Refining Duverger's Law Using District-Level Theory and Data

对选举制度的比较研究，在很大程度上， 一直局限于国家层面的总回报，简单地说， 因为这些是机器中可用的数据- 可读形式。 这项试验性研究旨在汇编选举结果， 在一系列民主国家的地区一级。 的 然后，研究者将对结果进行编码， 可供学术界使用的机器可读数据集， 公众 该提案还试图调查 选举结构和政党数量之间的关系（一个长期的领域 由所谓的Duverger定律支配）， 区一级重点。 试点研究将大大提高 我们对这个话题的理解。

The comparative study of electoral systems has, for the most part, been confined to aggregate national-level returns, for the simple reason that these are the data that are available in machine- readable form. This pilot study seeks to compile electoral results at the district level for a range of democratic countries. The investigator will then code the results and make the resulting machine-readable datasets available to the scholarly community and public. The proposal also seeks to investigate the relationship between electoral structure and the number of parties (an area long dominated by what is called Duverger's Law) with a deliberate district level focus. The pilot study should substantially enhance our understanding of the topic.