A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance
Abstract
This book outlines the importance of political institutions in achieving good governance within a democratic polity and sets forth an argument to explore what sorts of institutions do the job best. By focusing on 'centripetal institutions', which maximize both representation and authority by bringing political energy and actors toward the centre of a polity, the authors set forth a relatively novel theory of democratic governance, applicable to all political settings in which multi-party competition obtains. Basing their theory on national-level political institutions, the authors argue that there are three types of political institutions that are fundamental in securing a centripetal style of democratic governance: unitary (rather than federal) sovereignty, a parliamentary (rather than presidential) executive, and a closed-list PR electoral system (rather than a single-member district or preferential-vote system).
Cite this
John Gerring, Strom C. Thacker (2008). A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance. Cambridge University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511756054
@book{john2008a,
title = {A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance},
author = {Gerring, John and Thacker, Strom C.},
year = {2008},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press eBooks},
doi = {10.1017/cbo9780511756054}
}Citations in this library
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 213 citations exist upstream.