PARTIES AND LEGISLATURES

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PARTIES AND LEGISLATURES
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WEEKLY READING

• Smith, Democracy, ch. 7
• Lamounier, Brazil An Assessment of the Cardoso
  Administration
• Dresser, Mexico From PRI Dominance to Divided
  Democracy

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THE LEGISLATIVE ARENA

• Electoral Systems
• SMDs and two-party politics
• PR and multi-party politics
• Effects of district magnitude
• Closed-list vs. open-list ballots
• The problem of term limits
• Institutional Performance
• Essentially reactive legislatures
• Removing presidents?

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THE PLIGHT OF POLITICAL PARTIES

• Diversity of party systems
• Levels of popular confidence

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Counting Political Parties N 1 / (S
pi2) Where pi is the proportion of votes earned
by the i-th party (or, alternatively, the
proportion of seats in the legislature)
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THE POLITICS OF DISENCHANTMENT

• Weakness of representative institutions
• Constraints on modern-day democracy
• Inadequate policy performance
• Tendency toward delegative or illiberal
  democracy
• Thus 55 would now support authoritarian
  government if it could improve economic situation