Voters do not always choose their preferred candidate on election day. Often they cast their ballots to prevent a particular outcome, as when their own preferred candidate has no hope of winning and they want to prevent another, undesirable candidate’s victory; or, they vote to promote a single-party majority in parliamentary systems, when their own candidate is from a party that has no hope of winning. In their thought-provoking book The Many Faces of Strategic Voting, Laura B. Stephenson, John H. Aldrich, and André Blais first provide a conceptual framework for understanding why people vote strategically, and what the differences are between sincere and strategic voting behaviors. Expert contributors then explore the many facets of strategic voting through case studies in Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the European Union.

Popular elections are at the heart of representative democracy. Thus, understanding the laws and practices that govern such elections is essential to understanding modern democracy. In this book, Cox views electoral laws as posing a variety of coordination problems that political forces must solve. Coordination problems - and with them the necessity of negotiating withdrawals, strategic voting, and other species of strategic coordination - arise in all electoral systems. This book employs a unified game-theoretic model to study strategic coordination worldwide and that relies primarily on constituency-level rather than national aggregate data in testing theoretical propositions about the effects of electoral laws. This book also considers not just what happens when political forces succeed in solving the coordination problems inherent in the electoral system they face but also what happens when they fail.

An engrossing analysis of the pseudo-democratic methods employed by despots around the world to retain control Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote. In this engaging and provocative book, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas expose the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratization, and reveal the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in order to guarantee victory for themselves. Based on their firsthand experiences as election watchers and their hundreds of interviews with presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, election officials, and conspirators, Cheeseman and Klaas document instances of election rigging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including notable examples from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States—touching on the 2016 election. This eye-opening study offers a sobering overview of corrupted professional politics, while providing fertile intellectual ground for the development of new solutions for protecting democracy from authoritarian subversion.

This book presents a collection of papers illustrating the variety of "experimental" methodologies used to study voting. Experimental methods include laboratory experiments in the tradition of political psychology, laboratory experiments with monetary incentives, in the economic tradition, survey experiments (varying survey, question wording, framing or content), as well as various kinds of field experimentation. Topics include the behavior of voters (in particular turnout, vote choice, and strategic voting), the behavior of parties and candidates, and the comparison of electoral rules.

As our country's politicians engage in bitter partisan battles, focused on protecting their own jobs but not on doing the nation's business, and political pundits shout louder and shriller to improve their ratings, it's no wonder that Americans have little faith in their government. But is America as divided as the politicians and talking heads would have us believe? Do half of Americans stand on the right and the other half on the left with a no-man's-land between them? Hardly. Forty percent of all American voters are Independents who occupy the ample political and ideological space in the center. These Americans are anything but divided, and they're being ignored. These Independents make up the largest voting bloc in the nation and have determined the outcome of every election since World War II. Every year their numbers grow, as does the unconscionable disconnect between them and the officials who are supposed to represent them. The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of Independents tells the story of how our polarized political system is not only misrepresenting America but failing it. Linda Killian looks beyond the polls and the headlines and talks with the frustrated citizens who are raising the alarm about the acute bi-polarity, special interest-influence, and gridlock in Congress, asking why Obama's postpartisan presidency is anything but, and demanding realism, honest negotiation, and a sense of responsibility from their elected officials. Killian paints a vivid portrait of the swing voters around the country and presents a new model that reveals who they are and what they want from their government and elected officials. She also offers a way forward, including solutions for fixing our broken political system. This is not only a timely shot across the bows of both parties but an impassioned call to Independents to bring America back into balance.

This book presents a simple and logical potential electoral reform. Under this system, voters may vote for, or approve of, as many candidates as they like in multicandidate elections. Among the many benefits of approval voting are its propensity to elect the majority candidate, its relative invulnerability to insincere or strategic voting, and a probable increase in voter turnout.

Strategic Voting Discover how "Strategic Voting" shapes democratic processes with this vital addition to the "Political Science" series. In today's ever-changing political landscape, understanding voters' strategic use of their votes is crucial for grasping the complexity of elections and democratic representation. Chapters Brief Overviews 1: Strategic Voting - Explore how voters make strategic decisions to influence election results. 2: Approval Voting - Learn how voters select multiple candidates and how strategic choices emerge. 3: Plurality Voting - Investigate the strategic effects of electing the candidate with the most votes. 4: Proportional Representation - Understand how seats are allocated in proportion to votes, reducing strategic voting. 5: Score Voting - Discover how rating candidates on a scale reveals strategic behavior. 6: Two-Round System - Examine voters' tactics when a second round of voting is required. 7: First-Past-the-Post Voting - Uncover the strategic dilemmas such as vote splitting and tactical voting. 8: Vote Splitting - Analyze how similar candidates divide the vote and its effect on results. 9: Condorcet Winner Criterion - Explore electing the candidate who wins all head-to-head matchups. 10: Majority Criterion - Evaluate electing a candidate with majority support and its strategic impact. 11: Parallel Voting - Assess the complexities of using multiple voting systems in one election. 12: Wasted Vote - Understand when voters avoid supporting weaker candidates to prevent a wasted vote. 13: Condorcet Loser Criterion - Learn how this prevents the election of a broadly disliked candidate. 14: Later-No-Harm Criterion - See how ranking candidates doesn't harm others’ chances. 15: Single Transferable Vote - Explore how ranking candidates affects their viability. 16: Borda Count - Analyze how strategic ranking in Borda Count maximizes influence. 17: Instant-Runoff Voting - Investigate how eliminating lower-ranked candidates impacts strategies. 18: Electoral System - Compare how different electoral systems influence voter behavior. 19: Comparison of Systems - Discover how systems either encourage or reduce strategic voting. 20: STAR Voting - Explore the combination of score voting and instant-runoff. 21: Multiwinner Approval Voting - Assess how multiple selections ensure broader representation. This book caters to professionals, students, and anyone interested in understanding the deeper mechanics of strategic voting. Readers will gain essential insights into how voting systems shape elections and how their choices can wield significant influence over democratic outcomes.