About

Democracy's Cookbook explores how electoral institutions shape political representation through an integrated lens that combines theories of political equality and institutional design, election science, and cultural analysis.

Just as every culture has developed its own culinary traditions for the universal practice of sharing a meal, every democracy has its own recipe for translating votes into political power. The ingredients — political community, as well as rules like district seats, ballot structures, and allocation formulas — are the materials that determine who gets a seat at the table. This project examines both the mechanical and cultural recipes of democracy across communities around the world, asking: what does it take to build longer tables?

Author

Michael Latner is Director of Research on Democratic Reform at Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and Professor of Political Science at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Data

Election and demographic data for much of this work comes from the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute's CLEO (Comparative Local Elections Observatory) project, an open dataset for studying municipal electoral systems and representation around the world. The CLEO research team includes:

Newsletter

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