DDT - Electoral systems Flashcards
what is district magnitude?
the number of elected representatives for a given district. This can range from single member districts (SMDs) to districts that make up the whole legislature, like the Netherlands.
what is ballot structure?
the way in which the voting ballot is structured. Can be categorical means that voters have an either/or choice, whilst Ordinal means voters rank candidates in order of preference.
What is the electoral formula?
can call for plurality, a majority or proportional representation
how do electoral systems affect inter-party politics?
the representation/accountability trade off
What is meant by representation?
representation means that each vote should be counted equally, avoiding spurious majorities. different parts of society are equally represented, women and ethnic/racial minorities
what is meant by accountability?
voters should be able to identify decision makers and hold them to account. Decision-makers should be able to form strong government, rather than compromising and ineffectual one.
What is the trade off?
that electoral systems that lead to representation generally yield a higher number of parties. this undermines the UK’s system
what is Duverger’s law?
that SMP systems favour 2 party, while PR favours multi-party
What is the correlation between district magnitude and proportionality?
larger the district magnitude, more proportional the system?
what are the ways that D’s law work in?
mechanical: essentially harder for smaller parties to win seats in SMP, and psychological: voters less willing to vote for smaller parties even if they are preferred, don’t want to waste vote
what three other factors effect number of parties?
ethnic heterogeneity, social cleavages, party institutionalisation
What is specific about the case of the Philippines?
Philippines use a system of SMP would normally lead to two party politics, however the high number of institutionalised parties means that it is multi-party
What is specific about the case of South Africa?
closed-list PR, would normally lead to multi-party. however, there are just two because of apartheid cleavage
what is specific about the case of Papua New Guinea?
plurality system is used but still highly fragmented party system because of ethnic diversity
