Political, Electoral, and Spatial Systems: An Essay in Political Geography 0198740719, 9788593776045
Vote-buying, canvassing, gerrymandering, welfare state policies, electoral reform and local government reform are all wa
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English Pages 221 [115] Year 1979
Table of contents :
Table of Contents
Part I: Geography and Government – Some Preliminaries
Introduction: Government and the Geography of Social Well-being (p. 3)
Social well-being and its geography (p. 3)
The determinants of social well-being
Government and Society: A Systems Approach (p. 10)
The growth of government (p. 10)
The political system: a systems approach (p. 16)
Politics, territories, elections, and well-being (p. 19)
Conclusions (p. 23)
Part II: The Two Systems
Local Governments (p. 27)
The functions of local government (p. 27)
The origins of local government (p. 28)
Separate and independent (p. 34)
Externalities, free riders, and spillovers (p. 41)
The problem of finance (p. 44)
Political variations (p. 47)
Conclusions (p. 52)
Elections: Translating Votes into Seats (p. 53)
Electoral bias (p. 53)
Types of electoral system (p. 54)
Electoral systems and electoral bias (p. 56)
Non-partisan bias (p. 58)
Partisan bias (p. 63)
Conclusions (p. 74)
Part III: The Systems in Operation
Variations in Local Government Spending (p. 75)
A model of how much governments spend
Politicians, voters, and policies (p. 81)
The Downs model and government spending (p. 85)
Spending in the American states (p. 87)
Local authority spending in Britain (p. 99)
Conclusions (p. 104)
The Spatial Pattern of a Government’s Spending (p. 106)
Some simple models (p. 106)
Campaigning and canvassing (p. 110)
Pragmatic politics: the geography of allocations (p. 113)
Power to the people (p. 124)
Patronage (p. 129)
The representative and the pork barrel (p. 129)
Conclusions
Part IV: Reorganizing the Systems
Local Government Reorganization (p. 141)
Local government reorganization: some general themes (p. 144)
Local government reorganization in Britain’s centralized democracy (p. 144)
American local government reorganization (p. 150)
Conclusions (p. 158)
Manipulation and Reorganization of Electoral Systems (p. 159)
Electoral engineering I: malapportionment (p. 159)
Electoral engineering II: gerrymandering (p. 172)
Changing the population distribution (p. 183)
Changing the electoral law (p. 184)
Conclusions (p. 189)
Part V: Finale
Conclusions (p. 193)
Bibliography (p. 199)
Index (p. 219)
Table of Contents
Part I: Geography and Government – Some Preliminaries
Introduction: Government and the Geography of Social Well-being (p. 3)
Social well-being and its geography (p. 3)
The determinants of social well-being
Government and Society: A Systems Approach (p. 10)
The growth of government (p. 10)
The political system: a systems approach (p. 16)
Politics, territories, elections, and well-being (p. 19)
Conclusions (p. 23)
Part II: The Two Systems
Local Governments (p. 27)
The functions of local government (p. 27)
The origins of local government (p. 28)
Separate and independent (p. 34)
Externalities, free riders, and spillovers (p. 41)
The problem of finance (p. 44)
Political variations (p. 47)
Conclusions (p. 52)
Elections: Translating Votes into Seats (p. 53)
Electoral bias (p. 53)
Types of electoral system (p. 54)
Electoral systems and electoral bias (p. 56)
Non-partisan bias (p. 58)
Partisan bias (p. 63)
Conclusions (p. 74)
Part III: The Systems in Operation
Variations in Local Government Spending (p. 75)
A model of how much governments spend
Politicians, voters, and policies (p. 81)
The Downs model and government spending (p. 85)
Spending in the American states (p. 87)
Local authority spending in Britain (p. 99)
Conclusions (p. 104)
The Spatial Pattern of a Government’s Spending (p. 106)
Some simple models (p. 106)
Campaigning and canvassing (p. 110)
Pragmatic politics: the geography of allocations (p. 113)
Power to the people (p. 124)
Patronage (p. 129)
The representative and the pork barrel (p. 129)
Conclusions
Part IV: Reorganizing the Systems
Local Government Reorganization (p. 141)
Local government reorganization: some general themes (p. 144)
Local government reorganization in Britain’s centralized democracy (p. 144)
American local government reorganization (p. 150)
Conclusions (p. 158)
Manipulation and Reorganization of Electoral Systems (p. 159)
Electoral engineering I: malapportionment (p. 159)
Electoral engineering II: gerrymandering (p. 172)
Changing the population distribution (p. 183)
Changing the electoral law (p. 184)
Conclusions (p. 189)
Part V: Finale
Conclusions (p. 193)
Bibliography (p. 199)
Index (p. 219)
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- Ron Johnston
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