Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T19:21:10.669Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Coevolution of Capitalism and Political Representation: The Choice of Electoral Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2010

THOMAS CUSACK*
Affiliation:
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
TORBEN IVERSEN*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
DAVID SOSKICE*
Affiliation:
Duke University and Oxford University
*
Thomas R. Cusack is Senior Research Fellow, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Reichpietschufer 50, D-10785 Berlin-Tiergarten, Germany (tom@wz-berlin.de).
Torben Iversen is Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (iversen@fas.harvard.edu).
David Soskice is Research Professor, Duke University, 326 Perkins Library, Box 90204 Durham, NC 27708, and Oxford University, UK (soskice@duke.edu).

Abstract

Protocorporatist West European countries in which economic interests were collectively organized adopted PR in the first quarter of the twentieth century, whereas liberal countries in which economic interests were not collectively organized did not. Political parties, as Marcus Kreuzer points out, choose electoral systems. So how do economic interests translate into party political incentives to adopt electoral reform? We argue that parties in protocorporatist countries were “representative” of and closely linked to economic interests. As electoral competition in single member districts increased sharply up to World War I, great difficulties resulted for the representative parties whose leaders were seen as interest committed. They could not credibly compete for votes outside their interest without leadership changes or reductions in interest influence. Proportional representation offered an obvious solution, allowing parties to target their own voters and their organized interest to continue effective influence in the legislature. In each respect, the opposite was true of liberal countries. Data on party preferences strongly confirm this model. (Kreuzer's historical criticisms are largely incorrect, as shown in detail in the online supplementary Appendix.)

Type
Forum
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Blackbourn, David. 1980. Class, Religion and Politics in Wilhelmine Germany: The Centre Party in Wurttemberg before 1914. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Blais, Andre, Dobrzynska, Agnieszka, and Indridason, Indridi H.. 2005. “To Adopt or Not to Adopt Proportional Representation: The Politics of Institutional Choice.” British Journal of Political Science 35 (January): 182–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles. 1999. “Setting the Rules of the Game: The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies.” American Political Science Review 93 (September): 609–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvo, Ernesto. 2009. “The Competitive Road to Proportional Representation: Partisan Biases and Electoral Regime Change under Increasing Party Competition.” World Politics 61 (2): 254–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caramani, Daniele. 2004. The Nationalization of Politics: The Formation of National Electorates and Party Systems in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carstairs, Andrew McLaren. 1980. A Short History of Electoral Systems in Western Europe. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Crouch, Colin. 1993. Industrial Relations and European State Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cusack, Thomas, Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2007. “Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems.” American Political Science Review 101 (3): 337–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrigel, Gary. 1996. Industrial Constructions: The Sources of German Industrial Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Huber, Evelyne, and Stephens, John D.. 2001. Development and Crisis of the Welfare State: Parties and Policies in Global Markets. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, Torben. 2005. Capitalism, Democracy and Welfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2006. “Electoral Institutions, Parties and the Politics of Class: Why Some Democracies Distribute More Than Others.” American Political Science Review 100 (2): 165–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2009a. “Distribution and Redistribution: The Shadow of the Nineteenth Century.” World Politics 61 (3): 438–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2009b. “Two Paths to Democracy.” Harvard University. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis. 1996. The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J. 1985. Small States in World Markets. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Korpi, Walter, and Shalev, Michael. 1979. “Strikes, Industrial Relations and Class Conflict.” British Journal of Sociology 30 (2): 164–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreuzer, Markus. 2010. “Historical Knowledge and Quantitative Analysis: The Case of the Origins of Proportional Representation.” American Political Science Review 104 (2): 369–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuisal, Richard F. 1981. Capitalism and the State in Modern France: Renovation and Economic Management in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lehmbruch, Gerhard. 1967. Proporzdemokratie. Politisches System Und Politische Kultur in Der Schweiz Und in Österreich. Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck.Google Scholar
Lijphart, A. 1968. “Typologies of Democratic Systems.” Comparative Political Studies 1968 (1): 344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijphart, A. 1984. Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luebbert, Gregory. 1991. Liberalism, Fascism or Social Democracy: Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in the Interwar Period. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manow, Philip and Van Kersbergen, Kees, eds. 2009. Religion, Class Coalitions and Welfare State Regimes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Cathie Jo. 2009. “Gonna Party Like Its 1899: Electoral Systems and Varieties of Coordination.” Presented the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Martin, Cathie Jo, and Swank, Duane. 2008. “The Political Origins of Coordinated Capitalism: Business Organizations, Party Systems and State Structure in the Age of Innocence.” American Political Science Review 102 (2): 181–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pohl, Karl Heinrich. 1995. “Eine Partei Der Konservative Honoratorien Auf Dem Weg Zur Partei Der Industrie.” Historische Zeitschrift, Beihefte, New Series 19: 195215.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham. 2000. Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritan and Proportional Visions. New Haven Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D., Leonardi, R., and Nanetti, R.Y.. 1994. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Retallack, James. 1990. “‘What Is To Be Done?’ The Red Specter, Franchise Questions and the Crisis of Conservative Hegemony in Saxony, 1896–1909.” Central European History 23 (4): 271312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodden, Jonathan. 2008. “Why Did Western Europe Adopt Proportional Representation?” Stanford University. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Rokkan, Stein. 1970. Citizens, Elections, Parties: Approaches to the Comparative Study of the Processes of Development. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Stengers, Jean. 2004. “Histoire De La Legislation Electorale En Belgique.” Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 82 (1): 247–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stresemann, Gustav. 1935–40. Gustav Stresemann: His Diaries, Letters and Papers. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 2004. How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ullmann, Hans-Peter. 1976. Der Bund Der Industriellen: Organisation, Einfluss Und Politik Klein- Und Mittelbetrieblicher Industrieller Im Deutschen Kaiserreich 1895–1914. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, Donald E. 1964. The Red Kingdom of Saxony: Lobbying Grounds for Gustav Stresemann, 1901–1914. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Johnathan. 2002. Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zangerl, Carl H.E. 1977. “Courting the Catholic Vote: The Center Party in Baden 1903–1913.” Central European History 10 (3): 220–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Cusack et al. supplementary material

Appendix

Download Cusack et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 88.9 KB