34: Representation and Electoral Systems

Dawn Brancati, Washington University in St. Louis, brancati@wustl.edu

In accordance with the 2012 APSA conference theme of “Representation and Renewal,” we invite papers on the role that elections play in representation in democratic as well as non-democratic states. We are particularly interested in papers about why elections do not represent society well in these states. To this end, the papers may address unusual and unexpected ways in which elections might reinforce regimes in non-democracies, or why some groups (e.g., class, race, gender, ethnolinguistic, and religious) remain poorly represented in states with highly democratic electoral systems. We strongly encourage papers that address this theme from a comparative perspective and that apply innovative methodological techniques to these questions.