Elections and Electoral Systems

Question 1

What are elections used for? Where are these used?

Answer 1

Elections are used to fill legislative and executive offices. They occur across the world, and not always in democracies.

Question 2

Why is global turnout on a downward trend?

Answer 2

• generational effects: younger generations do not tend to vote as much as older ones do
• institutional factors: in certain electoral systems, some people feel their vote does not count and therefore they do not vote. Political mobilisation is also on the wane, while elections seen as uncompetitive often mean people will not turn out.
• socioeconomic changes: people increasingly less enamoured with politics, less likely to know who to vote for

Question 3

What are the three elements of an electoral system?

Answer 3

• Electoral formula - how votes translate into seats
• District magnitude - the number of seats per district
• Ballot structure - how voters express choice

Question 4

What are the 2 sorts of majoritarian electoral systems?

Answer 4

• Plurality - a candidate should win more votes than any other candidate to win
• Majority - candidates should win over half the votes to win

Question 5

What are PR systems? What are Mixed Systems?

Answer 5

PR: Parties represented in a legislature with number of seats proportional to votes received
Mixed: combining PR with majority/plurality systems

Question 6

What is a block vote method of allocating seats in a majoritarian system?

Answer 6

Block vote sees multi-member districts, with the party winning most votes in this district winning all seats.

Question 7

How do absolute majority forms of majoritarian systems work?

Answer 7

Absolute majority systems require a candidate to win over 50% of the vote to win outright. If a single candidate fails to do this, then there will usually be a runoff or election though AV.

Question 8

Explain the Single Member District Plurality system.

Answer 8

• Voters cast a single vote for a candidate
• The candidate winning the most votes wins the district
• Sometimes there are qualifications to this: Costa Rica requires that you win over a certain percentage of votes to win a seat

Question 9

Explain the single non-transferrable vote system. How is this complicated in terms of party representation?

Answer 9

Occurs in a multimember district… voters cast a single vote for a candidate.
- Candidate with highest number of votes elected, along with other highest voted for candidates until all seats in multimember district filled.
BUT - can be tricky in that party doesn’t matter as is candidate based. A party can win highest number of votes, but no representatives elected due to individuals splitting vote.

Question 10

Explain the majority runoff system. How does this open up opportunities for political game playing?

Answer 10

A single candidate vote in single member district. Any candidate winning majority of vote is automatically elected. If a candidate does not win a majority of votes, then a second round occurs…
Some parties may drop out in second round, believing that it may be beneficial for a particular party to win in order to deny a certain other party a win. Occurs in France.

Question 11

Explain the Alternative Vote System

Answer 11

Preference voting system, used in single member districts. Voters rank the candidates. If a candidate wins an absolute majority of first preference votes, they are automatically elected. If no candidate wins absolute majority… Then lowest voted for candidates eliminated, those people’s second preference votes are added to remaining candidates. This process is repeated until one candidate obtains a majority.

Question 12

Explain how PR works. What sort of districts does this rely on?

Answer 12

Produces a proportional translation of votes into seats. It is party-based and only used in multi-member districts.

Question 13

Explain the operation of the Single Transferrable Vote system.

Answer 13

A multi-member system where candidates are placed on ballot, rank ordered by voters
- Voters do not have to vote for a party, can look at candidate level
- Candidates surpassing a particular quota of first preference votes are immediately elected
- Last placed candidates eliminated
- If a first preference is eliminated, then these votes get transferred to the remaining candidates
- In successive counts, votes from eliminated candidates and surplus votes from elected candidates are reallocated to the remaining candidates until all of the seats are filled.

Question 14

Explain how list PR works

Answer 14

List PR sees parties present a list of candidates to voters. The ballot shows a list of candidates and parties, with seats allocated in proportion to votes.

Question 15

How does district magnitude impact electoral outcomes in single transferrable vote elections?

Answer 15

Smaller district magnitude creates more majoritarian outcomes. Higher district magnitude creates more proportional outcomes.

Question 16

Explain how the DIVISOR formula used to decide outcomes in single transferrable vote elections works.

Answer 16

Divisors involve one round of voting for parties… all the votes counted, highest count of votes wins and has overall total divided by 2 before moving onto next round. Losing parties in that round have votes unaffected. Highest number of votes in second round after the first division wins next seat. Any losing party has no change in divided total, but winning party divided by 3. Proceed, dividing after each round and seat won, until all seats are filled.

Question 17

Explain how the LARGEST REMAINDER formula used to decide outcomes in single transferrable vote elections works.

Answer 17

Seats are initially allocated by total votes being divided by a quota. Votes/quota indicates number of seats won, with the largest remainders on this votes/quota system after seats are awarded qualifying for remaining seats until these seats are filled.

Question 18

What is a threshold? What impact do thresholds have on proportionality of electoral outcomes?

Answer 18

Thresholds are minimum levels of support a party requires to obtain representation. The higher a threshold, the less proportional an election is, and the lower a threshold, the more proportional it is.

Question 19

What is an open list? What is a closed list?

Answer 19

An open list means voters can indicate party as well as candidate preferences. A closed list means candidates are selected in order by a party themselves. Voters cannot express a preference for a candidate.

Question 20

How can tiers be used to correct distortions in electoral systems?

Answer 20

Tiers are the level at which votes are translated into seats. The lowest tier (district/constituency) is prone to reducing proportionality of elections, yet a higher tier at a regional or national level is often used to make the outcome of a system more proportional.

Question 21

How do mixed member majoritarian systems operate as a mixed systems?

Answer 21

A system will have majoritarian and proportional elements that are applied independently of each other. They either COEXIST (whereby a different system is used in different districts across a single tier), are used in different electoral tiers (SUPERPOSITION) or are used within a single district (FUSION)

Question 22

Explain how a dependent mixed electoral system operates as a mixed system

Answer 22

The application of the proportional formula depends on the distribution of seats or votes produced by the majoritarian formula. This will either be CORRECTIONAL, to overturn an imbalance through the majoritarian part of a formula or will be CONDITIONAL, where one electoral formula’s usage is triggered by a particular outcome of the other.

Question 23

What are the MECHANICAL effects of an electoral system?

Answer 23

An electoral system produces a certain outcome in terms of party representation, control of a legislature/govt, variation in how votes translate into seats.

Question 24

What are the PSYCHOLOGICAL effects possible from an electoral system?

Answer 24

Voter behaviour may be impacted, including through tactical voting or deciding not to vote at all. Parties will also decide whether to contest particular elections or not in order to favour or avoid a particular outcome.

Question 25

What is strategic entry? How is this shaped by electoral systems?

Answer 25

Strategic entry is the decision of candidates on whether to enter the political scene under the label of their preferred party… or under the label of their most preferred party that has a realistic chance of winning. This may be impacted by whether a system is majoritarian or proportional.

Question 26

What is the theory of Duverger’s Law?

Answer 26

Essentially, that an electoral system produces certain institutional arrangements and systems. A single member district plurality system strongly produces a 2 party system. The hypothesis: PR favours multipartism, as does majoritarian systems with a 2nd round runoff

Question 27

Why does Cox critique Duverger’s Law?

Answer 27

Cox argues this only applies at the constituency level. The number of effective candidates in each constituency will be the number of seats + 1, therefore in single member districts there will be only 2 candidates.