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Political Science Elections

Establishing the Rules of the Game

Election Laws in Democracies

by (author) André Blais, Louis Massicotte & Antoine Yoshinaka

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2004
Category
Elections, Democracy
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802087690
    Publish Date
    Jan 2004
    List Price
    $81.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802085641
    Publish Date
    Dec 2003
    List Price
    $40.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442674639
    Publish Date
    Nov 2003
    List Price
    $80.00

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Description

There are an astonishing variety of election laws across contemporary democratic societies. In Establishing the Rules of the Game, Louis Massicotte, André Blais, and Antoine Yoshinaka provide the first thorough examination of these laws. The study incorporates original data collected from more than sixty democracies around the world, and touches on oft-ignored, yet extremely important, aspects of election laws. The countries covered by the study include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Romania, and the United Kingdom. The authors focus on six dimensions of election laws: the right to vote, the right to be a candidate, the electoral register, the agency in charge of the election, the procedure for casting votes, and the procedure to sort out the winners and losers.

Massicotte, Blais, and Yoshinaka uncover underlying patterns, explaining why certain types of country tend to adopt a given sets of rules. In general, former colonies adopt the same laws as their former mother country. There is also a tendency for established democracies to be more inclusive than non-established ones. The authors point out sociological patterns and review normative and practical arguments for and against each set of rules, providing invaluable information for students of elections and democratic theory as well as election practicioners.

About the authors

Andr� Blais is Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies at the Universit� de Montr�al.

André Blais' profile page

Louis Massicotte is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at l'Université de Montréal.

Louis Massicotte's profile page

Antoine Yoshinaka is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Rochester.

Antoine Yoshinaka's profile page