Democracy in divided societies : electoral engineering for conflict management / Benjamin Reilly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reilly, Ben, author.

Series:

Theories of institutional design.

Theories of institutional design

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Elections--Case studies.

Elections.

Conflict management--Case studies.

Conflict management.

Democracy--Case studies.

Democracy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 217 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Democracy is inherently difficult in societies divided along deep ethnic cleavages. Elections in such societies will often encourage 'centrifugal' politics which reward extremist ethnic appeals, zero-sum political behaviour and ethnic conflict, and which consequently often lead to the breakdown of democracy. Reilly examines the potential of 'electoral engineering' as a mechanism of conflict management in divided societies. He focuses on the little-known experience of a number of divided societies which have used preferential, vote-pooling electoral systems - such as Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland and Fiji. Examination of these cases shows that electoral systems which encourage bargaining between rival political actors, which promote the development of broad-based, aggregative political parties and which present campaigning politicians with incentives to attract votes from a range of ethnic groups can, under certain conditions, encourage the development of moderate, accommodatory political competition in divided societies.

Contents:

Introduction: democracy in divided societies

The historical development of preferential voting

Centripetal incentives and political engineering in Australia

The rise and fall of centripetalism in Papua New Guinea

Electoral engineering and conflict management in divided societies 1: Fiji and Sri Lanka compared

Electoral engineering and conflict management in divided societies 2: Northern Ireland, Estonia and beyond

Technical variations and the theory of preference voting

Conclusion: assessing the evidence.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-214) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-12218-X

0-511-04726-6

0-511-17435-7

1-280-43302-7

0-511-15416-X

0-521-79323-8

0-511-32828-1

0-511-49110-7

OCLC:

475914742