LEGISLATIVE POLITICS AND THE PARADOX OF VOTING - ELECTORAL-REFORM IN FOURTH-REPUBLIC FRANCE

This article explores the properties of paradoxical voting situations in legislatures as illustrated by the decision-making process attendin g passage of the 1951 Electoral Reform Act in Fourth Republic France. First, conditions for demonstrating existence of a voting paradox for the case are developed and applied to data describing the voting behav iour of individual deputies. There follows an exploration of how a vot ing cycle over reform alternatives was overcome, focusing on the ways institutional rules and procedures structured the behaviour of parties and individual members and on the strategic manoeuvring of political leaders. We conclude by relating characteristics of the case to genera l propositions found in the theoretical literature on the paradox of v oting.