relative importance of business and labor-based organization in the negotiation of a new social policy? This book studies these critical questions, by examining the role played by German and French producers in eight social policy reforms spanning nearly a century of social policy development. The analysis demonstrates that major social policies were adopted by cross-class alliances comprising labor-based organizations and key sectors of the business community.

The Hidden History of the Secret Ballot

The Hidden History of the Secret Ballot PDF

Author: Romain Bertrand

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780253219428

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"Introduction: towards a historical ethnography of voting / Romain Bertand, Jean Louis Briquet and Peter Pels -- The secret ballot in nineteenth-century Britain / Frank O'Gorman -- Uses and abuses of the secret ballot in the American age of reform / John Crowley -- 'Chad wars': voting machines and democracy in the United States / Denis Lacorne -- Voting in India: electoral symbols, the party system and the collective citizen / Christophe Jaffrelot -- Imagining elections: modernity, mediation and the secret ballot in late-colonial Tanganyika / Peter Pels -- The engineers of democracy: election monitoring agencies and political changes in post-Suharto Indonesia / Romain Bertrand -- Politics in the village: voting and electoral mobilisation in rural Corsica / Jean-Louis Briquet -- From acclamation to secret ballot: the hybridisation of voting procedures in Mexican-Indian communities / David Recondo -- Commodification of the vote and political subjectivity in Africa: reflections on the case of Benin / Ricahrd Banégas -- Return of the repressed: Indonesia's new order elections revisited / John Pemberton -- Elections in Iran: religion, nation and the public sphere / Mahmoud Alinejad."--Library of Congress.

Introducing Democracy

Introducing Democracy PDF

Author: David Beetham

Publisher: UNESCO

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 9231040871

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Presents a selection of questions and answers covering the principles of democracy, including human rights, free and fair elections, open and accountable government, and civil society.