Norwegians voted this past week to return the governing center-right party to power. Norway is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Below is an abridged excerpt from the text of the interactive entry on the government of Norway in the CIA Factbook, a great resource to consult online to test your understanding of the design components in … More Design Digest: Norway votes
You might think that simplicity would be at a premium in national elections. The architects of the German electoral system thought otherwise. Germans will vote for members of the federal legislature (the Bundestag) in the autumn of 2017, not once, but twice, simultaneously! The electoral system is a complex hybrid, and we will not know … More Design digest: federal elections in Germany
An analysis in last week’s The Economist casts light on coming “state” elections in Mexico, and illustrates two themes discussed in The Joy of Politics. To whit. Mexico is a federal state, the units of which are called “states,” or, in Spanish, estados. Elections take place at varying intervals at both the national, or federal, … More Design digest: state elections in Mexico
Representation is of paramount importance in most modern democracies. In many countries quotas are set to encourage participation among women, minorities, and other traditionally underrepresented social groups. Kenya is an interesting case in this regard. In August 2017 Kenyans will vote for their president and deputy president, and members of both houses of a bicameral … More Design digest: election quotas in Kenya
Presidential elections were held in South Korea in May 2017, in which Moon Jae-in emerged victorious in one round of first past the post voting. The outgoing president, Park Geun-hye, was impeached by the national legislature in December 2016; this decision was upheld by the Korean Constitutional Court in March 2017. It has been reported … More Design digest: presidential election, South Korea
The relationship between the legislative and executive branches is an important element in the design of a political system. Witness France, where voters elected a new President, the independent Emmanuel Macron, in two rounds of voting in April-May 2017. France is a unitary republic with a bicameral legislature and a fairly unique, elaborately interconnected “semi-presidential” … More Design digest: elections in France, 2017
The Joy of Politics 