Elite statecraft and electoral administration
Subtitle: bending the rules of the game?
By: by Toby S. James
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
ISBN-13: 9780230308428
Subjects: Elections
Description: All electoral laws produce winners and losers. They can give advantages to some candidates, parties and voters but cause disadvantages to others. So to what extent do political elites seek to change them to maximize their chances of maintaining power? In this book, Toby S. James explores this question by looking at the under explored area of election administration. He identifies why election administration might be used by political elites to win and maintain power. The book explores the role of elite interests in shaping election administration in the USA, UK and Ireland since the birth of democracy in each country. The book offers a new theoretical model, the statecraft approach, for understanding continuity and change in electoral institutions.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Election administration and electoral studies: theories, frameworks and anomalies; title: Election administration : a tool for political statecraft?; title: The statecraft approach: bringing political elites back in; title: "Stopping the vote": election administration in the USA; title: "Modernising elections": election administration in Britain; title: "Our silly aul pencils": election administration in Ireland; title: Agendas, systems and processes: elite strategy and election; title: Administration in comparative perspective; title: Conclusions and lessons for theorists and constitutional designers.