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Comparative politics > Week 3: Electoral system > Flashcards

Week 3: Electoral system Flashcards

1
Q

Electoral integrity

A

the extent to which elections meet international standards for fairness and transparency

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2
Q

what are the three main sub-systems in electoral system families

A
  • Majoritarian: Plurality, absolute majority
  • Proportional: List PR, Single transferable
  • Mixed: Independent, dependent
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3
Q

What is a plurality electoral system?

A

a candidate wins by receiving more votes than any other opponent, even without a majority

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4
Q

what is an absolute majority system?

A

a candidate must receive more than half of the votes to win

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5
Q

What is proportional representation(PR) system and why might it be better than majoritarian system?

A
  • ensures that political parties are represented in parliament in proportion to the votes they receive
  • represents the diversity of voter preferences more accurately
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6
Q

What are the two sub-systems in the PR system?

A
  • List PR: parties present candidate lists, and seats are allocated proportionally
  • Single Transferable Vote (STV): voters rank candidates, and voters are transferred until all seats are filled, giving more voter choice and limiting party control
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7
Q

What are the three sub-types within the majoritarian plurality system and what type of district do each system exists in?

A
  1. Single-member district plurality (SMDP): single-member district
  2. Single nontransferable vote (SNTV): multi-member district - allows more chances for smaller parties as votes can be concentrated
  3. Block vote: Multi-member district
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8
Q

What are the three main sub-types of absolute majority system?

A
  1. Alternative (AV): voter rank candidates in order of preference, lowest member eliminated, votes redistributed on the next preferences until one candidate has a majority
  2. Two-Round system (TRS) - majority run-off: two rounds of voting, only the top two candidates from the first round compete in the second round
  3. Two-Round system (TRS) - majority-plurality: similar to majority run-off but more than two candidates can compete in the second round
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9
Q

In what type of district is PR system used in?

A
  • only in multi-member districts
  • produce a proportional translation of votes into seats
  • political parties are important in this system
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10
Q

what are two subcategories within proportional system?

A
  1. List PR: parties create list of candidates, voters vote for a party rather than individual candidates -> seats allocated based on their share of votes -> candidates are taken from the party lists in order
  2. Single Transferable Vote (STV): voters rank in order of preference -> a candidate must reach a quota of votes to be elected, votes exceeding a candidate’s quota are transferred to the next preference on those ballots -> lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated and votes are redistributed -> limits party control over who gets elected
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11
Q

what are the two formula methods in the List PR system?

A

Quota (Hare, Droop) method and divisor (D’Hondt) method

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12
Q

How does higher electoral threshold help reduce proportionality?

A

They set a minimum percentage of votes that a party must achieve to gain representation in the legislature. If the threshold is high, smaller parties with lower levels of support are excluded from winning seats, even if their vote share would have otherwise entitled them to representation under a purely proportional system.

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13
Q

How does higher electoral threshold help prevent fractionalisation

A

Parties with similar ideologies are incentivized to merge or form alliances to surpass the threshold. This leads to fewer, larger parties rather than many small ones, which can dilute the vote.

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14
Q

what is fractionalisation

A

when political system is divided into many small political parties to allow even very small parties to win seats, which can make the parliament very fragmented

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15
Q

what is the downside of electoral thresholds?

A

cause disproportionality -> more votes are wasted (votes for parties that don’t reach the thresholds)

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16
Q

what are the three types of party lists in the PR system?

A
  • Closed list: party gets to control which candidates get seated
  • Open-list: voters express preferences for individual candidates, influencing who gets seated
  • Free party list: voters have multiple votes, can allocate either within a single party or across different party list
17
Q

What are electoral tiers and its sub types?

A
  • refers to the level at which votes are translated into seats
  • there are single tier and multi-tier systems (local, regional, national)
18
Q

How can thresholds influence outcome?

A
  • Without thresholds, smaller parties can gain seats at higher tiers
  • With threshold, higher tiers (national level) may favour larger parties by giving them a bonus
19
Q

what are the three function of higher tiers

A
  1. Pooling remainders: collects remaining votes from local districts
  2. Corrective tiers: reserve seats to adjust disparities
  3. Independent tiers: higher tiers members are elected independently of those in lower tiers
20
Q

How do voters vote in a mixed member system?

A

A voter has two votes:
- one vote for the representative at the district level (majoritarian)
- one vote for the party in the higher electoral tier (proportional)

21
Q

what are subcategories in mixed system?

A
  1. Independent mixed system
  2. Dependent mixed systems
22
Q

what is dependent mixed system and why is it good?

A

uses PR component to adjust the results of the majoritarian component, aiming for a more proportional outcomes -> ensures closer match between vote shares and seat allocation

23
Q

what may be the difference between Mixed-member proportional system (MMP) and mixed-member majoritarian system (MMM)?

A
  • MMM may create larger disproportionality due to its majoritarian characteristics
  • MMP is designed for greater proportionality between votes and seats
24
Q

which type of system do proportionality systems benefit the least?

A

Majoritarian - PR systems are more balanced giving less advantage to the majoritarian systems

25
Q

what factor affects the degree of proportionality in a system

A

district magnitude (number of seats per district)
- high: more proportional distribution of seats
- low: lower proportionality

26
Q

In terms of the mechanical effects of electoral systems, what type of government would each electoral system (majoritarian and proportional) form?

A
  • majoritarian systems: likely to produce a single-party majority governments
  • proportional systems: likely to produce coalition governments
27
Q

what is the psychological effects of voters and candidates ?

A
  • voters may choose candidates with the most chance of winning as they don’t wanna waste their votes on unlikely winners
  • candidates may choose to compete/not compete in certain system that benefit/not benefit them to increase their chance of winning
28
Q

what are the evidence of parties’ psychological effects according to Katz (1997)?

A
  • Katz (1997):
    Elites avoid forming new parties in plurality systems as it is harder for small parties to win, PR system will encourage parties to be more ideologically oriented to increase their chances of winning individually -> reduce party unity
29
Q

what are the evidence of psychological effects according to Black (1978)?

A

voters are more likely to vote for a second choice if the race is close

30
Q

what are the evidence of psychological effects according to Blais et al (2001)

A

suggests that voters cast strategic voting: may select candidates they perceive as more viable rather than their preferred choice

31
Q

What is Duverger’s law and main hypothesis?

A
  • Dualism (two-party systems) is more unstable and majoritarian systems tend to produce this
  • Multipartism (multi-party systems) are more unstable and PR an Majority with a second run-off systems often produce them -> argues that it’s more effective
32
Q

what is Cox’s (1997) correction to Duverger’s law?

A
  • that Duverger’s law is more applicable at the constituency (local) level as in each single-member district, there tend to be two major candidates, one from each of the dominant parties.
  • the number of parties in influenced by the social diversity, electoral system flexibility, geographic spread of party support (diverse populations and regionally concentrated minorities)
33
Q

what is double endogeneity accord to Benoit (2007)

A
  • Interdependence of factors: psychological effects (voter behaviour) are influenced by a shared understanding of mechanical effects
  • Feedback loop: results produced by electoral rules are shaped by voter behaviour which is shaped by the perceived mechanics of the electoral system

Comparative politics (9 decks)

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