4. How electoral systems shape political behaviour

Question 1

List the 3 types of electoral systems

Answer 1

Majoritarian - country divided into several single-member districts

Proportional - country divided into several multi-member districts

Mixed - combines majoritarian and proportional

Question 2

List the different majoritarian electoral systems

Answer 2

Single-member plurality system (SMP)

Two-round system (TRS)

Alternative vote system (AVS)

Question 3

What is SMP

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is TRS

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is AVS

Answer 5

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

Question 6

List the 3 types of proportional electoral systems

Answer 6

Closed-list proportional representation (CLPR)

Open-list proportional representation (OLPR)

Single transferrable vote (STV)

Question 7

What is CLPR

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is OLPR

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What is STV

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What is a Mixed electoral systems

Answer 10

Some seats in parliament are single seat and others are multi-seat

Voters usually have 2 votes

1. For a candidate in a signle-member seat
2. For a party on a regional (or national) party list

Question 11

List the 2 types of Mixed electoral systems

Answer 11

Mixed-member proportional (MMP) systems

Mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) systems

Question 12

What is MMP

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What is MMM

Answer 13

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

Question 14

List 2 trade-offs when selecting an electoral system

Answer 14

Representative parliament vs accountable government

Cohesive parties vs accountable politicians

Question 15

Which systems have a high degree of representation

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Which systems have a high degree of accoutability

Answer 16

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

Question 17

According to Maurice Duverger, electoral systems have which 2 effects

Answer 17

1. Mechanical - how the rules of the electoral system translate votes into seats
2. Psychological - how the electoral system shapes voters’ expectations about which parties are likely to win seats

Question 18

Provide an example of the 2 effects of electoral systems described by Duverger

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What is Duverger’s Law

Answer 19

Majoritarian systems should produce a two-party system, whereas proportional systems should produce a multi-party system

Question 20

Case study: describe the relationships between representative vs accountable government in the UK 1992 and 1997 elections

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Which electoral systems have highly cohesive parties but low accountability from their politicians

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Which electoral systems have high accountability from their politicians but low cohesive parties

Answer 22

Open-list proportional representation (OLPR) and Single-transferable vote (STV)

• Voters rank candidates which forces them to campaign directly to voters

Question 23

Which electoral systems have a moderate level of cohesive parties and a moderate level of accountability from their politicians

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What methods can be used to increase the likelihood of having both cohesive parties and accountable politicians

Answer 24

• Small multi-member districts
• High electoral threshold (minimy % per party)
• Winner’s bonus to boost seat count