Seats, Votes, and the Spatial Organisation of Elections

By Graham Gudgin, Erol Kuhlaci, Peter Taylor

In many elections - especially those using single-member constituency systems - the allocation of seats is incommensurate with each party's share of the votes cast. Seats, Votes and the Spatial Organisation of Elections provides a convincing, rigorous analysis of this disproportionality which has not been improved on since its publication over 30 years ago. Its formal analysis, illustrated by empirical examples from a range of countries, stresses the importance of three geographies as key influences on how votes are translated into seats: the geography of partisan support (where people with different political persuasions cluster); the homogeneity of those clusters; and their relative size. Its re-publication makes this classic piece of spatial (political) science available to contemporary audiences, for whom it is as relevant as when the book first appeared in 1979; Ron Johnston's introductory essay sets the work in context and identifies its importance as the foundation for three decades of subsequent work into this key feature of electoral system operation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1907301356
• ISBN13: 9781907301353
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: ECPR Press
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher