USESEC182 Elections and Electoral Systems

Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Winter 2018
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Michal Kuděla (lecturer)
Mgr. Michal Kuděla (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Michal Kuděla
Institute of Central European Studies – Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course is focused on the issue of elections and electoral systems. The students will be gradually presented the issue of elections and development of suffrage and supporting theories regarding the relation between electoral and party systems. Next, the students will become familiar with individual types of electoral techniques where the emphasis will be put on practical knowledge concerning the functioning of the individual types of electoral techniques and their consequences. The final part of the course then comprises a series of lectures and practical seminars focused on analysis of electoral reforms and issue of electoral surveys. Having passed the course, the students will be, besides the theoretical knowledge of functioning of electoral systems in the contemporary world, able to work practically with the electoral data (election results) and count the basic options of electoral systems (the proportional electoral techniques in particular).
Syllabus
  • 1. Elections, suffrage, terminology.
    2. Study of electoral systems and their impacts (Duverger, Sartori, relation between electoral and party systems)
    3. Majoritarian electoral systems I. (basic principles and their logic, classification, FPTP)
    4. Majoritarian electoral systems II. (multiple rounds electoral systems, alternative voting, other majoritarian techniques)
    5. Proportional electoral systems I. (basic principles and their modification)
    6. Proportional electoral systems II. (basic options and their modifications)
    7. Proportional electoral systems III. (semi-proportional electoral systems)
    8. Proportionality and its measurement (measuring the proportionality, approaches, theory, discussion)
    9. Mixed electoral systems (typology of mixed systems, basic principles, theory and practice)
    10. Electoral systems in practice. How to count the results of elections?
    11. Electoral engineering, electoral reforms, paradoxes of electoral systems
    12. Electoral surveys and electoral forecast (methodology of electoral surveys, its usage and interpretation)
Literature
    required literature
  • CHARVÁT, Jakub. Politika volebních reforem v ČR po roce 1989. Praha. Grada publishing, 2013. info
  • SARTORI, Giovanni. Srovnávací ústavní inženýrství. Praha: SLON, 2011. info
  • CHYTILEK, Roman, ŠEDO, Jakub, LEBEDA, Tomáš, ČALOUD, Dalibor. Volební systémy. Praha: Portál, 2009. info
  • LEBEDA, Tomáš. Volební systémy poměrného zastoupení. Mechanismy, proporcionalita a politické konsekvence. Praha: Karolinum, 2009. info
  • CABADA, Ladislav a kol. Koalice a koaliční vztahy České republiky v evropském kontext. Plzeň: Aleš Čeněk, 2006. info
  • KLÍMA, Michal. Kvalita demokracie v České republice a volební inženýrství. Praha, Radix, 2001. info
    recommended literature
  • MLEJNEK, Josef. Smíšené volební systémy. Praha: Karolinum, 2010. info
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
Teacher's information
Active participation in the seminars (two missed-classes are allowed during a semester), study of assigned reading for the seminars, interest in the issue.
The course is also listed under the following terms Winter 2016, Winter 2017.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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