Democracy, Elections, and Electoral Geography in Malawi

Regional cleavages in Turkish politics: An electoral geography of the 1999 and 2002 national elections

The aim of the study is to describe electoral preferences of the inhabitants of the Greater Poland Voivodeship in elections of the President of the Republic of Poland in 2020. The study attempts to establish the correlation between standard of living and results of the candidates in the first and second (runoff) rounds of elections. The literature review allowed to establish the theoretical basis for research on elections in the field of political science and electoral geography. The results of the presidential elections in 2010, 2015 and 2020 in the voivodship were analyzed against the national background. Then, based on the Perkal’s method, a synthetic indicator of the standard of living was developed in the studied counties. The last step was to investigate the relationship between the? standard of living and election results of candidates.Research has shown correlation between candidates results and the standard of living. A. Duda’s results correlated negatively each time, while R. Trzaskowski’s results correlated positively. Additionally, it was noted that Duda achieved the highest results in poviats with a low and average standard of living, and (on the other hand) Trzaskowski in poviats with a very high and high level. On the basis of the election years analyzed, the political preferences of the inhabitants of the region were defined as liberal and left-wing, as they more willingly voted for candidates of such profiles than for conservative and right-wing politicians.

(1997). From despotism to democracy: The rise of multiparty politics in Malawi. Third World Quarterly: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 225-248.

This paper offers a new electoral geography perspective on two stylized facts that do not fit easily with our current understanding of the implications of electoral rules for electoral politics and social policy: (1) proportional representation (PR) electoral rules are not always associated with more generous social spending. In some cases, we observe comparatively high levels of social spending in majoritarian single-member district (SMD) systems. (2) Contrary to our theoretical expectations, national two-party competition occurs rarely, even under SMD rules. Here, I demonstrate the importance of electoral geography through a series of analytic examples that are based on a simple model of electoral politics, and in which all possible combinations of electoral boundaries, rules, and voter locations are manipulated.

The advent of multiparty politics in Malawi in June 1993 was not immediately perceived as the harbinger of a myriad of political twists and turns that have now confounded many. Emerging from the grip of a 30-year-old totalitarian regime, Malawians had every reason to jubilate when the pro-multiparty politics movement triumphed after the June 14, 1993 national referendum results were announced in which the movement was awarded a 64 percent victory of the vote cast to allow multiparty politics to be re-introduced into the country. First, this paper argues that the new multiparty system of government in the country is caught up in neo-liberal and neo-patrimonial puzzles that undermine the process of démocratisation. Second, that this state of affairs is rooted in the failure of neo-liberalism in Malawi; thus, the Malawian case has demonstrated that when neo-liberalism flounders, despotism recurs in a cycle of regime change. Third, that the selective application and the strange interpretation of constitutional law in Malawian politics is a clear manifestation of the existence, and draconian domination, of this despotism. Fourth, and finally, that liberal ideology, by its very nature, is a major drawback to the creation of a truly just state in Malawi.

Grounded in the main theoretical approaches to the study of electoral volatility, this article examines cross-regional variations in the levels of volatility for United Russia (UR) in Duma elections over the period 2003–2016, which are juxtaposed with the level of volatility for the Kremlin’s candidates in presidential elections. The main finding is that ‘regime type’ or, more precisely, ‘authoritarianism’ is the key explanatory variable. Stronger authoritarian rulers are able to control regional elites and ensure the best results for UR by exerting administrative pressure on voters. This reduces the level of volatility in support for UR. At the same time, economic and institutional explanations have a partial significance. Here, Duma elections differ from presidential elections, which demonstrate a much lower degree of volatility; in addition, economic factors appear insignificant.

A likely Islamic Salvation Front win in Algeria's legislative elections of December 1991 led to the cancellation of the results. In November 1995 relatively free presidential elections were held in Algeria as the process of democratisation re‐started. Since the democratic process was brought to an abrupt halt in Algeria in January 1992, the country experienced its first ever plural presidential election. General Zeroual, appointed in January 1994, promised presidential elections would take place before the end of 1995. The news was received with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the idea was dismissed by the main opposition parties, as elections would only serve to legitimise Zeroual's system, and thus they called for it to be boycotted. On the other hand, it represented the only way for further political reforms. A mandate from the people is what a new head of state needs which can only be achieved through the ballot box. Whatever the arguments, this presidential election represents a milestone in Algeria's political history. Its significance lies in the fact that it is the first ever multi‐party presidential election. In this article I shall analyse the background, preparations, events and outcomes of this election with particular emphasis on the following questions: was the contest open and did the major actors have equal opportunities to participate? Were there any irregularities in the voting procedures that could question thé validity of the results? Was access to the media given equally to all candidates? Was enough information made available about the candidates? Would the ‘majority’ of the electorate obey the call to boycott the election? Finally, what do the results of the election mean for the future of the Algerian political system?

This collection of essays examines the political transitions of the 1980s and 1990s in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and Mexico, focusing on parties and elections. In the opening chapter, Fernando López-Alves presents a useful inventory of transition studies and locates the present volume within the vast literature on the topic. In contrast to the bulk of transition studies, the case studies in this book take a long view of recent changes by grounding themselves in the party and electoral patterns of the pre-dictatorial political systems or, in the case of Mexico, in the era of uncontested PRI supremacy.César Tcach finds that Argentina’s transition was completed by 1990, after (1) the country’s first presidential election (1989) in which the incumbent ceded power to a candidate of an opposition party and (2) the effective subordination of the military to civilian authority. An essential part of the transition was the resurrection and strengthening of the historic Peronist Party and the Unión Cívica Radical. Rachel Meneguello examines the 1985 and 1989 Brazilian presidential elections and the emerging party configuration against the backdrop of Brazil’s republican history in which parties came and went as instruments of populist leaders and/or the state. Drawing on the 1988 plebiscite and 1989 and 1993 presidential and congressional elections in Chile, Carlos Huneeus finds that, despite changes in leadership and names, the pre-1973 party constellations re-emerged. But he also notes the decline in party activism in Chile and other Latin American countries that followed the euphoria of the earliest post-dictatorial elections.Víctor Reynoso dissects the 1988 and 1994 presidential and the 1991 congressional elections in Mexico to gauge the direction and extent of the country’s unique transition toward a multiparty democracy. Silvia Dutrénit examines the Uruguayan elections of 1984 and 1989, including the plebiscite on prosecutions of human rights violators under the military regime. These reveal a marked evolution in Uruguay’s party system, with the decline of the Colorado/Nacional two-party system and the rise of Frente Amplio—a trend dramatically confirmed in the 1999 election. In the concluding chapter, Gonzalo Varela extracts the common threads from the five countries’ transitions. The enhancement of parties’ roles in Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil and the resuscitation of traditionally powerful parties in Chile and Uruguay form part of a broader trend toward strong party systems throughout Latin America after the passing of populism, statism, and dictatorship.Without breaking new theoretical ground, these case studies are well argued, thoroughly documented, and endowed with a wealth of detail, much of which is presented in numerous tables and graphs. Although published in 1998, the book does not cover some of the more recent elections, such as the 1997 Mexican and Chilean congressional elections, which were pivotal points in those countries’ recent political history. Nonetheless, this book will serve well as a source for historians of contemporary Latin American politics.

Book reviewed in this article: AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATISM: Essays in Twentieth Century Political History. Edited by Cameron Hazichurst. MENZIES OBSERVED. By Cameron Hazlehurst. AUSTRALIAN POPULAR CULTURE. Edited by Peter Spearritt and David Walker. ANATOMY OF AN ELECTION. Edited by P.R. Hay, Ian Ward and John Warhurst. INDONESIA AND AUSTRALIA: The Politics of Aid and Development since 1966. By Philip J. Eldridge.SOUTHEAST ASIAN AFFAIRS 1978. MALAYSIA'S PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM: Representative Politics and Policy‐making in a Divided Society. By Lloyd D. Musolf and J. Frederick Springer. THE TRANSFER OF POWER 1942‐7. Vol. VIII: The Interim Government 3 July ‐ 1 November 1946. Edited by Nicholas Mansergh and Penderel Moon. POLITICS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN REGION: The Balances of Power. By Ferenc A. Vali. POLITICS AND PURGES IN CHINA: Rectification and the Decline of Party Norms 1950–1965. By Frederick C. Teiwes THE FORGOTTEN WAR: Australian Involvement in the South African Conflict of 1899–1902. By L.M. Field. THE CITY AND THE COURT 1603–1643. By Robert Ashton. FORD LIST OF BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS 1965–1974, together with Specialist Commentaries. Edited by Diana Marshallsay and J.H. Smith. INDEPENDENT COLLIER: The Coal Miner as Archetypal Proletarian Reconsidered. Edited by Royden Harrison. THE EXECUTION PROCESS: Vol. 1, Implementation in a Bureaucracy; Vol. 2, Control in a Bureaucracy. By Andrew Dunsire. THE SECOND COMING: Popular Millenarianism 1780–1850. By J.F.C. Harrison. THE MIDDLE CLASS IN POLITICS. Edited by John Garrard, David Jary, Michael Goldsmith and Adrian Oldfield. WOMEN IN THE HOUSE: A Study of Women Members of Parliament. By Elizabeth Vallance. SEPARATE SPHERES: The Opposition to Women's Suffrage in Britain. By Brian Harrison. THE WAR PLANS OF THE GREAT POWERS, 1880–1914. Edited by Paul M. Kennedy. A SHORT HISTORY OF MODERN GREECE. By Richard Clogg. POMPEY: A Political Biography. By Robin Seager. THE SOVIET UNION 1976‐77: Domestic, Economic and Foreign Policy. Edited by Wolfgang Berner LENIN'S GOVERNMENT: Sovnarkom 1917–1922. By T.H. Rigby. DOES CANADA NEED A NEW ELECTORAL SYSTEM? By William P. Irvine. GEOGRAPHY OF ELECTIONS. By P.J. Taylor and R.J. Johnston. WHITE CANADA FOREVER: Popular Attitudes and Public Policy toward Orientals in British Columbia. By W. Peter Ward. LOCKE, ROUSSEAU AND THE IDEA OF CONSENT: An Inquiry into the Liberal‐Democratic Theory of Political Obligation. By Jules Steinberg. MAIN CURRENTS OF MARXISM. By Leszek Kolakowski. KARL MARX'S THEORY OF HISTORY: A Defence. By G.A. Cohen. THE REASON OF STATES: A Study in International Political Theory. Edited by Michael Donelan. MORAL CLAIMS IN WORLD AFFAIRS. Edited by Ralph Pettman. STRATEGY AND ETHNOCENTRISM. By Ken Booth. A MULTINATIONAL LOOK AT THE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION: An international collection of academic and corporate views on the future of transnational enterprise. Edited by Michael T. Skully.

This article analyses the 2005 parliamentary and presidential elections in Poland. Using Sartre's polemical essay “Elections: A trap for fools” as a foil, I contend that the contemporary practice of representative democracy in Poland fails to engage the electorate and functions to mediate the systemic exclusions produced by post-Socialist neoliberalism. The article explores the elections’ dual nature by analysing the electoral geography of two areas inhabited by national minorities. Since national minorities’ participation in the decisions that affect them has been a key goal of the European New Minority Rights regime, their experience of democracy in Poland highlights tensions operative through the Polish political economy.

Includes all relevant information on national elections held in Lebanon since its independence in 1941. Part I gives a comprehensive overview of Lebanon's political history, outlines the evolution of electoral provisions, and presents the current electoral legislation in a standardized manner (suffrage, elected institutions, nomination of candidates, electoral system, organizational context of elections). Part II includes exhaustive electoral statistics in systematic tables (numbers of registered voters, votes cast, the votes for candidates and/or parties in parliamentary and presidential elections, the electoral participation of political parties, the distribution of parliamentary seats, etc.).

Though Donald Trump popularized the phrase “Build the Wall” during the 2016 presidential election, Sarah R. Coleman's The Walls Within: The Politics of Immigration in Modern America reminds us that immigration has historically taken the forefront of political campaigns, especially during the second half of the twentieth century. Asserting that immigration scholars have primarily focused on external (international) borders, Coleman turns to internal domestic borders to examine federal, state, and local policies that sought to restrict non-citizen rights. Coleman argues, “With the passage of the Hart-Celler Act in 1965 and the corresponding shifts in immigration patterns, efforts to restrict immigrants’ access to social welfare programs began to solidify during the 1970s” (p. 106). In this vein, the author sets out to trace the “struggle of politicians, interest groups, courts, activists, and communities to define the rights of immigrants in the United States after the passage of the historic Hart-Celler Act of 1965” (p. 2). Coleman focuses on immigrants’ access to education, employment, and welfare to examine the nation's internal borders.This political history is organized into an introduction, six chapters, and an epilogue. The first chapter, “The Rose's Sharp Thorn: Texas and the Rise of Unauthorized Immigrant Education,” traces the 1982 landmark Supreme court case Plyler v. Doe, which decided that a Texas statute that charged tuition to non-citizen students violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Chapter 2, “‘A Subclass of Illiterates’: The Presidential Politics of Unauthorized Immigrant Education,” successfully demonstrates how pressures of an impending presidential election influenced the Carter administration's lack of response to Plyler v. Doe and Governor Ronald Reagan's pressure to woo Texas voters.Coleman then examines employment issues in the third chapter, “‘Heading into Uncharted Waters’: Congress, Employer Sanctions, and Labor Rights,” through which she explores how political alliances and parties became divided over employer sanctions. Chapter 4, “‘A Riverboat Gamble’: The Passage of Employer Sanctions,” relies on the passage of employer sanctions to emphasize one of Coleman's core arguments: “policies emerged not out of clear, ideologically coherent policy positions, but instead through tangled political compromises, sometimes crafted to address complex policy questions and, at other times, merely for the sake of incremental political gains” (p. 82).Following conservative fears that immigrants would soon have access to all civic liberties, Coleman examines welfare rights in the fifth chapter, “‘To Reward the Wrong Way Is Not the American Way’: Welfare and the Battle Over Immigrants’ Benefits.” This chapter effectively demonstrates another central premise of the book: “the removal of authorized immigrants from welfare is significant as it highlights the hardening of citizenship as the essential element in determining the relationship between the individual and the welfare state” (p. 108). In this chapter, Coleman most clearly outlines the origins of present-day local and state immigration policy. In regard to the monumental transfer of immigration authority from federal to state, Coleman argues, “Beyond the immediate restrictions, the changes made in the 1990s established a new policy framework that would ultimately reshape immigration policy over the next two decades,” (p. 141). Further illuminating the origins of today's immigration restrictions, Chapter 6, “From the Border to the Heartland: Local Immigration Enforcement and Immigrants’ Rights,” relies on an Iowa court case and the implementation of the 287(g) program to demonstrate how “federal inability to address some of the complicated issues of immigration control opened the window for state efforts at policymaking” (p. 142).The book's strengths lie in effectively detailing how political figures, institutions, grassroots organizations, and federal and state governments treated each court case as a high-stakes entryway into allowing non-citizens access to other civil liberties. Coleman convincingly traces and demonstrates how landmark immigration court cases are never treated as stand-alone issues; politicians are particularly concerned about how one policy could affect others or how their approval for a policy could alienate key constituencies. Sources are another strength, as Coleman balances materials from the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations, as well as immigration and civil rights organizations. Although the reliance on a wide array of polls is informative, Coleman does not address pollsters’ demographics. Details such as pollsters’ national origins and socio-economic statuses could strengthen Coleman's argument. The first and last chapters that rely primarily on one court case could be strengthened by further discussing other cases that are mentioned but not used to complicate the evidence.Coleman set out to accomplish the significant feat of detailing restrictions imposed on non-citizens in the United States. The book successfully contributes to the field of immigration studies through its focus on internal borders. Audiences that would benefit from The Walls Within include those seeking to learn about the legislative policy process through history. Coleman puts it best: “This study looks at the entire scale of policymaking that is pertinent to immigrants, showing how local, state, and federal actions shaped policy implementation and politics in distinct ways” (p. 5).

Includes all relevant information on national elections held in Kiribati since its independence in 1979. Part I gives a comprehensive overview of Kiribati's political history, outlines the evolution of electoral provisions, and presents the current electoral legislation in a standardized manner (suffrage, elected institutions, nomination of candidates, electoral system, organizational context of elections). Part II includes exhaustive electoral statistics in systematic tables (numbers of registered voters, votes cast, the votes for candidates and/or parties in parliamentary and presidential elections and referendums, the electoral participation of political parties, the distribution of parliamentary seats, etc.).

Shugart and Carey were among the first scholars to recognise that there is a relationship between regional and local – or subnational – electoral forces and the presidential race. Yet because of a lack of subnational electoral data, this relationship has largely remained unexplored. We elaborate on Shugart and Carey’s theory to argue that the effects of decentralisation are conditional on a party’s presence in subnational elections for determining when and why parties enter the presidential race. Using an original dataset of subnational electoral results and presidential strategies in 17 countries in Europe and Latin America from 1990 to 2013, we find that parties with a small presence in subnational elections are more likely to compete for the presidency under more extensive decentralisation. Statewide parties, however, contest presidential elections regardless of level of decentralisation. These findings have important implications for understanding Shugart and Carey’s expectation that subnational contestation influences national party systems, presidential elections and democratic representation more generally.

Minor parties and strategic voting in recent U.S. presidential elections