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Open research questions in Electoral Systems and Political Participation

405 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 13,156 Electoral Systems and Political Participation papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Abstract How does majority party security shape reciprocal bipartisan collaboration and influence legislative success? US state legislatures vary widely in the stability of majority control, offering a valuable opportunity to examine how party security conditions the incentives for cross-party collaboration.

    Selective Reciprocity in Bipartisan Collaboration: How Majority Security Shapes Legislative Success · 2026 · DOI

  • pace, fueling voter volatility 3In the Slovak case, volatility is not limited to the emergence and disappearance of new parties, as noted by Haughton and Deegan-Krause (2020), but also reflects divergent trajectories among established actors.

    The paradox of representation: How identity fragmentation complicates voter-party congruence · 2026 · DOI

  • The study relies on regression discontinuity design with bandwidth selection that shows sensitivity in some results (e.g., New Hampshire advantage is sensitive to bandwidth selection).

    Is winning the first primaries of primary importance? A regression-discontinuity approach · 2026 · DOI

  • However, this conclusion is typically based on the use of dependent variables (roll-call votes and approval rates) that do not convey information about legislator behavior during the lawmaking process, so the mechanisms and the extent to which party leaders exercise their positive agenda power remain unclear.

    Playing in the Forest While the Wolf Is Not Around: Vote Switching and Positive Agenda Power in Federal Multiparty Systems · 2025 · DOI

  • We focus on a field of hybridization that has not been investigated extensively yet: the rise of Participatory Budgeting-new style, characterized by an increased emphasis on large-scale voting—using technologies that became widely available in the 2010s— combined with continued attention to deliberative participation.

    Exploring the Democratic Merits of Hybrid Democratic Innovation. Combining Deliberation and Voting in Participatory Budgeting New Style · 2024 · DOI

  • Abstract Objective Ranked‐choice voting (RCV) is increasingly seen as a way to reduce political polarization and increase voter choice in elections, but little is known about its effect on candidate fundraising.

    Election reform and campaign finance: Did Alaska's top 4 nonpartisan primaries and ranked‐choice general elections affect political spending? · 2024 · DOI

  • In this note, we aim to reconcile these contradictory findings by analyzing surveys spanning from 2006 to 2021 on the public's tolerance of executive concentration of power.

    It’s Not Just Trump: Americans of Both Parties Support Liberal Democratic Norm Violations More Under Their Own President · 2024 · DOI

  • This study measures the effect of trust in an institution and knowledge of the institution – two factors which have to date received little attention in previous research and which have the potential to explain the differences in electoral turnout between institutions in the same country where traditional theories (such as the Second Order Election Thesis) are insufficient.

    Distrust or Ignorance of the Institution? Explaining Extremely Low Electoral Turnout in the Czech Senate Elections · 2023 · DOI

  • Arrow, 1951) suggest that voting systems strongly shape the political dynamics of their societies, and that they are underexplored in participatory budgeting.

    Testing participatory budgeting voting design: Two cases from the city of Kitchener · 2023 · DOI

  • Abstract Why are politicians selective in granting investment incentives to foreign direct investment (FDI) projects? One understudied reason is that politicians want to minimize backlash from voters.

    Beyond Pandering: Investment Project Quality, Voter Support, and the Use of Investment Incentives · 2023 · DOI

  • Moreover, in reviewing the literature on Indonesian elections, we find that, first, the study of electoral behavior in Indonesia has made little effort to employ existing theoretical frameworks; second, quantitative studies are scarce; and third, there are practically no micro‐level quantitative studies on electoral behavior.

    TRADITIONAL BELIEFS AND ELECTORAL BEHAVIOR IN INDONESIA · 2023 · DOI

  • Building on a great deal of research in electoral geography and spatial analysis, it focused on specific spatial elements of voting behaviour that have not been previously studied, and on the key time-specific factors that shaped the electoral map and party system in the 2021 elections.

    Continuity in Discontinuity? Spatial Patterns of Electoral Behaviour in the 2021 Czech Parliamentary Elections · 2022 · DOI

  • In general, these mixed findings imply that changes in legislature size alone are insufficient for affecting interest mobilization but that other kinds of legislative reforms, such as the transition from cumulative to plurality voting that accompanied Illinois’ downsizing, may affect mobilization rates.

    Legislature Size and Interest Mobilization: The Effects of Institutional Change · 2022 · DOI

  • We use qualitative content analysis of voter electoral runoff intentions to support our findings and contextualize the lack of evidence for balancing withan original analysis showing the unprecedented partisan nature of contemporary Senate elections since direct-election began in 1914.

    No Balance, No Problem: Evidence of Partisan Voting in the 2021 Georgia U.S. Senate Runoffs · 2022 · DOI

  • In the United States, state and local governments receive over $700 billion annually in federal grants, yet relatively little is known about how Congress designs these programs.

    Congressional Bargaining and the Distribution of Grants · 2022 · DOI

  • While political trust has declined in Australia, reaching its lowest level ever recorded in 2019, there remain very few studies on what explains the variation in political trust and therefore what leads to such change in political trust is less certain in Australia.

    Political Performance and Political Trust in Australia · 2022 · DOI

  • Although further research is necessary to determine whether similar patterns hold in situations where migrants are not immediately eligible to vote or perceived as supporting one side, this study provides initial evidence that strategic partisan calculations can influence attitudes toward migration in a competitive political context.

    Strategic calculations? Partisan differences in support for Puerto Rican migration to the mainland USA · 2021 · DOI

  • Using a dataset with elections under party leaders in nine countries over a 25‐year period, and a qualitative case study, we find some evidence for the theory, which should prompt further research of the question.

    The leadership dilemma: Examining the impact of strong leaders on parties · 2021 · DOI

  • To an extent that has remained understudied by scholars, when ballot secrecy was up for debate in northern states, the economic intimidation of wage-working voters was one of the most raised and difficult to oppose arguments in favor [End Page 172] of reform.

    Ballot Reform and Economic Voter Intimidation in New York State, 1888–1890 · 2021 · DOI

  • The goal of this study is to fill this gap in knowledge and verify this theoretical assumption by conducting a statistical analysis of the activities of six niche parties in selected stages of the negotiation of various bills in the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic between 1996 and 2020.

    True to Their Name? Activities of Niche Political Parties in the Legislative Process · 2021 · DOI

  • Even though the Canadian Election Study (CES) has measured the Big Five personality traits since 2011, very few studies have taken advantage of this data to assess personality's political role among the Canadian electorate.

    The Political Implications of Personality in Canada · 2021 · DOI

  • However, it remains unclear how candidate characteristics affect favorability of EP candidates since it cannot be taken for granted that these characteristics work as in national elections.

    How candidate characteristics affect favorability in European Parliament elections: Evidence from a conjoint experiment in Finland · 2020 · DOI

  • Analysis consistently finds that those who supported the losing presidential candidate in 2012 maintained lower evaluations of institutions, with inconsistent results regarding nonvoters.

    The Lingering Effects of Losing and Nonvoting on Institutional Trust: An Analysis of South Korea · 2020 · DOI

  • In an open question ‘Which politicians, in your opinion, best represent your interests?’, the highest result was fixed in 1989–1990, in the time of the highest political activity in society, and the lowest was fixed in the 20s.

    Political Activity Indicators in Public Opinion Surveys · 2020 · DOI

  • Capitalizing on a unique quasi‐experimental setting, the present study aims to close these gaps in the literature by analyzing parliamentary activities in Turkey, where the legislative television was restricted to 3 days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) in 2011 after almost two decades of continuous 7‐day operation.

    Politics of Constituency Representation and Legislative Ambition under the Glare of Camera Lights · 2019 · DOI

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405 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 13,156 Electoral Systems and Political Participation papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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