15:30 - 17:45
Friday-Panel
Chair/s:
Gary Hollibaugh
Discussant/s:
Gary Hollibaugh
Meeting Room E

Eleanor Gao
When Do Elections Help Autocrats?: The Plight of Tribes under SNTV in Jordan

André Walter, Patrick Emmenegger
Designing Electoral Districts. How Electoral Geography and Partisan Politics Constrain Proportionality and Create Bias

Gary Hollibaugh, Jonathan Klingler, Adam Ramey
Under Pressure? Parties, Voters, and Legislator Ideology Reconsidered
When Do Elections Help Autocrats?: The Plight of Tribes under SNTV in Jordan
Eleanor Gao
University of Exeter (UK)

In Jordan, tribes behave much like political parties during elections. They hold tribal primaries, nominate candidates, and mobilize voters. Tribal affiliation also functions much like party affiliation with most voters supporting candidates from their own tribe. But when facing strategic dilemmas, do tribes act in the same manner as political parties? Using the case of Jordan, I examine tribal coordination under the single non-transferable electoral system (SNTV). SNTV is well-known for causing coordination problems across parties, especially for those with enough electoral support to win more than one seat in a district. I demonstrate that coordination failures also occur amongst tribes in Jordan and explore the main causes of variation in intra-tribal coordination. Finally, I offer some conclusions as to whether SNTV privileges pro-regime tribes over opposition tribes with regard to electoral coordination.