Parties, Elections and Voting, 5 cr

Electoral systems are a crucial aspect in the chain linking the preferences of citizens to parliaments and governments. They are also powerful instruments sustaining power-sharing and government formation in democracies. Adopting a comparative perspective focusing on European countries, this course introduces the main theories and concepts regarding electoral institutions, their emergence, changes, and effects. Precisely, the course will proceed thematically, with students discussing a subset of the pertinent scholarly literature every week. Among others, we will evaluate how electoral systems influence party systems, representation, behaviour, the quality of democracy, and electoral fraud. By the end of the course, students will understand the main challenges undergirding the choice of an electoral system and the effect of this systemic variable on the functioning of European democracies.