4. How electoral systems shape political behaviour Flashcards
List the 3 types of electoral systems
Majoritarian - country divided into several single-member districts
Proportional - country divided into several multi-member districts
Mixed - combines majoritarian and proportional
List the different majoritarian electoral systems
Single-member plurality system (SMP)
Two-round system (TRS)
Alternative vote system (AVS)
What is SMP
Single member system (electoral system)
- Country divided into districts (or contituencies)
- One seat per district in parliament/legislature representing a fairly equal number of voters
- Most votes win
UK, Canada, USA
What is TRS
Two-round system (electoral system)
- Same as SMP but if the winning candidate doesn’t have 50% of the vote, a second round is run with the 2 top candidates on the ballot (usually)
France, former French colonies, many South Americal presidential elections
What is AVS
Alternative vote system (electoral system)
- Voters rank their preferences
- If no candidate wins 50%, they drop the least popular and so on until they find a winner
Australia (lower house), Fiji, Papua New Guinea
List the 3 types of proportional electoral systems
Closed-list proportional representation (CLPR)
Open-list proportional representation (OLPR)
Single transferrable vote (STV)
What is CLPR
Closed-list proportional representation
- Citizens vote for 1 party (by district or nationally like Israel)
- The party determines an ordered list of candidates
- Candidates win (in order) according to voteshare
Argentina, Austria, Israel, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, Turkey
What is OLPR
Open-list proportional representation
- Similar to CLPR but…
- Citizens can influence the order of candidates on the ballot
- Citizens vote either for a party (accepting the proposed order) or, they vote for a candidate (called a personal vote)
Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iraq, Latvia, Netherlands (has 1 single national district), Switzerland
What is STV
Single-transferable vote
- Similar to alternative vote system (AV) except for multi-member districts
- Voters rank the members of the party they prefer
- Candidates win a seat when they reach a quota of votes
- If not possible, the bottom candidate is eliminated and so-on
Only in Ireland and Malta
What is a Mixed electoral systems
Some seats in parliament are single seat and others are multi-seat
Voters usually have 2 votes
- For a candidate in a signle-member seat
- For a party on a regional (or national) party list
List the 2 types of Mixed electoral systems
Mixed-member proportional (MMP) systems
Mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) systems
What is MMP
Mixed-member proportional (electoral system)
- Party list seats are allocated to compensate parties that didn’t get enough single member seats (according to their voteshare)
Bolivia, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand
What is MMM
Mixed-member majoritarian (electoral system)
- Party list seats allocated by proportion of vote without considering the single-member seat results
Japan, Russia, South Korea, Thailand and Ukraine
List 2 trade-offs when selecting an electoral system
Representative parliament vs accountable government
Cohesive parties vs accountable politicians
Which systems have a high degree of representation
Proportional systems
- How representative they are depends on:
- Calculation formula
- Minimum threshold (% a party needs to win in order to be considered)
- # seats per district
- Tends to produce coallition governments
- Voters are less likely to vote strategically since even small parties have a good chance of winning seats and forming part of the government
Which systems have a high degree of accoutability
Single party governments
- Coalitions are usually formed after the election
- Once a coalition is formed it may be hard for voters to judge which party is to blame for which policy
Majoritarian electoral systems
- Large parties are more likely to win seats so greater chance of having a single-party government
According to Maurice Duverger, electoral systems have which 2 effects
- Mechanical - how the rules of the electoral system translate votes into seats
- Psychological - how the electoral system shapes voters’ expectations about which parties are likely to win seats
Provide an example of the 2 effects of electoral systems described by Duverger
In majoritarian systems, a candidate usually has to win 40% to win a seat
Mechanical = only large parties are likely to win enough votes
Psychological = votesr inow this and are more likely to vote for larger parties
What is Duverger’s Law
Majoritarian systems should produce a two-party system, whereas proportional systems should produce a multi-party system
Case study: describe the relationships between representative vs accountable government in the UK 1992 and 1997 elections
In both elections:
- The winning party (1992 Conservative, 1997 Labour) did not get 50% of the votes but,
- Due to their electoral system, in both elections, the winning party ended up with over 50% of seats in parliament
- Smaller parties were disproportionately disadvantaged
In both elections the winning party ended up with a single-party majority which makes that party accountable but, it certainly wasn’t representative
Which electoral systems have highly cohesive parties but low accountability from their politicians
Closed-list proportional representation (CLPR)
- Leader is responsible for deciding the order of candidates - so no incentive for individual candidates to differentiate themselves
Mixed-member proportional (MMP) and Mixed-member majoritarian (MMM)
- Leader is responsible for selecting both the candidates for single-member and multi-member districts - so no more incentive to stand out than in CLPR
Which electoral systems have high accountability from their politicians but low cohesive parties
Open-list proportional representation (OLPR) and Single-transferable vote (STV)
- Voters rank candidates which forces them to campaign directly to voters
Which electoral systems have a moderate level of cohesive parties and a moderate level of accountability from their politicians
Single-member plurality (SMP), two-round system (TRS) and Alternative vote system (AV)
- Individuals can campaign on their policy positions and performance but each party only stands up one candidate per district, voters cannot choose between candidates of one political party
- Hense, single-member district elections do not provide very string individual political accountability
What methods can be used to increase the likelihood of having both cohesive parties and accountable politicians
- Small multi-member districts
- High electoral threshold (minimy % per party)
- Winner’s bonus to boost seat count
