A major international collaborative research project called "Making Electoral Democracy Work" has recently received $2.5 million Canadian from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada over seven years. Researchers will study how electoral rules influence the strategies of political parties and the choices voters make.

Co-investigator Christopher J. Anderson, professor of government and director of Cornell's Institute for European Studies, said that the study will examine 27 elections (national, supranational and subnational) in Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

André Blais of the University of Montréal is leading the project, which includes a team of researchers from six countries. Anderson will be responsible for designing surveys for the project to understand the connection between electoral processes and citizens' beliefs about the legitimacy of government.

In June, Anderson will host a workshop at Cornell sponsored by Cornell's Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California-Irvine, where participants will present research on electoral systems and voter behavior in 40 countries as part of the international collaborative. For more information, see http://www.cses.org.