My primary research interests involve democratic theory and the rules of elections. My dissertation, In Defense of Voting, examines the motivating factors of voter turnout, and attempts to demonstrate the value of participating in elections—for individuals, and for the overall functioning of democracy. The objective of this work is two-fold:
1) to restore confidence in the value of voting as a matter of individual-level efficacy, as a choice that is both rational and ethical;
2) to lay stronger foundations in participatory democratic theory for electoral reforms designed to increase and equalize voter turnout in the United States.
See here for a more detailed description of the dissertation (and download links).
My wider research interests extend to constitutional design and the comparative study of electoral institutions.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
⋅ “Reinterpreting p: A New Theory of How Individual Votes Contribute to Electoral Outcomes.” Election Law Journal 14 (2): 111-135 (2015). (author’s manuscript)
⋅ “Africa’s Domestic Institutions of Integration and Accommodation: A New Database.” In Constitutions and Conflict Management in Africa: Preventing Civil War through Institutional Design, ed. Alan J. Kuperman, 183-224 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).
⋅ “An Exploratory Study of Constitutional Design in Three Island States: Seychelles, Comoros, and Mauritius.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 35 (3): 324-348 (2017). (author’s manuscript)
Selected Works
⋅ Op-eds for WhoWhatWhy.org: “As Election Day Draws Closer, A Few Reasons for Optimism” (September 3, 2020); “The US Supreme Court at the Center of an Approaching Storm” (October 28, 2020)
⋅ Blog post for the Franchise Project: “Asking Better Questions about Voter Identification Laws” (December 2017)
⋅ African Constitutional Design Database and Codebook (associated with 2015 book chapter)
⋅ A short film about voting in the 2010 midterm elections in Austin, TX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFXTwBt5eKY
More info
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliezerpoupko/
elipoupko.com 