Douglas J. Amy

Professor of Politics

Specialization
Voting systems; proportional representation; American politics

Douglas Amy is a leading expert on electoral voting systems, including proportional representation, redistricting issues in the United States, and the plight of third party candidacies. Behind the Ballot Box: A Citizen's Guide to Voting Systems, Amy's latest book, spells out the political advantages and disadvantages associated with the voting systems used in Western democracies. Published in October, 2000, Behind the Ballot Box also provides the analytical tools needed to compare and contrast the choices among these voting systems.

Amy is also the author of Real Choices, New Voices: How Proportional Representation Elections Could Revitalize American Democracy—the only current book concerning the United States and proportional representation, an electoral system that most Western democracies use. (The book came out in a second edition in the fall of 2002.) The system places officials in office according to the proportion of the vote won by their parties in large, multimember districts. Amy argues in Real Choices, New Voices that proportional representation offers a solution to the growing discontent felt among many American voters.

Prior to his interest in electoral systems, Amy concentrated on environmental mediation and policy analysis. In 1987 he published The Politics of Environmental Mediation.

News Links:

"Doug Amy Opines on the Credit Crisis and Government," Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 8, 2008

"NYT Blog: Doug Amy Web Site," New York Times, October 24, 2007

"MHC Prof's Web Site: Government Is Good!," Office of Communications, September 17, 2007

"Scandal, Scandal Everywhere," Sunday Republican, February 12, 2006

"MHC Professor Criticizes Bush's Top Appointments," Hartford Courant, September 18, 2005

"Voter-rights Suit on Firm Historical Ground," Sunday Republican, April 17, 2005

"'Making Democracy Work' Panel to Continue Fall Focus on American Democracy," College Street Journal, October 13, 2000

"A Matter of Proportion: Voting Your Conscience Doesn't Have to Be Risky Business," College Street Journal, October 27, 2000