Syllabus
Course schedule 1. Electoral behavior as a form of political participation (20th February 2024)
Electoral behavior as a form of political participation, political participation research and its normative starting points (link to theories of democracy), definition and typology of political participation, changes in the repertoire of political participation after the Second World War.
Recommended:
Teorell, Jan. 2006. „Political Participation and Three Theories of Democracy: A Research Inventory and Agenda.” European Journal of Political Research 45(5): 787–810.
Dalton, Russell, Hans-Dieter Klingemann. 2007. „Citizens and Political Behavior.“ In Russell Dalton, Hans-Dieter Klingemann (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press, str. 3–26.
Vráblíková, Kateřina. 2008. „Politická participace - teorie a koncepty.“ Politologický časopis 15(4): 366–388. 2. Basic research questions. Types of data. Basic methods of electoral behavior analysis. Historical survey of electoral behavior research (27th February 2024)
Basic research questions (interpretation of elections and electoral behavior, mandate theory). Interaction of micro and macro factors. Assumptions of electoral behavior models (nationalization of party systems and homogeneity of voters). Aggregated and individual-level data. Experimental and observational design. Breakthrough monographs and studies. Interaction of theory, technology, data and statistical models.
Required: van der Eijk, Cees, Mark Franklin. 2009. Elections and Voters. Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave, Macmillan (chapter 1). 5th March 2024 – reading week, no lecture and seminar 3. Party choice I. – Structural theories (12th March 2024)
Structural models (cleavage voting; class voting).
Required:
Evans, Geoffrey. 2017. „Social Class and Voting“. In: Arzheimer Kai et al.: Sage Handbook of Electoral Behavior, pp. 177–198.
Recommended:
Evans, Jocelyn A. J. 2004. Voters and Voting. An Introduction. London: Sage (kapitola 2: Social Structural Theories of Voting).
Smith, Michael J., Petr Matějů. 2011. „Restratifikace české politiky. Vývoj třídně podmíněného volebního chování v České republice v letech 1992–2010.“ Sociologický časopis 47(1): 33–59. 4. Party choice II. – Structural theories (19th March 2024)
Socio-psychological (Michigan) model.
Required:
Bowler, Shaun. 2017. „Party Identification“. In: Fisher Justin et al.: Routledge Handbook of Elections, Voting Behavior and Public Opinion, pp. 146–157. 5. Party choice III. – Issue voting. Personalization of voter behavior (26th March 2024)
Positional and valence issues. Political space. Proximity and directional voting. Theory of valence politics. Personalization of voter behavior.
Required:
Evans, Jocelyn A. J. 2004. Voters and Voting. An Introduction. London: Sage (kapitola 5: Issues and Space: Proximity and Directional Theories of Voting).
Recommended:
Stokes, Donald. 1963. „Spatial Models of Party Competition.“ American Political Science Review 57(2): 368–377. 6. Party choice IV. – Economic voting, personalization (2nd April 2023)
Sociotropic vs. egocentric; prospective vs. retrospective voting.
Required:
Garzia, Diego. 2017. „Voter Evaluation of Candidates and Party Leaders“. In: Arzheimer Kai et al.: Sage Handbook of Electoral Behavior, pp. 633–653.
Recommended:
Denver, David. 2007. Elections and Voters in Britain. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (kapitola 3: Party Choice in the Era of Alignment, 1950–70, a kapitola 4: Dealignment and its Consequences).
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., Mary Stegmaier. 2000. „Economic Determinants of Electoral Outcomes.“ Annual Review of Political Science 3: 183–219. 7. Electoral participation I. – aggregate-level models (9th April 2024)
Turnout trends. Macro-level explanations of turnout. Effect of institutions.
Required:
Blais, André. 2006. „What Affects Voter Turnout?” Annual Review of Political Science 9: 111–125.
Recommended:
Geys, Benny. 2006. „Explaining Voter Turnout: A Review of Aggregate-level Research.“ Electoral Studies 25(4): 637–663.
Cancela, Joao, Benny Geys. 2016. „Explaining Voter Turnout: A Meta-Analysis of National and Subnational Elections.“ Electoral Studies 42(4): 264–275.
Blais, André, Agniezka Dobrzynska. 1998. „Turnout in Electoral Democracies.“ European Journal of Political Research. 33(2): 239–261. 8. Electoral participation II. – individual-level models (16th April 2024)
Individual-level explanations of electoral participation.
Required:
Plutzer, Eric. 2017. „Demographics and the Social Bases of Voter Turnout“. In: Fisher Justin et al.: Routledge Handbook of Elections, Voting Behavior and Public Opinion, pp. 69–82.
Recommended:
Kasara, Kimuli, Pavithra Suryanarayan. 2015. “When Do the Rich Vote Less Than the Poor and Why? Explaining Turnout Inequality across the World.” American Journal of Political Science 59(3): 613–627.
Linek, Lukáš. 2013. Kam se ztratili voliči? Vysvětlení vývoje volební účasti v České republice v letech 1990–2010. Brno: CDK. (kapitola 2: Teorie volební účasti). 9. Electoral participation III. – individual-level models (23rd April 2024)
Individual-level explanations of electoral participation.
Required:
Wass, Hanna, André Blais. 2017. „Turnout“. In: Arzheimer Kai et al.: Sage Handbook of Electoral Behavior, pp. 459–487.
Recommended:
Blais, André. 2000. To Vote or
Annotation
The course focuses on issues of elections and electoral behavior. After a brief introduction of basic research questions, the research design and types of data used, basic theories of voter turnout and party choice will be presented.
The course will focus on explanations that use the individual characteristics of voters, as well as on contextual explanations and the interaction of both levels. The course will also systematically focus on the research design and why how the theoretical claims are justified The course will be taught in the form of lectures and seminars and requires active involvement of students.