Electoral Systems and Democratic Innovations

Undergraduate

In this course, we study approaches to making collective decisions in democracies. We will consider a wide variety of electoral rules and decision-making systems in use around the world, as well as proposed alternatives. Does universal mandatory voting improve representation? For what types of issues is it better to rely on representative government versus forms of direct or participatory democracy? In balancing accountability and expertise, which government roles should be elected versus appointed? T 9:25am-11:20am