Electoral systems Flashcards

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1
Q

Definition of an electoral system? What is the main feature that distinguishes how an electoral system works?

A

An electoral system is made up of all the formalities, through which members of the parliament are elected. The electoral formula translates votes into parliamentary seats.

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2
Q

What are the aspects regulated by the electoral laws?

A

The electoral laws regulate the electoral campaign with eventual caps to electoral expenses, the suffrage (passive and active).

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3
Q

What is an illiberal democracy?

A

In an illiberal democracy, the elction process takes place but political rights are not protected, so the democratic process is damaged: control of the media by the State, limited freedom of association and expression, no free election. The electoral integrity is not guaranteed by the State, leading to electoral mispractices.

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4
Q

What are the electoral mispractices that may happen when the electoral integrity is not guaranteed?

A
  • ballot box manipulation and vote buying
  • violation of rules on electoral expenses
  • misouse of public resources
  • media bias
  • threat of violence
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5
Q

What are the factors affecting the choice of the electoral system for a State?

A

Some factors are: stability of the government, encouraging political parties, pressure from external groups of interest, historical reasons for example hineritance from colonial administration, and ethnic or minority accomodation.

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6
Q

What kinds of electoral systems can be distinguished on the basis of the electoral formula?

A

Majority system, proportional representation system and mixed system.

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7
Q

What does it mean that majority systems have a selective effect? And what are other general characteristics of a majority electoral system?

A

Selective effect means that only the most voted parties have access to the Parliament. Moreover, in a majprity system the candidate who obtains more votes wins, because the system is connected to uninominal districts (only one representative, single-member district).

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8
Q

What are the two kinds of (majority) plurality systems? How do they differ?

A

Both only need relative majority.

  • SMDP: single member plurality, more candidates compete for one seat, one candidate for each party in each district.
  • SNTV: Single Non-Transferable Vote, has multimember districts, so the party has a list of candidates for the district.
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9
Q

What are the consequences of adopting a single member SMDP plurality sisyem?

A

Potential disproportionate transaltion of votes; encourages two-party system and disadvantages smaller parties, who do not have concentrated support in certain areas.

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10
Q

What are the consequences of adopting a single non-transferable vote plurality system?

A

The seats are distributed in a more proportional way then

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11
Q

What are the consequances of adopting a single non-transferable vote plurality system?

A

The seats are distributed in a more proportional way than SMDP; risk of clientelism and patronage; candidates are competing not only against other parties but against other candidades of their party as well.

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12
Q

What is an absolute majority electoral system?

A

In an absolute majority electoral system, candidates need an absolute majority of votes to be elected. If no candidate obtains the absolute majority: two round runoff, alternative vote (preferential voting), or supplementary vote system.

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13
Q

What happens when there is a two round runoff, in an absolute majority electoral system?

A

The candidates who reach a threshold of votes, or alternatively the two most voted candidates, participate to a second ballot and the one who obtains relative or absolute majority gets the seat in Parliament. A second ballot increases election expenses.

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14
Q

What happens in the process of Alternative Vote, in an absolute majority electoral system?

A

The candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated, and their votes are distributed proportionally to all other candidates; the process goes on until one candidate has obtained an absolite majority of votes.

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15
Q

What is a supplementary vote system, in an absolute majority election?

A

Candidates are ranked based on the number of votes they received; if no candidate reaches an absolute majority then all candidates but the two with more votes are eliminated.

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16
Q

What are the general advantages of a majority electoral system?

A

Simplicity, governability, good geographical representation and link to the territory, encourages plurality of parties but excludes extremist parties in most cases.

17
Q

What are the general disadvantages of a majority electoral system?

A

Leaves out smaller parties who don’t get representation, less likely to represent ethnic minorities, wasted votes.

18
Q

What is a proportional representation electoral system? How can in be classified?

A

The number of seats are proportional to the votes obtained; multi-seats costituences. It can be classified into list PR systems and SNV.

19
Q

What is a list PR system? What are its kind of lists?

A

In a list PR system, each party prepares a list of candidates: closed party list, not possible to express preferences for candidates; open party list, voters indicate their favourite candidate; free party list, where votern can choose candidates even coming from different parties.

20
Q

What are the methods of calculation based on dividers and the methods based on quotas, in a list PR system?

A

Methods based on dividends: D’Hondt method or Sainte-Lague method.
Methods based on quotas: Hare quota, Dropp quota, Hagenbach quota and Imperiali quota.

21
Q

How does the largest teminder method work and in which context is it used?

A

After having used a PR system method based on quotas to assign parliamentary seats, if there is a problem with the reminders so that some seats risk remaining not allocated, it can be used the the LRM. After calculating the quotas, divide the electoral score of each party by the total seats to be allocated, to find the reminder seats; then assign them, one for the largest reminder progressively until the reminder is zero. Of couse, using different quota methods gives a different allocation as a result.

22
Q

What are the D’Hondt method and the Saine-Lague method? What do they have in common instead?

A

The first one uses subsequent divisors, starting from one until the dividor is equal to the number of seats left to assign. The party with the highest result gets more seats.
The second one uses non subsequent divisors and the first divisor is not always one.
Both methods follow majoritarian correctives like thresholds and majority bonuses to increase stability.

23
Q

What are the formulas of the different quota methods?

A

A quota is the number of votes necessary to win a seat and can be calculated based on different methods:
Hare quota: total votes/total seats
Dropp quota: (total votes + 1 )/(total seats + 1)
Hagenboch quota: total votes/(total seats + 1)
Imperiali quota: total votes/(total seats + 2)

24
Q

Which general elements influence the allocation of seats in a list PR system?

A
  • district magnitude, where the smaller the magnitude the less proportional is the allocation of seats
  • electoral thresholds, which can be natural or formal (written into law)
25
Q

What is a Single Non-Transferable vote (SNT) vote in a proportional electoral system?

A

It’s a candidate-centered, ranking system, applied to multi-member districts, which creates preferential votes based upon quotas: only candidates who meet the quota can pass.
If there are remaining seats to assign, the reminder method is not used (also not based on PR lists), instead the seats are re-distributed between candidates; the same re-allocation happens with votes in excess of already elected candidates.

26
Q

What are the consequences of adopting a NTV proportional system?

A

Since seats are re-allocated, the number of wasted votes is minimized; there is an incentive on campaigning because votes can be transferred; the outcome is proportional, but the strenght of the effect depends on district magnitude.

27
Q

What is the objective of a mixed electoral system? how can it be classified?

A

The mixed system attempts to put together positive features of both majority and proportional systems; in fact, voters vote with two electoral systems; at the first level (lower tie) usually a majoritarian system is used, while at subsequent levels (upper tiers) usually a proportional system is used. Votes are translated into seats at different electoral tiers, for example local, regional and national.
It can be an independent or dependent mixed system.

28
Q

What is the difference between an independent or a dependent mixed system?

A

Indipendently implemented majoritarian and proportional systems (example: Ukraine).
Dipendently implemented systems: it’s a mixed member proportional system.