electoral systems Flashcards
Majoritarian system
SMD, no intra-party choice, not designed for proportionality
sub-types majoritarian
plurality system and majority system
plurality system example
UK
majority system example
France (Two round system and threshold of 12.5%)
what is district magnitude?
number of seats in a district
proportional system
more than one seat per district, designed for proportionality, may or not have intra-party choice
sub-types proportional system
list systems and single transferable vote
list systems characteristics (2)
party list and seats distributed according to list formula based on vote %
list systems examples
Spain, Belgium and Finland
Single transferable vote chracteristics
candidate rank list, Seats distributed according to formula based on vote %
single transferable vote examples
rep of Ireland and Malta
Types of List system
Closed, flexible and open
(vary in the extent to which voter has intra-party choice to
influence who gets elected within a party)
proportional closed list example
Spain, Romania, Portugal
proportional flexible list example
Belgium
proportional open list example
Finland and Poland
Panachange list examples
Switzerland and Luxembourg (distribute their votes between or among individual candidates from different party lists. Seats are allocated to parties based on party vote share, with the seats of a party going to the most-popular candidate(s) of that party)
Mixed system
majoritarian and proportional system fill seats, local and regional
Mixed system types
Mixed member proportional and mixed member majority
Mixed member proportional system example
Germany (seats won reflect party vote % in proportional element)
Mixed member majority system example
Hungary: SMP (53% of seats) & Closed List (47% of seats)
Italy: SMP (37% of seats) & Closed List (61% of seats) (eats won may not reflect party vote % in proportional e)
PR list system in one national
district (150 seats)
Netherlands and Slovakia
Netherlands threashold
0.67%
Spain threashold
3%
Sweden threashold
4%
Czechia and Germany threashold
5%
Slovakia threshold
5% (2016; 13% of votes for parties below thresho)
Russia threshold
7%
Turkey threshold
10% (T of turkey and T of TEN)
France threashold second round
12.5%
Gallagher’s Index of Disproportionality
measures an electoral system’s relative disproportionality between votes received and seats in a legislature
Spain DM
Mean: 7 range: 1-37
Portugal DM
mean: 10 range: 2-47
Carey and Hix (2011) suggestion for DM
4-8
Duvergers Law
Plurality electoral systems tend to produce two-party systems
while proportional electoral systems tend to produce multi-
party systems.
PR electoral systems are more associated with?
Fragmented parliaments
Majoritarian systems encourage what?
parties to seek median
voter positions (policy impact)
Entities impacted by vote choice
Voters, society, politicians, parties and parliament
Italy electoral system change
3 –> since 1993
Bulgaria
3 –> since 1991
Hungary
1 –> in 2012 (Fidesz-KDNP)
