Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Political science has a good understanding of the role of elections and the ways in which the choice of electoral laws help shape a political system. However, since these generalisations were developed in relation to established democratic polities, they may not necessarily apply to newly democratising countries. This project explored the role played by elections in the process of post-communist democratisation by examining the impact of elections on democratic performance, representativeness and policy responsiveness. It will focus on eight core countries, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and the Ukraine, employing a range of historical, comparative, and quantitative methods to test postulated relationships and identify key causal factors. For certain quantitative purposes the study will use a wider set of 19 countries to test its findings. The project will assess the consequences of different electoral systems, particularly the formulae for converting votes into seats, the criteria laid down for political participation, and regulations governing candidate selection and the conduct of election campaigns. The project led to academic publications that advanced understanding of elections and the electoral process in new democracies. Many theories derived from the study of Western Europe do not apply to new democracies, where the impact of electoral systems is neither immediate nor straightforward, for example mixed systems have led to party fragmentation rather than to the expected party consolidation. The monograph <i>Embodying Democracy: Electoral System Design in Post-communist Europe</i> is the first comparative explanation of how post-communist countries choose their electoral rules. It demonstrates the importance of context for understanding how actors engage in strategic bargaining. Contact with East European...