Mixed-member electoral systems may well be the electoral reform of the 21st century, much as proportional representation (PR) was in the 20th century. In the view of many electoral reformers, mixed-member systems offer the best of both the traditional British single-seat district system and PR systems. This book seeks to evaluate: why mixed-member systems have recently appealed to many countries with diverse electoral histories; and how well expectations for these systems have been met. Each major country, which has adopted a mixed system thus, has two chapters in this book, one on origins and one on consequences. These countries are Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Israel, Japan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, Hungary, and Russia. In addition, there are also chapters on the prospects for a mixed-member system being adopted in Britain and Canada, respectively.
The material presented suggests that mixed-member systems have been largely successful thus far. They appear to be more likely than most other electoral systems to generate two-bloc party systems, without in the process reducing minor parties to insignificance. In addition, they are more likely than any other class of electoral system to simultaneously generate local accountability as well as a nationally-oriented party system.
Mixed-member electoral systems have now joined majoritarian and proportional systems as basic options which must be considered whenever electoral systems are designed or redesigned. Such a development represents a fundamental change in thinking about electoral systems around the world.
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An excellent reference book that provides unique and extensive coverage of a diverse range of cases. -- 'Japanese Journal of Political Science'
Matthew Shugart is an American political scientist. He is a Distinguished Professor of political science at the University of California, Davis. He is also an Affiliated Professor at the University of Haifa.
Martin Wattenberg is a political scientist at the University of California, Irvine. He is an expert on American elections and party politics and is co-author of, 'Government in America: People, Policy, and Politics'.
René Antonio Mayorga, researcher and Director of CEBEM, is currently Professor of Political Science in the Joint Master's Program of FLACSO and CEBEM.
Fiona Barker is a Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Kenneth Benoit is Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Trinity College, University of Dublin. Jonathan Boston is Professor of Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington.
Juan Carlos Rey is Professor and Director of the Political Science Unit at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IDEA) in Caracas, Venezuela.
Roberto D'Alimonte is professor of political science at the University of Florence, Italy.
David Denemark is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, University of Western Australia.
David Farrell holds the Chair of Politics at University College Dublin. A specialist in parties, electoral systems and representation, Professor Farrell’s most recent book was the award-winning Political Parties and Democratic Linkage, published by Oxford University Press in 2011. He was the research director of the Irish Constitutional Convention.
Reuven Y Hazan is Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He works on elections and electoral systems, political parties and party systems, legislative studies and Israeli politics. He is the author of Democracy Within Parties: Candidate Selection Methods and their Political Consequences (with Gideon Rahat) (Oxford University Press, 2010), Cohesion and Discipline in Legislatures: Political Parties, Party Leadership, Parliamentary Committees and Governance (Routledge, 2006), and co-editor of 'Understanding Electoral Reform' (with Monique Leyenaar) (a special issue of West European Politics, 2011).
Richard S Katz is Professor of Political Science at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He was co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research (2006-2012). His books include A Theory of Parties and Electoral Systems (Johns Hopkins 1980, 2006), Democracy and Elections (Oxford 1997), Handbook of Party Politics, ed. with William Crotty (Sage 2006), The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy, ed. with William P. Cross, (Oxford 2013). He was vice-chair and treasurer on the Executive Committee of the European Consortium for Political Research.
Hans-Dieter Klingemann is Professor Emeritus, Social Science Research Center, Berlin. Among his recent publications are Public Information Campaigns (with A Roemmele) (Sage Publications, 2001); Mapping Policy Preferences (with I Budge et al) (Oxford University Press, 2001); Russell J Dalton and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, eds. 2007 The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (2009); The comparative Study of Electoral Systems (2009).
Michael R Kulisheck is a Senior Analyst with the polling firm Talmey-Drake Research & Strategy.
Stephen Levine is Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington and Director of the New Zealand Political Change Project.
Elizabeth McLeay is Emeritus Professor at Victoria University of Wellington.
Juan Molinar is a member of he General Council of the Federal Electoral Institute.
Robert G Moser is Assistant Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin.
Gideon Rahat is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He works on political parties, candidate selection and electoral reform. He is author of The Politics of Regime Structure Reform in Democracies: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective (State University of New York Press, 2008), and Democracy within Parties: Candidate Selection Methods and their Political Consequences (with Reuven Y. Hazan) (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Nigel S Roberts is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Victoria University of Wellington.
Susan Scarrow is Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston. Her scholarship and teaching has focused on representation and electoral institutions, including political party development, direct democracy, and political finance. Her prior publications include Parties and their Members (Oxford University Press), Perspectives on Political Parties (Palgrave), and Democracy Transformed? (Oxford University Press, edited with Russell J. Dalton and Bruce Cain).
John W Schiemann is Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University and has also taught at Rutgers University and Fordham University.
Frank Thames is Professor of Political Science at Texas Tech University.
Michael F Thies is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.
R Kent Weaver is a Senior Fellow in the Governmental Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.
Jeffrey A Weldon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
Bernhard Weßels is Professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin and Deputy Director of the Department “Democracy and Democratization” at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
