Can democratization be promoted by "getting the institutions
right?" In "Unexpected Outcomes," Robert G. Moser offers a
compelling analysis of the extent to which institutions can be
engineered to promote desired political outcomes. The introduction
of democracy in Eastern Europe and the former USSR has enabled
scholars to bring new perspectives to the debate about electoral
systems. Russia is arguably the most important of the postcommunist
states and its mixed electoral system provides an interesting
controlled experiment for testing the impact of different electoral
systems.
Moser examines the effects of electoral systems on political
parties and representation in Russia during the 1990s. Moser's
study is not only a highly original contribution to our
understanding of contemporary Russian politics, but also a
significant step forward in the comparative study of electoral
systems. Through his comprehensive empirical analysis of Russian
elections, Moser provides the most detailed examination of a mixed
electoral system to date. This system was introduced in Russia to
encourage party formation and benefit reformist parties allied with
President Yeltsin. However, the effects were contrary to what the
creators of the system expected and also defied the most
well-established hypotheses in electoral studies. Parties
proliferated under both the PR and plurality halves of the election
and patterns of women and minority representation ran counter to
prevailing theory and international experience.
With an epilogue that updates the study through the December
1999 elections, "Unexpected Outcomes" makes an important and timely
contribution to the ongoing debate over the ability and inability
of elites to fashion preferred political outcomes through
institutional design.
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