The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (76 page)

 
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(1832–98)
English mathematician and logician, who also wrote the children's classics
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
and
Through the Looking Glass
under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll . In the early 1870s Dodgson stumbled on the problem of cycling independently of
Borda
and
Condorcet
(copies of whose works in the libraries Dodgson used remain uncut to this day). He proposed several voting procedures, including one for breaking a cycle should no Condorcet winner exist. In the 1880s he turned his attention to
proportional representation
. Because of the eccentricity of his personality, all this work was totally ignored until recently.

 
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An analogy between individuals in a state of nature and polities in the anarchical international system, often drawn by writers on international relations. This has permitted social contract theories to be applied, with more or less plausibility, to relations between states and the development of international society. The chief deficiency of this line of reasoning, first pointed out by
Rousseau
, is that there is neither a genetic limit to the growth of the state nor an organically constrained lifespan. It is therefore possible for neighbouring states reacting to the security dilemma to constitute themselves for competition through trade and war to an extent and in a manner far exceeding the physical specialization of individual warriors. This led Rousseau to prefer a world of small, relatively autarkic states to the ideal of close relations and cosmopolitanism preferred by many liberals.
CJ 

 
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Term referring to a political party which dominates the government of a country over several decades, either governing on its own, or as the leading partner in coalition governments. The classic examples are the Christian Democrats in Italy and the Liberal Democrats in Japan, although both fell in the 1990s. One of the characteristics of a dominant party is that opposition politics often occurs within the dominant party, rather than through the formal opposition. As in Italy and Japan, dominant parties become highly factionalized, with the selection of party leaders becoming a competition between the leading factions. As the British Conservative Party acquired some of the characteristics of a dominant party in the early 1990s, it became increasingly factionalized.
WG 

 
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A synonym for power in early modern English, the term later denoted any realm over which a sovereign exercised authority. From the late nineteenth century it was applied particularly to self-governing states within the British Empire, such as Canada, to distinguish them from less autonomous dependencies of the Crown.
CJ 

 
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(
c.
1831–84)
English lawyer and advocate of proportional representation. Modified earlier suggestions as to the correct quota which should entitle a party to one seat in a multiseat district. Where
v
votes have been cast in an
n
-member district, the Droop quota is
v
/(
n
+ 1), usually rounded up to the next integer. Used in
single transferable vote
.

 
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