Election Updates

Mike Alvarez writes: "This is an area that our colleagues in normative political theory can certainly help us with, but I'm not aware of any initiative to engage normative theorists in these discussions. What basic normative principles should we consider when we talk about election reform? Are fairness, equity and legitimacy the only core principles to focus on? Are there others to consider?"

Dennis Thompson's book, Fair Elections is one attempt to address some of these questions. In a review in Congress and the Presidency , I wrote: "Thompson's air in Just Elections is to identify a set of coherent organizing principles--equal respet, free choice, and popular sovereignty--by which electoral reforms can be debated and judged."

The rest of the review is in Vol. 32 (1) of the journal, which unfortunatley does not appear to be available online.

Thompson's book is out of Chicago, 2002.