6. Electoral systems Flashcards
Define electoral system
The formalities through which Members of Parliament (MPs) are elected.
=> electoral law: All legislation concerning elections.
Define electoral formula
Methodology used to transform votes into seats in Parliament.
2 main types that electoral formula distinguish
Majority systems
- Plurality
- Majority
Proportional representation
- methods based on dividers
- methods based on quota
Overview of majority systems
- The candidate who obtains the majority of the votes wins.
- Majority systems are usually connected to uninominal districts.
- Majority systems have a selective effect on the political system.
- We can distinguish to main majority systems:
- Plurality
- Majority
Plurality
- It is also called First Past the Post (FPTP).
- Candidates are elected with just a relative majority.
- It is the system adopted in the UK.
Plurality case: UK
- Under the UK’s multiparty system, in the most extreme case you could comfortably win the popular vote but get no seats in the House of Commons by coming second in every constituency.
- What is more common is to see is a party winning a majority in Parliament with as little as 35% or 36% of the popular vote, as Labour did in 2005 and the Conservatives in 2015. In the 1950s and 1960s, winning parties averaged about 47%.
Majority
- To be elected candidates need an absolute majority of the votes.
=> Problem: What happens if no candidate obtains an absolute majority in the first round?
=> Answer:
- Two Round Runoff (see France)
- Instant Runoff/Alternative Vote/Preferential Voting (see Australia).
Two round runoff
Premise: Nobody obtains the absolute majority of the votes in the first round.
=>
- All candidates who obtain a percentage of votes over the threshold (12.5% in France for legislative election) will go to a runoff election (or second ballot).
- Another possibility is just for the two most voted candidates to go to a runoff election (see France for presidential election).
Instant runoff
- Electors must express preferences for all the candidates.
- A candidate wins the seat if obtains an absolute majority after the first preferences of all the candidates have been counted for the first time.
- It’s not a two round system, but one round system.
- If nobody obtains the absolute majority of the votes in the first round then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated.
- Ballots assigned to the eliminated candidate are recounted and assigned to those of the remaining candidates who rank next in order of preference on each ballot.
- This process continues until one candidate wins by obtaining more than half the votes.
Proportional Rep.
- The number of seats assigned to each list is proportional to the votes obtained.
- Usually these systems are connected to multi-seat constituencies.
- PR methods:
- methods based on dividers;
- methods based on quota.
2 main methods based on dividers
- D’Hondt method
- Sainte-Laguë method
D’Hondt method
- also known as Jefferson method
- highest average methods
After all the votes have been tallied, successive quotients are calculated for each party. The formula for the quotient is
quot = V/(s+1)
where
- V is the total number of votes that party received
- s is the number of seats that party has been allocated so far, initially 0 for all parties.
Sainte-Laguë method
After all the votes have been tallied, successive quotients are calculated for each party. The formula for the quotient is
quot = V/(2s+1)
where:
- V is the total number of votes that party received, and
- s is the number of seats that have been allocated so far to that party, initially 0 for all parties.
- Whichever party has the highest quotient gets the next seat allocated, and their quotient is recalculated. The process is repeated until all seats have been allocated.
- does not ensure that a party receiving more than half the votes will win at least half the seats
Methods based on quota
the largest remainder method:
- Hare Quota;
- Dropp Quota;
- Hagenbach-Bischoff Quota;
- Imperiali Quota.
Overview of the largest remainder method
- It requires the numbers of votes for each party to be divided by a quota representing the number of votes required for a seat.
- The result for each party will usually consist of an integer part plus a fractional remainder.
- Each party is first allocated a number of seats equal to their integer.
- This will generally leave some seats unallocated: the parties are then ranked on the basis of the fractional remainders, and the parties with the largest remainders are each allocated one additional seat until all the seats have been allocated.
