Political Institutions

'Political Institutions' is an outstanding contribution to the growing literature challenging the conventional wisdom that majoritarian, concentrated-power democracy provides the most 'decisive' and effective government. Instead, as Colomer's logical and empirical analysis convincingly demonstrates, sharing power and dividing power are much more advantageous. A first-rate scholarly achievement! -- Arend Lijphart, University of California, San Diego

Josep Colomer has produced a rigorous, accessible analysis of social choice in democratic settings. Its empirical scope is broad, its emphasis on institutions is crisp, and its arguments are persuasive. 'Political Institutions' graces Oxford UP's new series on comparative politics. -- Kenneth Shepsle, Harvard University

A happy marriage of social choice theory with comparative politics, well worth reading, and including on syllabi. One strength is the author's knack for supplying historical material that illustrates the relevance of social choice theory to the study of political institutions. In this sense, Colomer's book follows in the tradition of William H. Riker's 'Liberalism Against Populism' (1982), although 'Political Institutions' is empirically richer, and much more accessible to a non-technical audience Colomer does this so well, with such a keen sense for how the basic intuitions from social choice theory map onto real-world politics, that Political Institutions should become a staple of reading lists on positive political theory and comparative politics. -- 'American Political Science Review'

Compulsory reading for every professional of the social sciences, of political activity or public sphere and of decision-making in any field of economic and social life. -- Revista Española de Ciencia Política

Josep M Colomer is Research Professor in Political Science at the Higher Council for Scientific Research, Institute for Economic Analysis, in Barcelona, and Prince of Asturias Distinguished Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC.