Legislative Politics and the Paradox of Voting: Electoral Reform in Fourth Republic France

Eric C. Browne and Keith E. Hamm

British Journal of Political Science, 1996, vol. 26, issue 2, 165-198

Abstract: This article explores the properties of paradoxical voting situations in legislatures as illustrated by the decision-making process attending passage of the 1951 Electoral Reform Act in Fourth Republic France. First, conditions for demonstrating existence of a voting paradox for the case are developed and applied to data describing the voting behaviour of individual deputies. There follows an exploration of how a voting cycle over reform alternatives was overcome, focusing on the ways institutional rules and procedures structured the behaviour of parties and individual members and on the strategic manœuvring of political leaders. We conclude by relating characteristics of the case to general propositions found in the theoretical literature on the paradox of voting.

Date: 1996
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