Election

Key people

• Henry ValenPolitical scientist (1924-2007)
• Alain LancelotFrench political scientist (1937-2020)
• Sara HoboltDanish political scientist
• John CurticePolitical scientist

Timeline

• 1920By 1920 all Western European and North American democracies had universal adult male suffrage (except Switzerland) and many countries began to consider women's suffrage.

Read

• List of residents. [title may vary]Boston, Massachusetts. Election Department.Book
• The elect ladyGeorge MacDonald · 1888Book
• Die Wahlverwandtschaften. Ein RomanJohann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1809Book
• American Politics TodayWilliam T. Bianco · 2009Book

Watch

• The Median Voter Theorem | One Dimensional Spatial PoliticsYouTube
• Which voting system is the best? - Alex GendlerYouTube
• All Voting Systems ExplainedYouTube
• Electoral Reforms - Election And Representation | Class 11 Political ScienceYouTube
• How a Billion People Vote: Class 9: Political Science: Electoral PoliticsYouTube
• Proportional Representation - Election And Representation | Class 11 Political ScienceYouTube
• Class 11 | Political Science | Elections,Representation and Movements| Electoral Systems and ReformsYouTube
• class 9 civics chapter 3 - Electoral Politics | CBSE | NCERTYouTube
• What are Political Parties?YouTube
• Types/kinds of voting, elections, Political ScienceYouTube

Listen

• The Inside Elections PodcastInside ElectionsPodcast
• The Lead with Jake TapperCNN PodcastsPodcast
• The Daily Beast PodcastThe Daily Beast, Joanna ColesPodcast
• All In with Chris HayesMS NOW, Chris HayesPodcast

Voices to follow

• Mikhail Prokhorov@MD_Prokhorov · XRussian entrepreneur and politician (born 1965)
• Al Schmidt@Commish_Schmidt · XAmerican politician
• Kasper Møller Hansen@KasperMHansen · XDanish political scientist
• Benjamín Temkin@temkinator · XMexican sociologist

By the numbers

• 27.2Women in parliament (%) — global, 2025 (World Bank)

Debates

• Should voting be compulsory?One view: Compulsory voting increases voter turnout and ensures a more representative mandate for elected officials. · Another: Compulsory voting infringes on individual freedom and may lead to uninformed votes from disengaged citizens.Open question
• Are electoral systems like 'first-past-the-post' fair?One view: First-past-the-post systems create strong, stable governments by ensuring a clear winner in each district. · Another: These systems can lead to disproportionate representation, where a party wins many seats with fewer overall votes.Open question
• Should there be limits on campaign spending?One view: Spending limits create a more level playing field, preventing wealthy donors from dominating the political process. · Another: Limiting spending restricts free speech and the ability of candidates to reach voters effectively.Open question

Glossary

• SuffrageThe right to vote in political elections.
• GerrymanderingManipulating electoral district boundaries to favor one party or group.
• Electoral CollegeA body of electors established by the US Constitution, formed every four years to elect the president and vice president.
• Voter TurnoutThe percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election.
• Proportional RepresentationAn electoral system where parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.
• IncumbentThe current holder of a political office.

Careers

Roles this can lead toward

Threads 5

Where this connects to other fields — and why it's worth knowing.

• Geometry in the Real World Mathematics

  Imagine drawing voting-district lines so twisty they look like a splattered inkblot, all to cram your rivals' voters into one district and scatter the rest. That's gerrymandering, and courts now catch it with actual geometry: they measure how weird and contorted a shape is. If a district looks like a crab that got run over, the math flags it as rigged.

• Map Scale and Gerrymandering Geography

  Redraw the lines around who votes where, and you can pick the winner without changing a single person's vote. That's gerrymandering. It works because the answer depends on how you group people, not just what they want, so the mapmaker quietly rigs the result.

• Logic, Proof & Verification Mathematics

  Every voting system feels like it should be fixable to be perfectly fair. A mathematician named Arrow proved it can't be done: no method can satisfy a few basic fairness rules all at once, once there are three or more choices. A flawless democracy isn't just difficult to build; it's logically impossible.

• Modelling & Simulation Mathematics

  When a famous poll predicts an election, people read it and change how they vote, which wrecks the very prediction. It's a weird loop: a model of people that gets popular starts to break itself. The closer everyone watches the forecast, the less likely it is to come true.

• Prime Numbers Mathematics

  Voting seems stuck with a trade-off: keep your ballot secret, or let people verify the count, but not both. Clever math from internet security can do both at once, proving your vote was counted without revealing who you picked. It dissolves a problem democracy long thought was unavoidable.