World Polit. 2011;63(1):165-202. doi: 10.1017/s0043887110000316.
How do changes in electoral rules affect the nature of public policy outcomes? The current evidence supporting institutional theories that answer this question stems almost entirely from quantitative cross-country studies, the data of which contain very little within-unit variation. Indeed, while there are many country-level accounts of how changes in electoral rules affect such phenomena as the number of parties or voter turnout, there are few studies of how electoral reform affects public policy outcomes. This article contributes to this latter endeavor by providing a detailed analysis of electoral reform and the public policy process in Thailand through an examination of the 1997 electoral reforms. Specifically, the author examines four aspects of policy-making: policy formulation, policy platforms, policy content, and policy outcomes. The article finds that candidates in the pre-1997 era campaigned on broad, generic platforms; parties had no independent means of technical policy expertise; the government targeted health resources to narrow geographic areas; and health was underprovided in Thai society. Conversely, candidates in the post-1997 era relied more on a strong, detailed national health policy; parties created mechanisms to formulate health policy independently; the government allocated health resources broadly to the entire nation through the introduction of a universal health care system, and health outcomes improved. The author attributes these changes in the policy process to the 1997 electoral reform, which increased both constituency breadth (the proportion of the population to which politicians were accountable) and majoritarianism.
选举规则的变化如何影响公共政策结果的性质？目前支持回答这个问题的制度理论的证据几乎完全来自于定量的跨国研究，这些数据中几乎没有单位内的变化。事实上，虽然有许多关于选举规则变化如何影响政党数量或投票率等现象的国家层面的解释，但很少有研究关注选举改革如何影响公共政策结果。本文通过考察 1997 年的选举改革，为后者做出了贡献，对泰国的选举改革和公共政策过程进行了详细分析。具体来说，作者考察了政策制定的四个方面：政策制定、政策平台、政策内容和政策结果。文章发现，1997 年以前时代的候选人在竞选时提出的是广泛的、一般性的纲领；政党没有独立的技术政策专业知识来源；政府将卫生资源集中在狭窄的地理区域；泰国社会的卫生服务供应不足。相反，1997 年以后时代的候选人更多地依赖于强有力的、详细的国家卫生政策；政党通过创建独立制定卫生政策的机制；政府通过引入全民健康保障制度，将卫生资源广泛分配给全国，卫生结果得到改善。作者将政策过程中的这些变化归因于 1997 年的选举改革，该改革增加了选区的广度（政治家负责的人口比例）和多数主义。
