誰が公職に就いて統治する権力を持つべきかを決定する選挙は、市民と、市民に代わって意思決定・統制する人を結び付けるもので、民主主義国家のみならず、非民主主義体制においても極めて重要なイベントです。本書は、選挙制度の種類、行政への影響、有権者の参加、代表制、政府の安定性、改革への取り組みなど、選挙の重要な側面を検証します。また、一人区複数制、比例制、混合制など多様な選挙制度や、これらの選挙制度における投票と集計を実施するためのさまざまな選挙制度を比較検討します。それぞれの制度が民主主義の機能と政治家の選挙戦略に及ぼす影響を分析し、各国で検討されている改革を取り上げ論じています。
  

• Highlights a variety of different election systems
• Provides detailed examples of how elections are run, including how ballots themselves make a difference
• Discusses elections in a global context, not just in the United States

    
Most citizens know how elections work in their own country, but not all elections are created equally.
   
Elections occur in all democracies and many non-democratic regimes as well. They determine who will hold public office and who will have the power to govern. They connect citizens to those whom they choose to make decisions on their behalf and who regulate their behavior. This book looks comparatively at the key aspects of elections. In addition to describing types of electoral systems, it discusses the implications of the various systems for the administration of elections, voter participation, representation, government stability, and other factors. Where appropriate, it examines efforts to reform a nation's (or a sub-national entity's) system, exploring the impetus for reform and the effects of those reforms when implemented.
   
Elections: A Very Short Introduction asks readers to view election systems critically and comparatively, to understand that all democracies do not function in the same way, to think about the reasons their system functions as it does-for good or ill-and to consider alternatives with which they might not previously have been familiar. L. Sandy Maisel and Jennifer A. Yoder lay out the variety of electoral systems in the broadest terms- single-member district plurality systems; proportional systems; and mixed systems. They discuss voting and the various electoral institutions used to implement the ways in which voting occurs and how votes are tabulated across electoral systems. They analyze the consequences of each system, first for the functioning of the democracy, and second for the electoral strategies politicians employ, closing with a discussion of reforms under consideration in a number of countries.