Electoral Systems
What is the List PR electoral system, and how does it operate in ethnically diverse societies?
List PR allocates seats to parties in proportion to their share of votes. In diverse societies, it allows multiple ethnic groups to win representation through party lists rather than winner-take-all districts.
How do one-party dominant systems differ from single-party systems?
One-party dominant allows multiple parties but only one party consistently wins; single-party allows only one legal party.
Describe symmetric federalism and provide an example.
A federal system where all subnational units (states or provinces) have equal powers. Example: the USA
This term describes a government’s commitment to follow the authoritative rules and principles set out in its constitution.
Constitutionalism refers to the commitment of governments to accept the legitimacy of, and be governed by, a set of authoritative rules and principles that are laid out in a constitution.
Name and briefly describe the two major scholarly views on ethnicity and nationhood.
Constructivist view: Ethnic identities are socially created and reshaped by history, politics, and institutions.
Primordialist view: Ethnic identities are natural, inherited, and enduring, rooted in ancestry, language, religion, and culture.
In our ice-cream voting simulation, we used three electoral rules: Plurality, Borda Count, and the Condorcet Method. Describe how each of these vote-counting systems determines a winner.
Plurality counts only first-place votes; Borda Count assigns points to each ranking (4–3–2–1) and totals them; Condorcet compares flavors head-to-head and selects the option that wins all pairwise matchups.
Explain how electoral systems shape the number of parties represented in legislatures.
Proportional systems encourage multiple parties by rewarding smaller parties; plurality systems discourage multiple parties by favoring major parties.
Explain how federalism affects debates over policies like abortion or healthcare in the U.S.
Federalism allows states to make different policies, causing clashes between state and federal governments over who has ultimate authority.
A constitution written in a single document is called codified. What is an uncodified constitution, and which countries have one?
An uncodified constitution draws on multiple written and unwritten sources rather than a single text. Examples include Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
If scholars treat ethnic identity as primordial, what kind of institutional solution do they tend to support for managing ethnic divisions?
They support power-sharing arrangements like consociationalism that guarantee minority representation.
According to Duverger’s Law, which electoral system tends to produce two-party systems?
Plurality or "first-past-the-post" voting systems. AKA SMDP
Why do authoritarian regimes have political parties despite limited or no electoral competition?
Parties help legitimize the regime, mobilize the public, and control political participation.
Devolution ≠ Federalism. What is devolution, and how does it differ from federalism?
Devolution is when a unitary state grants powers to regional governments but can take them back at any time; the regions have no constitutional guarantee of their authority.
What key elements make up constitutional design?
It includes the core features that structure the political system: how responsibilities are divided across branches and levels of government, the separation of powers, and whether the system is federal (power shared with subnational units) or unitary (power concentrated in the central government).
Describe the difference between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism, and give examples of countries where each is commonly associated.
Civic nationalism defines membership by citizenship and is linked to tolerant, liberal-democratic traditions (e.g., France, the UK, the United States). Ethnic nationalism defines membership by ancestry and the “volk,” often linked to exclusionary or illiberal tendencies (e.g., Germany, Russia).
In our district-drawing activity, teams used two common gerrymandering tactics to gain advantage. Name and briefly describe them.
Packing: Concentrating the other side’s voters into a few districts. Cracking: Spreading the other side’s voters across many districts.
Name at least three of the four main functions of political parties.
Structuring the political world; recruiting and socializing elites; mobilizing the masses; linking rulers and the ruled.
How do political scientists typically measure decentralization in federal or decentralized states?
By looking at revenue: the more tax money controlled by regional governments (and the less by the center), the more decentralized the state is.
What are entrenched and unentrenched constitutions, and name countries that exemplify each type.
Entrenched constitutions require a special amendment process that is harder than ordinary legislation. Ex: United States, Germany, India, South Africa.
Unentrenched constitutions can be amended through ordinary legislative procedures, often simple majority votes. Ex: United Kingdom, New Zealand, Israel.
How common is ethnic conflict according to scholars, and is ethnic diversity itself a direct cause of civil war?
Ethnic conflict is less automatic than many assume: ethnic diversity alone does not cause civil war. Civil wars are more strongly linked to conditions that favor insurgency, such as poverty, oil dependence, political instability, and difficult terrain.
Arrow’s theorem shows a major limitation in collective decision-making. What does the theorem say about designing a voting system that is both rational and fair?
It says no decision rule can guarantee a rational group outcome while also meeting basic fairness conditions.
According to Posner (2004), why are Chewas and Tumbukas political rivals in Malawi but allies in Zambia, and what does this show about the politicization of ethnic divisions?
Their political relevance depends on group size relative to the electoral system: large enough to compete separately in Malawi, too small to compete alone in Zambia. This shows that ethnic divisions become politicized only when electoral incentives make them useful.
Federalism is often praised for giving groups self-rule, reducing fears of domination, and making large, diverse states more governable. Recent studies, though, suggest that federalism may actually intensify ethnic conflict in some situations. According to this research, what mechanisms explain how federalism can increase ethnic tensions?
It reinforces regionally based ethnic identities, gives ethnic leaders access to political and economic resources they can use to pressure the state, and makes it easier for regional majorities to pass discriminatory laws against local minorities.
What is the difference between constitutional review and judicial review?
Constitutional review is performed by specialized constitutional courts outside the regular judiciary, while judicial review is carried out by ordinary judges within the regular court system.
The Alternative Vote (AV) is often presented as an improvement over First-Past-the-Post, which can shut out minority representation. What feature of AV is supposed to reduce ethnic conflict and encourage cross-ethnic cooperation?
AV requires candidates to win a majority after transferring voters’ second- and third-preference rankings, pushing them to seek support beyond their own group and appeal to other ethnic communities.