Josep M Colomer
Biographic Data
| ID | 342064 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Josep M Colomer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Josep M |
| FAMILY NAME | Colomer |
| SIGNATURE | COLOMER J M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgetown University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6932-7576 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 438 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
The Quintilian School in the history of Social Choice: An early tentative step from plurality rule to pairwise comparisons
We present two texts from Roman Empire times that add two early appearances to the stream of the history of Social Choice Theory. One is from the School of Rhetoric of Quintilian (35–96), a contemporary of Pliny the Younger, who developed an early criticism of Plurality rule and, in search of a better method, sketched a choice by pairwise comparisons. The other is from Aulus Gellius (160–180), who used the term “aporia” applied to a voting proble…
Response to Maxwell L. Stearns’ Review of Constitutional Polarization: A Critical Review of the U.S. Political System
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Democracy in Latin America: "Minimalist" in Concept and in Achievement
This essay reviews the following works:Reflections on Uneven Democracies: The Legacy of Guillermo O’Donnell. Edited by Daniel Brinks, Marcelo Leiras, and Scott Mainwaring. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. Pp. viii + 422. $38.00 paper. ISBN: 9780268019723
Party System Effects on Electoral Systems
A long tradition of empirical studies has focused on the consequences of electoral systems on party systems. A number of contributions have turned this relationship upside down by postulating that it is the parties that choose electoral systems and manipulate the rules of elections. The most remote shaping of innovative electoral rules, the choice of electoral systems in new democracies, and further electoral reforms in well-established regimes c…
La aventurada apuesta por la independencia de Cataluña
Following an ambiguous constitutional compromise for democratisation, the territorial decentralisation of the Spanish state developed, under low levels of formal institutionalisation, by means of political party competition, exchanges and bargaining. Recent developments include, on one side, attempts at recentralising the state and, on the other side, demands and mobilisations for Catexit, that is, the independence of Catalonia from Spain, which …
The venturous bid for the independence of Catalonia
Following an ambiguous constitutional compromise for democratization, the territorial decentralization of the Spanish state developed by means of political party competition, exchanges, and bargaining. Hence, the so-called state of autonomies was characterized as “non-institutional federalism” [Colomer, Josep M. 1998. “The Spanish ‘State of Autonomies': Non-institutional Federalism.” West European Politics 21 (4): 40–52]. In the most recent perio…
Is democracy compatible with global institutions
What a world assembly could look like
I identify some basic institutional features that can make a world assembly viable in terms of size and degree of complexity. The most potentially satisfactory model is a bicameral assembly formed by a lower chamber with about 2000 seats (of which about one-fourth would be elected in single-member districts and about three-fourths in multimember districts of proportional representation with moderate magnitude) and an upper chamber of territorial …
Equilibrium institutions: The federal-proportional trade-off
How Global Institutions Rule the World
Does world government actually exist? Are the current global institutions efficient in making decisions? Can they be compatible with basic democratic principles? This book holds that, indeed, world government does exist. Rulers of the World shows how the world is actually ruled by a few dozen global bureaus, organizations, funds, banks, courts and self-appointed directorates. They use different representation, voting and organizational formulas, …
Comparative Constitutions
This article studies comparative constitutions. It begins with a look at the origins and evolution of constitutional models. The next section concentrates on the constitutional regime typologies. The last section of the article is about constitutional consequences.
The More Parties, the Greater Policy Stability
This article discusses, models and quantifies the relationship between the number of parties in government and the degree of policy change or instability. Single-party governments, such as those formed in the United Kingdom for several decades, tend to produce very high levels of policy changes and reversals, whereas multiparty coalition governments, such as the ones in Switzerland or Israel, tend to produce a high degree of stability and little …
Comparative Constitutions
This article studies comparative constitutions. It begins with a look at the origins and evolution of constitutional models. The next section concentrates on the constitutional regime typologies. The last section of the article is about constitutional consequences.
On Building the American and the European Empires
Salida, voz y hostilidad en Cuba
Utilizando las categorías analíticas de Hirschman de "salida", "voz" y "lealtad", se realiza un análisis de los flujos migratorios de Cuba hacia Estados Unidos durante el régimen revolucionario y del desarrollo de la oposición anticastrista en la isla. En particular, se discute el esquema de Hirschman y su utilidad para analizar las interacciones entre los gobiernos de Estados Unidos y de Cuba y para interpretar las sucesivas oleadas de "salida" …
What Other Sciences Look Like
In order to have references for discussing mathematical menus in political science, I review the most common types of mathematical formulae used in physics and chemistry, as well as some mathematical advances in economics. Several issues appear relevant: variables should be well defined and measurable; the relationships between variables may be non-linear; the direction of causality should be clearly identified and not assumed on a priori grounds…
On the origins of electoral systems and political parties: The role of elections in multi-member districts
Cleavages, Issues and Parties: A critical overview of the literature
Policy making in divided government: A pivotal actors model with party discipline
It's Parties that Choose Electoral Systems (Or, Duverger's Laws Upside Down)
This article presents, discusses and tests the hypothesis that it is the number of parties that can explain the choice of electoral systems, rather than the other way around. Already-existing political parties tend to choose electoral systems that, rather than generate new party systems by themselves, will crystallize, consolidate or reinforce previously existing party configurations. A general model develops the argument and presents the concept…
Can Presidentialism Work Like Parliamentarism
Inter-institutional cooperation between the congress and the presidency may be the best way to promote good governance in a regime of separation of powers. In order to evaluate the performance of different political institutions, especially the different frameworks associated with ‘presidentialism’ and ‘parliamentarism’, we adopt the criterion that policy outcomes coinciding with the median voter's preference can produce the highest satisfaction …
The general election in Spain, March 2004
La dimension izquierda-derecha en America Latina
We present voters' self-placement and 68 political party locations on the left-right dimension in 17 Latin American countries. Innovative calculations are based on data from Latinobarometer annual surveys from 1995 to 2002. Our preliminary analysis of the results suggests that most Latin American voters are relatively highly ideological and rather consistently located on the left-right dimension, but they have very high levels of political aliena…
The Handbook of Electoral System Choice
The topic of electoral reform is an extremely timely one. The accelerated expansion of the number of new democracies in the world generates increasing demand for advice on the choice of electoral rule
Making Sense of a Model: A Response to J. Samuel Valenzuela
I am very pleased to start a dialogue with Samuel Valenzuela, although, because he reveals that he was one of the anonymous reviewers of my article, I have to point out that he was the only one out of five who disagreed with the editor’s decision to publish it. I hope that the dialogue might extend to other interested readers who can find my approach more helpful and challenging from the beginning
It's Parties that Choose Electoral Systems (Or, Duverger's Laws Upside Down)
This article presents, discusses and tests the hypothesis that it is the number of parties that can explain the choice of electoral systems, rather than the other way around. Already-existing political parties tend to choose electoral systems that, rather than generate new party systems by themselves, will crystallize, consolidate or reinforce previously existing party configurations. A general model develops the argument and presents the concept…
The Spanish ‘state of autonomies: Non‐institutional federalism
Transitions by Agreement: Modeling the Spanish Way
Several nonrevolutionary cases of transition to democracy are modeled. Different preferences and strategic choices between the alternatives of continuity, reform, and rupture of the authoritarian regime are used to define conventional distinctions between hard-liners, soft-liners, and opposition more precisely. Six groups of actors emerge. Using game theory, the interactions among these actors are formally analyzed. The possibility of political p…
Can Presidentialism Work Like Parliamentarism
Inter-institutional cooperation between the congress and the presidency may be the best way to promote good governance in a regime of separation of powers. In order to evaluate the performance of different political institutions, especially the different frameworks associated with ‘presidentialism’ and ‘parliamentarism’, we adopt the criterion that policy outcomes coinciding with the median voter's preference can produce the highest satisfaction …
La dimension izquierda-derecha en America Latina
We present voters' self-placement and 68 political party locations on the left-right dimension in 17 Latin American countries. Innovative calculations are based on data from Latinobarometer annual surveys from 1995 to 2002. Our preliminary analysis of the results suggests that most Latin American voters are relatively highly ideological and rather consistently located on the left-right dimension, but they have very high levels of political aliena…
On the origins of electoral systems and political parties: The role of elections in multi-member districts
Strategies and Outcomes in Eastern Europe
Journal of Democracy - Volume 6, Number 2, April 1995
The Paradox of Coalition Trading
We present a model of coalition formation in a multiparty and multiparliament system in which several parties can agree on simultaneously exchanging their votes in a set of parliaments. Given this possibility, a party, acting rationally in its own self-interest, could accept sharing oversized majority coalitions in some parliaments with numerically superfluous partners. We present a formal argument in instances with diverse numbers of parties and…
The venturous bid for the independence of Catalonia
Following an ambiguous constitutional compromise for democratization, the territorial decentralization of the Spanish state developed by means of political party competition, exchanges, and bargaining. Hence, the so-called state of autonomies was characterized as “non-institutional federalism” [Colomer, Josep M. 1998. “The Spanish ‘State of Autonomies': Non-institutional Federalism.” West European Politics 21 (4): 40–52]. In the most recent perio…
Benefits and costs of voting
The general election in Spain, March 2004
Exit, Voice, and Hostility in Cuba
Albert Hirschman's categories of ‘exit,’ Voice,’ and ‘loyalty,’ which were previously applied to the analysis of emigration and protests in East Germany, are discussed and applied to the case of Cuba. Incentives for different types of action which may be derived from policy decisions regarding migration, as well as information and repression, are placed in the context of the strategic interaction between the United States and Cuban governments. A…
Electing Popes: Approval Balloting and Qualified-Majority Rule
July 01 1998 Electing Popes: Approval Balloting and Qualified-Majority Rule Josep M. Colomer, Josep M. Colomer Professor of Political Science at the Higher Council of Scientific Research, Barcelona, and Georgetown University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Iain McLean Iain McLean Professor of Politics, Oxford University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Infor…
The Polish games of transition
Using formal tools from game theory, the first phases of the process of transition to democracy in Poland in 1988–1989 are modeled as a succession of strategic interactions among political actors. Because the Polish process of change was temporarily ahead of others in Eastern Europe, certain false expectations on actors' future power in the middle term were entertained. These miscalculations allowed the communist party and the democratic oppositi…
What Other Sciences Look Like
In order to have references for discussing mathematical menus in political science, I review the most common types of mathematical formulae used in physics and chemistry, as well as some mathematical advances in economics. Several issues appear relevant: variables should be well defined and measurable; the relationships between variables may be non-linear; the direction of causality should be clearly identified and not assumed on a priori grounds…
Cleavages, Issues and Parties: A critical overview of the literature
Leadership Games in Collective Action
The strategic interactions between the leader and the members of the group in collective action are analyzed in a game-theoretical approach. Unlike the Prisoner's Dilemma scheme used to formalize a "horizontal" interaction between the members of the group, other schemes are found appropriate to better understand the "vertical" interaction between leaders and followers. The "Battle of the Sexes" game, whose equilibria are found in outcomes in whic…
La aventurada apuesta por la independencia de Cataluña
Following an ambiguous constitutional compromise for democratisation, the territorial decentralisation of the Spanish state developed, under low levels of formal institutionalisation, by means of political party competition, exchanges and bargaining. Recent developments include, on one side, attempts at recentralising the state and, on the other side, demands and mobilisations for Catexit, that is, the independence of Catalonia from Spain, which …
Policy making in divided government: A pivotal actors model with party discipline
On the Geometry of Unanimity Rule
A spatial analysis of decision-making by unanimity rule shows that outcomes largely depend on the initial state or the status quo. The closer the status quo is to the ideal points of the actors, the more restricted, more biased and likely less socially efficient the set of decisions by unanimity tends to be. Calculations show that any point inside the Pareto-optimum set of alternatives bounded by the actors' ideal points only can be reached from …
Measuring parliamentary deviation
Deviation between party seat shares and party expected power in parliamentary winning coalitions is measured with a new formula. In analogy with electoral deviation, in which proportions of votes and proportions of seats for each party are compared, proportions of seats and the proportions of influence in parliamentary majorities for each party are compared. A new parliamentary power index, which can be applied to different criteria in coalition …
Taming the Tiger: Voting Rights and Political Instability in Latin America
This article discusses the relationship between certain institutional regulations of voting rights and elections, different levels of electoral participation, and the degree of political instability in several Latin American political experiences. A formal model specifies the hypotheses that sudden enlargements of the electorate may provoke high levels of political instability, especially under plurality and other restrictive electoral rules, whi…
Exit, Voice, and Hostility in Cuba
The Utility of Bilingualism: A Contribution to a Rational Choice Model of Language
This article proposes an analytical model of linguistic behavior in a bilingual community. The starting point is the assumption that conversation is an interaction among individuals to which rational choice analysis can be applied. Two attitudes-adaptive and nonadaptive-are defined. Using game theory, five types of linguistic behavior are established as a result of the different combinations of persons with adaptive attitudes and nonadaptive atti…
Democracy in Latin America: "Minimalist" in Concept and in Achievement
This essay reviews the following works:Reflections on Uneven Democracies: The Legacy of Guillermo O’Donnell. Edited by Daniel Brinks, Marcelo Leiras, and Scott Mainwaring. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. Pp. viii + 422. $38.00 paper. ISBN: 9780268019723
El papel del utilitarismo en el desarrollo de la ciencia economica y la ciencia politica
Este papel puede mostrar una cierta añoranza de la economía política y pretende ser una modesta invitación al diálogo y la comunicación entre la ciencia económica y la ciencia política. Muestra también una cierta afición del autor a descubrir en las teorías actuales conceptos y relaciones establecidas o apuntados por los autores clásicos
The Utility of Bilingualism: A Contribution to a Rational Choice Model of Language
This article proposes an analytical model of linguistic behavior in a bilingual community. The starting point is the assumption that conversation is an interaction among individuals to which rational choice analysis can be applied. Two attitudes-adaptive and nonadaptive-are defined. Using game theory, five types of linguistic behavior are established as a result of the different combinations of persons with adaptive attitudes and nonadaptive atti…
Benefits and costs of voting
Transitions by Agreement: Modeling the Spanish Way
Several nonrevolutionary cases of transition to democracy are modeled. Different preferences and strategic choices between the alternatives of continuity, reform, and rupture of the authoritarian regime are used to define conventional distinctions between hard-liners, soft-liners, and opposition more precisely. Six groups of actors emerge. Using game theory, the interactions among these actors are formally analyzed. The possibility of political p…
Rational choice political theory in Spain
The Polish games of transition
Using formal tools from game theory, the first phases of the process of transition to democracy in Poland in 1988–1989 are modeled as a succession of strategic interactions among political actors. Because the Polish process of change was temporarily ahead of others in Eastern Europe, certain false expectations on actors' future power in the middle term were entertained. These miscalculations allowed the communist party and the democratic oppositi…
Strategies and Outcomes in Eastern Europe
Journal of Democracy - Volume 6, Number 2, April 1995
The Paradox of Coalition Trading
We present a model of coalition formation in a multiparty and multiparliament system in which several parties can agree on simultaneously exchanging their votes in a set of parliaments. Given this possibility, a party, acting rationally in its own self-interest, could accept sharing oversized majority coalitions in some parliaments with numerically superfluous partners. We present a formal argument in instances with diverse numbers of parties and…
Leadership Games in Collective Action
The strategic interactions between the leader and the members of the group in collective action are analyzed in a game-theoretical approach. Unlike the Prisoner's Dilemma scheme used to formalize a "horizontal" interaction between the members of the group, other schemes are found appropriate to better understand the "vertical" interaction between leaders and followers. The "Battle of the Sexes" game, whose equilibria are found in outcomes in whic…
Measuring parliamentary deviation
Deviation between party seat shares and party expected power in parliamentary winning coalitions is measured with a new formula. In analogy with electoral deviation, in which proportions of votes and proportions of seats for each party are compared, proportions of seats and the proportions of influence in parliamentary majorities for each party are compared. A new parliamentary power index, which can be applied to different criteria in coalition …
To translate or to learn languages? An evaluation of social efficiency
Article To translate or to learn languages? An evaluation of social efficiency was published on January 1, 1996 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1996, issue 121)
Divided Nations: Class, Politics, and Nationalism in the Basque Country and Catalonia.Juan Diez Medrano
The Spanish ‘state of autonomies: Non‐institutional federalism
Electing Popes: Approval Balloting and Qualified-Majority Rule
July 01 1998 Electing Popes: Approval Balloting and Qualified-Majority Rule Josep M. Colomer, Josep M. Colomer Professor of Political Science at the Higher Council of Scientific Research, Barcelona, and Georgetown University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Iain McLean Iain McLean Professor of Politics, Oxford University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Infor…
On the Geometry of Unanimity Rule
A spatial analysis of decision-making by unanimity rule shows that outcomes largely depend on the initial state or the status quo. The closer the status quo is to the ideal points of the actors, the more restricted, more biased and likely less socially efficient the set of decisions by unanimity tends to be. Calculations show that any point inside the Pareto-optimum set of alternatives bounded by the actors' ideal points only can be reached from …
Exit, Voice, and Hostility in Cuba
Albert Hirschman's categories of ‘exit,’ Voice,’ and ‘loyalty,’ which were previously applied to the analysis of emigration and protests in East Germany, are discussed and applied to the case of Cuba. Incentives for different types of action which may be derived from policy decisions regarding migration, as well as information and repression, are placed in the context of the strategic interaction between the United States and Cuban governments. A…
Exit, Voice, and Hostility in Cuba
The 2000 general election in Spain
The Handbook of Electoral System Choice
The topic of electoral reform is an extremely timely one. The accelerated expansion of the number of new democracies in the world generates increasing demand for advice on the choice of electoral rule
Making Sense of a Model: A Response to J. Samuel Valenzuela
I am very pleased to start a dialogue with Samuel Valenzuela, although, because he reveals that he was one of the anonymous reviewers of my article, I have to point out that he was the only one out of five who disagreed with the editor’s decision to publish it. I hope that the dialogue might extend to other interested readers who can find my approach more helpful and challenging from the beginning
Political Science is Going Ahead (By Convoluted Ways): A Commentary on Giovanni Sartori
In his reflections on “Where is Political Science Going?,” professor Sartori brightly points out some present flaws in the discipline: too much empiricism and too little applied research. At attacking “American-type” political science, however, I think he chooses a mistaken enemy. I will hold, in contrast, that the main source of the mentioned flaws is the weakness of political theory
Taming the Tiger: Voting Rights and Political Instability in Latin America
This article discusses the relationship between certain institutional regulations of voting rights and elections, different levels of electoral participation, and the degree of political instability in several Latin American political experiences. A formal model specifies the hypotheses that sudden enlargements of the electorate may provoke high levels of political instability, especially under plurality and other restrictive electoral rules, whi…
Cleavages, Issues and Parties: A critical overview of the literature
Policy making in divided government: A pivotal actors model with party discipline
It's Parties that Choose Electoral Systems (Or, Duverger's Laws Upside Down)
This article presents, discusses and tests the hypothesis that it is the number of parties that can explain the choice of electoral systems, rather than the other way around. Already-existing political parties tend to choose electoral systems that, rather than generate new party systems by themselves, will crystallize, consolidate or reinforce previously existing party configurations. A general model develops the argument and presents the concept…
Political science (41 works) · Law (33 works) · Politics (29 works) · Economics (25 works) · Law (23 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (19 works) · Political economy (16 works) · Democracy (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works)