Announcements

1
Announcements

• OLAF Conference
• Make-up Exam
• Final Paper

2
Norris (2008) Chapter 5 (horizontal)

• Does the type of electoral system a state choose
  have an impact on its level of democracy?
• Consociational theory PR, especially in plural
  states, better for democracy and elite
  cooperation
• Critics power-sharing only reinforces ethnic/
  religious/ linguistic differences..

3
Chapter 5

• Primary IV Comparing electoral systems
• PR (STV, open/closed list)
• Plurality/ Majority (PM) MMP (mixed)
• positive action stategies quotas,
  redisticting for minority groups, etc.
• Primary DV 3 indicators of democracy Freedom
  House, Polity and Vanhannen
• Tests relationship on all states available in
  sample (145 states and Plural states (70))
• 2 case studies UK and New Zealand

4
Ch. 5 Results

• Multivariate analysis
• -Majoritarian systems have a negative impact on
  the full and plural samples, while PR and
  positive action strategies have a positive
  impact.
• Case studies (2 long-standing democracies)
• -while UK kept its FPTP electoral system
  (allowing the Labor/ conservative dominance in
  hte Hous of Commons), it allowed Scottland and
  Wales to reform their parliamnets. They saw
  nationalist parties win. However, they are still
  excluded nationally.
• -New Zealand switiched from FPTP to MMP allowing
  for greater inclusion of the Maori and other
  minorities

5
Chapter 6 Executive (horizontal)

• Does the type of executive struture impact the
  level of democracy, and regime stability?
• Classification of executive structure
• Unified Executive
• Military dictatorship
• Ruling monarchy
• Presidential republic
• 2) Duel executive
• Mixed Republic (president PM)
• Parliamentary monarchy
• more specifics on page 19 of ch. 6

6
Ch. 6 cont.

• DV the 3 democracy indicators, and the Banks
  data (regime stability, democracy)
• Primary IVs the 5 types of executive
  arraingments
• Finds that compared with parliamentary
  monarchies, all otehr regimes are lower in
  democracy and less politically stable (with the
  exception of Mixed states for the Banks data).
• No case study comparison was done here.

7
Chapter 7 Federal Decentrilized States
(vertical)

• Does federalism (/ or decentralization) lead to
  better democracy in plural societies?
• Types of decentralization
• Administrative
• Fiscal
• Political
• Norris uses a similar classification as
  Lijphart for federal and unitary constitutions
  which are either centralized or decentralized,
  hybrid
• Advantages of decentralization
• Disadvantages

8
Ch. 7 empirical tests

• Difference of means tests of democracy scores
  finds federal states outperform hybrid and
  unitary states for all 4 democracy indicators.
• With a dummy variable (0/1), in a multivariate
  model (full sample), she finds federal
  constitutions positively impact democracy (though
  no test of the decentralization)
• Case studies India and Bangladesh dispite many
  similarities, India outperforms Bangladesh in
  many QoG indicators why?
• Norris claims federalism and decentralization
  differences are key, India adopted them while
  Bangladesh remained highly centralized.