representation and electoral systems - American Political Science ...

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In view of the fact Professor Cox is the only two-time winner of the Hallett
Award, we are publishing the statement of the selection committee read by Professor
Paul Abramson of Michigan State University at the award ceremony in Chicago on
August 31, 2007.
“This is the second time in four years that Gary Cox has won the George H.
Hallett Award, which is presented annually to the author of a book published in the last
ten years that has made a lasting contribution to the literature on representation and
electoral systems. In 2003, he received the award for The Efficient Secret, his study of
political parties in Victorian England, published in 1987. Making Votes Count: Strategic
Coordination in the World’s Electoral Systems, published in 1997, also includes a
fascinating discussion of British politics, although it is much broader in scope. It was the
unanimous choice of this year’s selection committee, Jack Nagel, Michal Shamir, and
me. Indeed, in the baseball parlance used for selection into the Hall of Fame, Making
Votes Count was selected in its first year of eligibility.
Gary’s book has won many awards already. In 1978, it won the Woodrow Wilson
Award for the best book published in the United States in the previous year on
government, politics, and international affairs, the most prestigious award of the
American Political Science Association. It was also named as best book by the Political
Economy section of APSA, as well as the Comparative Politics section.
As the Woodrow Wilson award statement reads, “Making Votes Count is an
intellectual tour de force combining the best features of traditional comparative studies
and contemporary formal analysis.” In addition, reviews of Gary’s book lavished fully
warranted praise. For example, in his review in the APSR, Mel Hinich wrote that “every
serious scholar of political systems should read this book. Gary Cox has superbly
organized the theoretical and empirical literature to illuminate the complex interactions
between the rules used to select the winners in a political system and the behavior of
candidates, parties, and voters.” In the Political Science Quarterly, Olga Shevesova wrote
that “this book is of potential interest for readers in all fields of political science. It
epitomizes the balanced use of formal theory and comparative method as an approach to
developing general understanding of diverse political phenomena. Making Votes Count
will certainly become a required reading in many graduate and undergraduate seminars
on comparative political institutions and positive political theory.” And, writing in the
Canadian Journal of Political Science, André Blais wrote, “this is a great book. . . . Cox
powerfully demonstrates the fruitfulness of looking at the impact of electoral systems
from the perspective of formal theory, provided this is combined with solid empirical
analysis.”
Has Gary’s book stood the test of time? If ten years is enough time to test its
endurance, certainly so. Not surprisingly, there have been quibbles raised about some of
its arguments, but it remains the most important book on comparative electoral rules ever
written. It is not at all surprising that eight years after Making Votes Count was published
Gary was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
Will his book continue to stand the test of time? Naturally, if democracy
continues to spread throughout the world, and as relatively new democracies gain
political experience, we can expect changes in election rules. Even long-established
democracies can change their rules. For example, New Zealand changed from first-past-