Article Review_Article Review II Article Title: Setting the Rules of the Game. The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies
Article Review II
Article Title: Setting the Rules of the Game. The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies
Boix, Charles.1999.Setting the Rules of the Game. The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies. American Political Science Review 93: 609-624. The above-referenced article tries to account for the main factors that lead to change in electoral system choice in advanced democracies. Unlike the previous articles I have reviewed, this article does not explicitly put forward its research question. Absence of the research question might lead to confused researchers and confused readers (Johnson et al., 2001, p.46). Besides, without a research question it is difficult for readers to get the purpose of the research and deduce causal relationships between main variables of the article. In terms of hypothesis formulation, Boix puts forwards clear and several hypothesis to be tested. For instance, in his causal relationship equation, he treats ethnic or religious fragmentation as an independent variable. More concretely, he claims that a high degree of ethnic fragmentation is likely to result in the adoption of proportional representation (Boix, 1999,p.610). Here, adoption of proportional representation is regarded as a dependent variable. The other hypothesis is that countries where Socialist and the non socialist parties are strong and controlled by approximately the similar number of electorate is more likely to change its electoral system to proportional representation (Boix, 1999, p.609). In this hypothesis, independent variable is the number of electorates in Socialist and non-socialist parties while dependent variable is proportional representation. It should be noted that there are other hypotheses formulated in the article as well. Besides, it is obvious that this article has characteristics for explanatory research which attempts to account for existing causal relationships between variables. Finding out and filling a
Article Title: Setting the Rules of the Game. The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies
Boix, Charles.1999.Setting the Rules of the Game. The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies. American Political Science Review 93: 609-624. The above-referenced article tries to account for the main factors that lead to change in electoral system choice in advanced democracies. Unlike the previous articles I have reviewed, this article does not explicitly put forward its research question. Absence of the research question might lead to confused researchers and confused readers (Johnson et al., 2001, p.46). Besides, without a research question it is difficult for readers to get the purpose of the research and deduce causal relationships between main variables of the article. In terms of hypothesis formulation, Boix puts forwards clear and several hypothesis to be tested. For instance, in his causal relationship equation, he treats ethnic or religious fragmentation as an independent variable. More concretely, he claims that a high degree of ethnic fragmentation is likely to result in the adoption of proportional representation (Boix, 1999,p.610). Here, adoption of proportional representation is regarded as a dependent variable. The other hypothesis is that countries where Socialist and the non socialist parties are strong and controlled by approximately the similar number of electorate is more likely to change its electoral system to proportional representation (Boix, 1999, p.609). In this hypothesis, independent variable is the number of electorates in Socialist and non-socialist parties while dependent variable is proportional representation. It should be noted that there are other hypotheses formulated in the article as well. Besides, it is obvious that this article has characteristics for explanatory research which attempts to account for existing causal relationships between variables. Finding out and filling a
References: Boix, Charles.1999.Setting the Rules of the Game. The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies. American Political Science Review 93: 609-624. Johnson, J.B., Joslyn, R.A., Reynolds, H.T. 2001. Political Science Research Methods. CQ Press.