The Ethnopolitics of Elections

Download or read book The Ethnopolitics of Elections written by Florian Bieber and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume conceptualizes the dynamics underlying electoral politics in ethnically divided societies, providing empirical evidence and analysis of recent elections in such societies on a comparative and single-case basis, including case studies of Macedonia, Slovakia, Belgium, Malaysia, Singapore, Rwanda, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Free and fair elections are one of the most fundamental characteristics of democratic systems. In ethnically divided societies, elections and the rules and regulations on which they are based assume special importance because they provide important levers to guarantee, or prevent, adequate representation of different communal groups in the key institutions of the state. Hence not only are elections contested vigorously, but also the electoral systems according to which they are conducted. This book was previously published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics.