Principles of Electoral Reform

By Michael Dummett

Electoral reform is currently an extremely significant political issue in many countries, yet there is little real understanding or systematic discussion of it. In this timely and accessible new book, Professor Dummett, one of the most distinguished scholars in the field, analyzes the main
forms of electoral systems used in legislative systems around the world, and generates a set of criteria that help to explain how we should decide which system we should have.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198292465
• ISBN13: 9780198292463
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Not bad, but hardly as impartial as the author claims

The author of this book says, not once but repeatedly, that this is not a book recommending a voting system, but rather to help one decide what sort of voting system to adopt. Too bad that this is not really so. The author is clearly skeptical of the claims put forth by advocates of the Single Transferable Vote, but his comments go well beyond skepticism to the level of condemnation. He does recognize one good thing about STV, that it protects minorities, but there are whole chapters devoted to knocking down STV (including one called "How to do better than STV"!) Meanwhile, he minimizes or omits the arguments adduced by those pointing out the problems in other systems, such as the Borda Count, which has some major flaws, but only a paragraph in the whole book to address these flaws. I would say that there is much that is useful in this book, though it has to be read with the knowledge that Dummett simply does not like STV. A couple of years ago, I reviewed "Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction," by David M. Farrell. This would certainly be a better book to learn about voting systems with a more impartial approach, and I would advise readers to look at Farrell's book in preference to this one, though if you allow for its biases, this is not a bad book.