This book looks at various aspects of electoral history in Europe and Latin America, from the late 17th century to 1930, including electoral culture and traditions, electoral participation, electoral fraud, the role of elections in the process of nation-building, and the role of important institutions, such as the Church, in shaping political values and therefore electoral behaviour. There are chapters devoted to the individual experiences of England, Mexico, Ecuador, Ireland, Germany, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Spain.

The Culture of Elections in England: From the Glorious Revolution to the First World War, 1688-1914; F.O'Gorman - The Hispanic Revolutions: The Adoption of Modern Forms of Representation in Spain and America, 1808-1810; M.D.Demelas & F.X.Guerra - The Ballot, Land and Sovereignty: Cadiz and the Origins of Mexican Local Government, 1812-1820; A.Annino - The Electoral Reforms of 1861 in Ecuador and the Rise of a New Political Order; J.Maiguashca - Building Aspects of Democracy before Democracy: Electoral Practices in Mid-Nineteenth Century Chile; J.S.Valenzuela - Priests at the Hustings: Ecclesiastical Electioneering in Nineteenth-Century Ireland; K.T.Hoppen - Clerical Election Influence and Communal Solidarity: Catholic Political Culture in the German Empire, 1871-1914; M.L.Anderson - The Role of the Church, the Army and the Police in Colombian Elections, 1850-1930; M.Deas - Voting in Buenos Aires before 1912; P.Alonso - The Slow Development of an Electoral Culture: Fraud and the Passivity of the Electorate in Spain, 1875-1923; C.Darde