Electoral Rules

Types of electoral systems

Majoritarian

Proportional

Mixed

Single Member Districts, alternative vote (AV), absolute majority

List PR (Two types - open and closed), STV

Parallel, Mixed member proportional

Definitions

SMD's

-relates to the fact that the candidate that wins the most votes wins the election no matter how small the margin (also referred to as first past the post)


Absolute majority

The absolute majority system requires a candidate to secure an absolute majority (above 50% of the total vote).

Alternative vote

(Ranked choice voting system) For alternative vote, voters mark their first and subsequent preferences amongst the candidates amongst their respective constituencies.

List PR

Party list PR is a subset of proportional representation whereby multiple candidates are elected through their position on an electoral list. Parties are elected in direct proportion to the number of votes they receive.

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Single transferable vote (STV) is a form of proportional representation with ranked choice voting with multi-member constituencies. That is, it is a multi-winner electoral system.

Mixed-member proportional

The mixed member proportional system employs two systems at the same time. It combines local majoritarian elections together with a list PR system for a fraction of additional seats

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Parallel

Similar to MMP, but do not account for disproportionality. Under MMP/AMS, district seats are filled and the party vote determines what proportional share of seats each party will receive in the legislature, through "topping up" the party's district seats. Under parallel voting, the election of the two groups of members are not connected in any way, except that they will serve in the same chamber.

SMD'S

Advantages!

Simplistic - Not exactly hard to calculate the winner

Encourages direct accountability - If only one representative is chosen for a particular constituency, can be quickly and easily held to account (clear lines of political accountability).

Enhances constituency service - in the sense that individuals/voters can very easily call upon their representative (direct link between voters and representative).

Duverger's law - SMD's "moderate" and limit extremism - SMD's tend to promote two party states because coallition building/ there is a tendency to gravitate to the ideological center in order to appeal to the median voter.

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Examples

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Disadvantages!

Not exactly the most democratic process. Lack of proportionality (Bill clinton).

Leads to a decline in political participation/increased political absenteeism - voters think their vote will be "wasted" and so don't bother participating at all.

Should be noted that the significance of disproportionality can depend on a number of other factors - disproportionality is generally large in the UK but less so in India where votes are largely matched.

Examples: UK has a first past the post system, adheres to Durvergs assumption of two party state: labour conservative. Voter turnout in the UK is falling, lower levels of trust in government 2015: Conservatives 36.9% votes ➔ 50.9% seats

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US - In 1992, Bill clinton won the presidency with only 43% of the popular vote (Is this really democracy).

In Russia and Ukraine, single member districts have been associated with greater party fragmentation because of increased geographic heterogenity (NOT IMMUNE TO INSTABILITY)

ABSOLUTE MAJORITY

Advantages!

Majoritarian advantages that are similar to SMD

Arguably more democratic than SMD

Disadvantages

Same as SMD but also harder to implement, especially if need to do a second vote

Examples: France uses this in the presidential elections

Example: Australia

LIST PR

Advantages

Relatively simplistic

Proportionality omg lurvvvv her

Disadvantages

-in closed PR systems, the party determines who is on the list, which gives a considerable amount of power to party leaders and is less democratic.

Proportional systems can foster greater extremism because many small often radical parties can get in.

examples

belgium, open listIn Belgium: 2007 election – 11 parties gained parliamentary seats.

Closed Party list PR – individuals can only vote from a party list. In closed systems the party determines who is on the list, and thus provides considerable power to the party leadership.
Open Party list PR – voters can choose from a published list or choose to select their own candidate.

• Disadvantage: Difficult to know what kind of threshold to set (common threshold is 5% found in Germany and Belgium but Israel has 2%).

STV (Estonia)

• The disadvantage is complexity and the fact that multi-constituency districts don’t create a direct link between a constituency and its respective representative.

Factors influencing voter turnout

Voting system (Duverger, participation in PR vs majoritarian systems)• Lijpart – Majoritarian and plurality electoral systems dilute citizen enthusiasm and voter turnout because supporters of minor parties feel that their vote is wasted.

• Proportion of women winning seats correlates to PR systems.

Thus, as noted by (Downs), the open list system provides much more opportunity for voter input, and is thus more democratic.