1 March – 1 June 2004: 

Data collection and formatting into the suitable basic electronic format (excel, word) for updating the database of election results and legislation (use internet, email; already gathered hard copies; request hard copies if nothing else available):

·                           Recent (post 2002) election and party laws from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland,

·                           Recent (i.e. post 2002) parliamentary and presidential election results (national level, constituency level) for the same countries, which included Hungary 2002, Czech Republic 2002, Latvia 2002, Estonia 2003, Russia 2003, 

·                           ADD Albania, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia to the database (election and party laws since 1990 – some already collected in hard copy, election results, first national level, gradually over the year constituency level)

ASP and ACCESS advanced courses in order to be able to perform database improvements, structural changes and additions 

First interviews with politicians, experts and journalists in Romania (April, May)

Research on recent proposals and reforms meant to increase personalization in the Czech Republic, Poland, as well as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and South Africa) (library, internet, emailing with academic and policy experts) – (start May; to be continued in June) 

NOTE: focus on data collection, start building the instruments that form the basis both for research and dissemination (database skills, questionnaire for structured interviews, comparative examples) 

1 June – 1 September

Review literature and draw hypotheses (first half of June)

Ordering the Romanian information gathered regarding:

·                           Goals of electoral system reform

·                           Motivations of electoral system designers

·                           Technical means chosen and the way they are justified

·                           Level and sources of information

·                           Hypotheses suggested by electoral systems literature

First draft of research paper on Romanian electoral system design: testing hypotheses about models of electoral system design, complex motivations and imperfect information

Research trip to Warsaw or Prague

Start updating the database: addition of new countries, fixing small errors, gaps and malfunctions  

Contact ACEEEO, IFES, IDEA for collaboration on the database updating and additions and on advocacy issues in Romania and Moldova

AUGUST report!

NOTE: Focus on research, start network building with international elections/electoral systems/democracy NGOs and database updating process  

1 September –1 November

Research on Serbian proposals:

Internet sources on new proposals

Interviews with politicians, experts in Belgrade 

Overview of goals, motivations, explanations, information level and sources

Trip to Belgrade

ACEEEO conference (October) – to be used as an opportunity for dissemination and networking

Additions to the database

·                           Short summaries of legislation for each of the 12 topics covered by the legislative search 

·                           Electoral system matrices- comparative summaries of main features of electoral systems, electorally relevant provisions

1 November – 1 January

Overview of all EE proposals of reform towards more personalization, stronger links with constituency, more majoritarianism 

Overview of other similar proposals (South Africa, Belgium, Netherlands, etc.) 

Additions to the database

·                           Calculations of various party and electoral system measures

·                           Constituency level results for post 2002 elections when available and needed for my research or policy advocacy 

·                           Updating with new legislation and election results (Romania 2004, Lithuania 2004, etc.)

Second draft of research paper on electoral system design

First draft of policy recommendations

NOTE: From September on balance between research and dissemination (i.e. database)/policy recommendations

1 January – 1 March

Final draft of research paper

Final draft of policy recommendations

Put together the working paper on electoral systems to include: choices and effects of electoral systems using the matrices and calculations from the database + policy recommendations for Romania + list of internet references

Translation of working paper into Romanian

Updating database with recent elections and eventual legislation

Uploading policy recommendations on the IPF site

Workshop in Romania 

Final reports!