Isabela Mares is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. She has conducted research on comparative democratization and electoral reform, comparative political economy, and comparative social policy. She is the author of The Politics of Social Risk (Cambridge University Press, 2003), which won the Gregory Luebbert Award of the American Political Science Association for best book in comparative politics, and of Taxation, Wage Bargaining and Unemployment (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

• 1. Introduction; 2. The protection of voters' autonomy; 3. Electoral intimidation by state employees; 4. Electoral intimidation by private actors; 5. The production of irregularities at times of elections: a quantitative analysis; 6. The adoption of electoral reforms; 7. Labor scarcity, rural inequality, and electoral reforms: the determinants for electoral reform of the Prussian electoral system; 8. Voting for opposition candidates: economic concentration, skills, and political support for social democracy; 9. Dilemmas on the right and the road to proportional representation; 10. From macro- to micro-historical analysis in comparative research.

'An admirable piece of work that combines an impressive knowledge of German nineteenth-century history with skillful archival research and an astonishing command of quantitative methods. I find the idea of voter intimidation and the costs of voter repression as leading terms in a local-level quantitative analysis of electoral practices and reforms in an emerging nation-state a major step forward in the analysis of institutional change. The way the book moves between qualitative narratives of historical local conditions and sophisticated quantitative analyses is exemplary and sets a standard for social science taking history seriously.' Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies