Electoral System Design and Redesign

Abstract

Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution at the end of 1991, institutional designers, international organizations, and politicians directed considerable attention to the development and conduct of elections. As Chapters 1 and 2 revealed, even though elections in the USSR did not function like those in democratic societies, Soviet leaders created an elaborate elections infrastructure that performed many of the same functions as its democratic counterparts. After the USSR’s collapse, politicians in the newly independent states were able to adopt or modify these institutions, or create new election rules that departed from Soviet practices. This chapter addresses the selection of initial election rules and assesses why politicians modify the rules over time.