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  3. Dividing the Rulers: How Majority Cycling Saves Democracy

Dividing the Rulers: How Majority Cycling Saves Democracy

Yuhui Li
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  • Overview

  • Contents

The election of populist politicians in recent years seems to challenge the commitment to democracy, if not its ideal. This book argues that majority rule is not the problem; rather, the institutions that stabilize majorities are responsible for the suppression of minority interests. Despite the popular notion that social choice instability (or "cycling") makes it impossible for majorities to make sound legislation, Yuhui Li argues that the best part of democracy is not the large number of people on the winning side; it is that the winners can be easily divided and realigned with the losers in the cycling process. He shows that minorities' bargaining power depends on their ability to exploit division within the winning coalition and induce its members to defect, an institutionalized uncertainty that is missing in one-party authoritarian systems.

Dividing the Rulers theorizes why such division within the majority is important and what kind of institutional features can help a democratic system maintain such division, which is crucial in preventing the "tyranny of the majority." These institutional solutions point to a direction of institutional reform that academics, politicians, and voters should collectively pursue.

 

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • One. Introduction
  • Two. Distributive Problems under Majority Rule and the Scholarly Solutions
  • Three. The Inverse Relationship between Majority Unity and Minority Protection
  • Four. An Experimental Approach to Simulating the Defection Cost Effect
  • Five. Exploring the Defection Cost Argument with Observational Data
  • Six. Is There Such a Thing as a Majority Group? A Theory of Majority Splitting under Proportional Systems
  • Seven. Verifying the Electoral System Effect on Splitting Majorities
  • Eight. Conclusion
  • Footnotes
  • References
  • Index
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Published: 2019
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-12592-0 (ebook)
  • 978-0-472-13152-5 (hardcover)
Subject
  • Political Science:Political Behavior and Public Opinion
  • Political Science:Governance

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  • Li, Yuhui6
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Figure 7. Line graph of New Zealand party system before and after reform

Figure 7: New Zealand party system before and after the electoral reform.

From Chapter 7

Fig. 7. The New Zealand party system before and after electoral reform

Figure 8. Scatter plot of democratic systems by size of legislature and size of largest party

Figure 8: Frequency of having popular vote majority by electoral systems

From Chapter 7

Fig. 8. Frequency of majority voter blocs under different electoral systems

Figure 9. Bar graph showing difference between largest party vote share and seat share in majoritarian systems

Figure 9: Comparing largest party vote share and largest party seat share in 25 majoritarian democracies

From Chapter 7

Fig. 9. Comparing largest party vote share and largest party seat share in 25 majoritarian democracies

Figure 10. Flow chart of how to identify whether a majority group is unified based

Figure 10: Steps to identify unified majority groups

From Chapter 7

Fig. 10. Steps taken to identify unified majority groups

Figure 11. World map based on countries’ type of party systems

Figure 11: Former and present democracies categorized by vote concentration

From Chapter 7

Fig. 11. Former and present democracies categorized by vote concentration

Figure 12. Line graph showing Northern Irish party systems before and after reform

Figure 12: Evolution of Northern Irish party system

From Chapter 7

Fig. 12. Evolution of the Northern Ireland party system

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