Why and how does secession happen? How do different levels of government interact with each other? Why do some multilevel governments work better than others? What makes political extremism so virulent in today''s society? These are some of the most pressing questions in political science today.These questions and research areas – secession, multilevel government, and political economy – were the focus of the writing and scholarship of Robert (Bob) Andrew Young (1950–2017), Canada Research Chair in Multilevel Governance at the University of Western Ontario and one of Canada''s most distinguished political scientists. In Across Boundaries Young''s former colleagues and students bring together contributions from his extensive network, which included academics, government officials, and media personalities. These essays speak to Young''s legacy while providing new insight into research in multilevel governance, secession, and political economy.Young''s body of work is exemplary in its attention to concrete policy issues as well as in the breadth of his interest across many subfields of political science. Across Boundaries honours his distinguished career and gives students, professors, and practitioners further insight into his scholarship.

Why and how does secession happen? How do different levels of government interact with each other? Why do some multilevel governments work better than others? What makes political extremism so virulent in today''s society? These are some of the most pressing questions in political science today.These questions and research areas – secession, multilevel government, and political economy – were the focus of the writing and scholarship of Robert (Bob) Andrew Young (1950–2017), Canada Research Chair in Multilevel Governance at the University of Western Ontario and one of Canada''s most distinguished political scientists. In Across Boundaries Young''s former colleagues and students bring together contributions from his extensive network, which included academics, government officials, and media personalities. These essays speak to Young''s legacy while providing new insight into research in multilevel governance, secession, and political economy.Young''s body of work is exemplary in its attention to concrete policy issues as well as in the breadth of his interest across many subfields of political science. Across Boundaries honours his distinguished career and gives students, professors, and practitioners further insight into his scholarship.

Maurice Duverger is arguably the most distinguished French political scientist of the last century, but his major impact has, strangely enough, been largely in the English-speaking world. His book, Political Parties, first translated into English in 1954, has been very influential in both the party politics literature (which continues to make use of his typology of party organization) and in the electoral systems literature. His chief contributions there deal with what have come to be called in his honor Duverger’s Law and Duverger’s Hypothesis. The first argues that countries with plurality-based electoral methods will tend to become two-party systems; the second argues that countries using proportional representation (PR) methods will tend to become multi-party systems. Duverger also identifies specific mechanisms that will produce these effects, conventionally referred to as “mechanical effects”, and “psychological effects”. However, while Duverger’s Hypothesis concerning the link between PR and multipartism is now widely accepted; the empirical evidence that plurality voting results in two-party systems is remarkably weak—with the U.S. the most notable exception.

The chapters in this volume consider national-level evidence for the operation of Duverger’s law in the world’s largest, longest-lived and most successful democracies of Britain, Canada, India and the United States. One set of papers involves looking at the overall evidence for Duverger’s Law in these countries; the other set deals with evidence for the mechanical and incentive effects predicted by Duverger. The result is an incisive analysis of electoral and party dynamics.

Elections are at the heart of our democracy. Understanding citizens' decisions to vote or to abstain in elections is crucial, especially when turnout in so many democracies is declining.

In The Motivation to Vote, André Blais and Jean-François Daoust provide an original and elegant model that explains why people vote. They argue that the decision to vote or abstain hinges on four factors: political interest, sense of civic duty, perceived importance of the election, and ease of voting. Their findings are strongly supported by empirical evidence from elections in five countries.

The authors also test alternative explanations of voter turnout by looking at contextual factors and the role of habit, but find little evidence to support these hypotheses. This analysis is compelling and further demonstrates the power of their model to provide a provocative and parsimonious explanation of voter turnout in elections.

Why and how does secession happen? How do different levels of government interact with each other? Why do some multilevel governments work better than others? What makes political extremism so virulent in today''s society? These are some of the most pressing questions in political science today.These questions and research areas – secession, multilevel government, and political economy – were the focus of the writing and scholarship of Robert (Bob) Andrew Young (1950–2017), Canada Research Chair in Multilevel Governance at the University of Western Ontario and one of Canada''s most distinguished political scientists. In Across Boundaries Young''s former colleagues and students bring together contributions from his extensive network, which included academics, government officials, and media personalities. These essays speak to Young''s legacy while providing new insight into research in multilevel governance, secession, and political economy.Young''s body of work is exemplary in its attention to concrete policy issues as well as in the breadth of his interest across many subfields of political science. Across Boundaries honours his distinguished career and gives students, professors, and practitioners further insight into his scholarship.

Why and how does secession happen? How do different levels of government interact with each other? Why do some multilevel governments work better than others? What makes political extremism so virulent in today''s society? These are some of the most pressing questions in political science today.These questions and research areas – secession, multilevel government, and political economy – were the focus of the writing and scholarship of Robert (Bob) Andrew Young (1950–2017), Canada Research Chair in Multilevel Governance at the University of Western Ontario and one of Canada''s most distinguished political scientists. In Across Boundaries Young''s former colleagues and students bring together contributions from his extensive network, which included academics, government officials, and media personalities. These essays speak to Young''s legacy while providing new insight into research in multilevel governance, secession, and political economy.Young''s body of work is exemplary in its attention to concrete policy issues as well as in the breadth of his interest across many subfields of political science. Across Boundaries honours his distinguished career and gives students, professors, and practitioners further insight into his scholarship.

Maurice Duverger is arguably the most distinguished French political scientist of the last century, but his major impact has, strangely enough, been largely in the English-speaking world. His book, Political Parties, first translated into English in 1954, has been very influential in both the party politics literature (which continues to make use of his typology of party organization) and in the electoral systems literature. His chief contributions there deal with what have come to be called in his honor Duverger’s Law and Duverger’s Hypothesis. The first argues that countries with plurality-based electoral methods will tend to become two-party systems; the second argues that countries using proportional representation (PR) methods will tend to become multi-party systems. Duverger also identifies specific mechanisms that will produce these effects, conventionally referred to as “mechanical effects”, and “psychological effects”. However, while Duverger’s Hypothesis concerning the link between PR and multipartism is now widely accepted; the empirical evidence that plurality voting results in two-party systems is remarkably weak—with the U.S. the most notable exception.

The chapters in this volume consider national-level evidence for the operation of Duverger’s law in the world’s largest, longest-lived and most successful democracies of Britain, Canada, India and the United States. One set of papers involves looking at the overall evidence for Duverger’s Law in these countries; the other set deals with evidence for the mechanical and incentive effects predicted by Duverger. The result is an incisive analysis of electoral and party dynamics.

Elections are at the heart of our democracy. Understanding citizens' decisions to vote or to abstain in elections is crucial, especially when turnout in so many democracies is declining.

In The Motivation to Vote, André Blais and Jean-François Daoust provide an original and elegant model that explains why people vote. They argue that the decision to vote or abstain hinges on four factors: political interest, sense of civic duty, perceived importance of the election, and ease of voting. Their findings are strongly supported by empirical evidence from elections in five countries.

The authors also test alternative explanations of voter turnout by looking at contextual factors and the role of habit, but find little evidence to support these hypotheses. This analysis is compelling and further demonstrates the power of their model to provide a provocative and parsimonious explanation of voter turnout in elections.