The first-ever encyclopedic examination of elections and electoral concepts worldwide. Written by a distinguished international team of scholars.
Elections are of fundamental importance in countries around the world, especially as democracy continues to spread. As more and more of the world's people are winning the right to select their leaders in free and competitive elections, many elections are poorly understood by the electorate, as well as by the world at large and electoral institutions vary greatly from country to country.
The International Encyclopedia of Elections is the first and only definitive work to survey elections in independent nations and describe the varied systems and processes in clear language understandable to any interested reader. The encyclopedia will be most useful to undergraduate and graduate students, journalists, political activists, and scholars seeking information outside their specialties or their own countries.
Written in clear, concise language by 70 international scholars in the field, the volume contains more than 150 articles (from Absentee voting to Women: Enfranchisement) ranging in length from a few hundred to several thousand words. The encyclopedia covers each of the more than 170 countries that have held direct elections or national referendums in this decade.