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  3. Cambridge Studies in Election Law and Democracy

Recent developments have pushed election scholarship in new directions. As a result, interdisciplinary work has flourished, and political scientists and law professors have developed a more sophisticated sense of the relationship between law and politics. This series seeks to create an intellectual roadmap for the field, one that systematically examines the issues confronting both mature and emerging democracies. It will chart those new intellectual paths to spur interdisciplinary work, to identify productive ways in which scholars' research agendas connect to policy-makers' reform agendas, and to disseminate this body of work to the growing audience interested in the intersection of law, politics, and democracy.

  • General Editors: Heather K. Gerken, Yale Law School, Guy-Uriel E. Charles, Duke Law School, Michael Kang, Emory Law School

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4 results in Cambridge Studies in Election Law and Democracy

Fragile Democracies
  • Contested Power in the Era of Constitutional Courts
  • Samuel Issacharoff
  • Published online:
    05 July 2015
    Print publication:
    11 June 2015
  • Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the democratic ascendency of the post-Soviet era is under severe challenge. While fragile democracies in Eastern Europe, Africa, and East Asia face renewed threats, the world has witnessed the failed democratic promises of the Arab Spring. What lessons can be drawn from these struggles? What conditions or institutions are needed to prevent the collapse of democracy? This book argues that the most significant antidote to authoritarianism is the presence of strong constitutional courts. Distinct in the third wave of democratization, these courts serve as a bulwark against vulnerability to external threats as well as internal consolidation of power. Particular attention is given to societies riven by deep divisions of race, religion, or national background, for which the courts have become pivotal actors in allowing democracy to take root.

Democracy More or Less
  • America's Political Reform Quandary
  • Bruce E. Cain
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    08 December 2014
  • Why do American political reform efforts so often fail to solve the problems they intend to fix? In this book, Bruce E. Cain argues that the reasons are an unrealistic civic ideal of a fully informed and engaged citizenry and a neglect of basic pluralist principles about political intermediaries. This book traces the tension between populist and pluralist approaches as it plays out in many seemingly distinct reform topics, such as voting administration, campaign finance, excessive partisanship, redistricting, and transparency and voter participation. It explains why political primaries have promoted partisan polarization, why voting rates are declining even as election opportunities increase, and why direct democracy is not really a grassroots tool. Cain offers a reform agenda that attempts to reconcile pluralist ideals with the realities of collective-action problems and resource disparities.

The Measure of American Elections
  • Edited by Barry C. Burden, Charles Stewart, III
  • Published online:
    05 August 2014
    Print publication:
    31 July 2014
  • Policymaking in the realm of elections is too often grounded in anecdotes and opinions, rather than in good data and scientific research. To remedy this, The Measure of American Elections brings together a dozen leading scholars to examine the performance of elections across the United States, using a data-driven perspective. This book represents a transformation in debates about election reform, away from partisan and ideological posturing, toward using scientific analysis to evaluate the conduct of contemporary elections. The authors harness the power of newly available data to document all aspects of election administration, ranging from the registration of voters to the counting of ballots. They demonstrate what can be learned from giving serious attention to data, measurement, and objective analysis of American elections.

Race, Reform, and Regulation of the Electoral Process
  • Recurring Puzzles in American Democracy
  • Edited by Guy-Uriel E. Charles, Heather K. Gerken, Michael S. Kang
  • Published online:
    01 June 2011
    Print publication:
    17 January 2011
  • This book offers a critical re-evaluation of three fundamental and interlocking themes in American democracy: the relationship between race and politics, the performance and reform of election systems and the role of courts in regulating the political process. This edited volume features contributions from some of the leading voices in election law and social science. The authors address the recurring questions for American democracy and identify new challenges for the twenty-first century. They not only consider where current policy and scholarship are headed, but also suggest where they ought to go over the next two decades. The book thus provides intellectual guideposts for future scholarship and policy making in American democracy.