Via Yglesias come this paragraph in the Nation: Large debt–and the fear it creates–is a pacifying force. There was no tuition at the City University of New York when I attended one of its colleges in the 1970s, a time when tuition at many U.S. public universities was so affordable that it was easy to […]
Blog Archives
The Implications of Egypt’s Proposed Electoral System (Long)
Jun 24
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All electoral systems force tactical voting, but Egypt’s will place an extraordinary burden on secular voters. In order to cast a tactical vote, a citizen must know the relative strength of each party. This allows an individual to avoid wasting a vote on a party that has no chance of winning, while picking the best option that has a realistic shot at victory. In Egypt, the electoral viability of any given party or candidate in a district will be largely unknown. Public opinion polling is expensive, technically illegal unless cleared by the government, and is unlikely to be carried out in all 222 districts.
False-residency election fraud
Mar 29
The study of election fraud is largely undeveloped in the academic community. Although there are some exceptions, such as Walter Mebane’s use of Bendford’s Law and random digit forensics, most research has been case-specific without broad implications. One type of election fraud, which often goes undiscussed, is when electors casting ballots in constituencies they don’t reside in. Kentaro Fukumoto and Yusaku […]
In which I sound like a Neocon
Mar 20
I think both Jon Chait and Matt Yglesias make characteristically strong arguments in debating the wisdom of getting involved in Libya. I’m glad I’m not a policymaker right now because I have very mixed emotions about this. On one hand, I share the worries, well expressed by Jeffrey Goldberg, about what happens after we become committed. And another […]
Elections in E-stonia
Mar 7
Estonia held parliamentary elections on Sunday, in which a record number of Estonians cast their ballots through the internet. This was Estonia’s fifth election where e-voting was an option and the second national-level poll to allow it. The almost 25 percent of voters who used the internet shows that there is an increasing level of […]
Election Observations
Mar 5
Election Observation Missions (EOMs) in general, don’t receive enough attention from the academic and policy communities. Not no attention of course, but very little when we consider how important they are. Maybe it’s because by their very nature, EOMs are assumed to be another method of data collection to build other assessments off of. […]
No one could have predicted this
Feb 14
I’ve heard this a lot over the past couple of weeks with regards to the revolution in Egypt; there is some truth to it. On January 7th, I remember reading this article, which used Egyptian humor to highlight the hopelessness that the country had become used to feeling. I do think, however, that some of […]
Internal Alliances Collapsing
Feb 5
My friend Sam Tadros has a new piece in the American Thinker about the recent events in Egypt. There is a lot here, so I’m not going to go into all of it, but one point Sam makes is worth highlighting: The army never liked Gamal or his friends. Gamal had never served in the […]
Not Business as Usual in Egypt
Jan 29
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For some reason I don’t think that firing the Egyptian cabinet is going to cut it at this point. It’s true that the interior minister was truly hated, but we don’t know what is really going to happen to him. Similarly, given his position within the military, sacking Defense Minister Mohamed Tantawi will probably not […]
Comoros staggers forward
Dec 30
Cote d’Ivoire is capturing headlines for all the wrong reasons, but there is another African nation that finds itself in a tense post-election environment. Ikililou Dhoinine on Sunday won the second round of presidential elections in the Comoros islands. Dhoinine captured 61 percent of the vote while his main competitor, Mohamed Said Fazul, took 33 […]
Ahwa Talk 