Pages

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Notes from "Elections and Electoral Systems"

Chapter 13 of Principles of Comparative Politics (William Roberts Clark, Matt Golder and Sona Nadenichek Golder)

- Electoral system: set of laws that regulate electoral competition between candidates or parties or both. 
Electoral formula: how votes are translated into seats. 
Ballot structure: how electoral choices are presented on the ballot paper (vote for candidates or parties or both, cast a single vote or express a series of preferences). 
District magnitude: number of representatives elected in a district. 
- Universal suffrage: the right to vote isn't restricted by race, gender, belief or social status. 
But: restrictions based on age, mental health, citizenship, country residency, prison sentences, etc. 

- Different systems



I/ Majoritarian electoral systems: 
- The candidates/ parties with the most votes win. 
Absolute majority or plurality. 

- Single-member district plurality system: individuals cast a single vote for a candidate in a single-member district=> candidate with the most votes is elected. 
e.g the UK. 
+ advantages: 
  • simple, easy to understand 
  • low in cost 
  • 1 representative/ constituency=> responsible=> incentive to perform well 
  • no representation of extremist parties 
+ disadvantages: 
  • extremely unrepresentative outcomes 
  • wasted votes
  • encouraging individuals to vote strategically rather than in accordance with their true preferences 

- Alternative vote: in single-member districts, voters mark their preferences by rank ordering candidates=> absolute majority: win=> no candidate wins absolute majority: candidate with fewest votes is eliminated=> votes reallocated.... until 1 candidate has an absolute majority. 
e.g Australia. 
+ advantages: 
  • 1 representative/ constituency=> responsible and accountable=> incentive to perform well 
  • chance to convey information about preferences 
  • less incentive to vote strategically 
  • help candidates/ parties win not only votes of base supporters but also 2nd preferences of others
+ disadvantages: 
  • allow candidates to win who don't have majority support (reallocated=> not genuine)
  • complicated to understand
  • costly 

- Borda count: in single- or multi member districts, voters use numbers to mark their preferences (1=> 0,9=> 0,8=> 0,7, etc.)=> values are summed=> candidate with the most valuable votes is elected. 
+ advantages: 
  • attractive in highly divided society 

+ disadvantages: 
  • incentive to vote strategically, engage in compromising and burying 

- 2-round systems: potential for 2 rounds of elections. Candidates/ parties are automatically elected in the 1st round if they obtain a specified level of votes, typically an absolute majority. Those that win the most votes in the 2nd round are elected. 
+ 2 types: 
Majority-runoff 2-round system: 2nd round=> top 2 vote winners. 
Majority-plurality 2-round systems: 2nd round=> all candidates who overcome some preordained threshold of votes. 
e.g France (however, often choose to withdraw the less popular candidates in order not to split support). 
+ advantages: 
  • more choice, chance for voters to change their mind
  • less incentive to vote strategically 
  • incentive for candidates who make it into the 2nd round to reach compromises with those already eliminated to win over their supporters 
+ disadvantages: 
  • costly 
  • disproportional translation of votes into seats (most disproportional of all systems used in Western democracies) 
  • hurt minority representation 

- Supplementary vote: used in single-member districts. 
2 columns. 1st column: most preferred candidate. 2nd colume: 2nd choice. 
A candidate who wins an absolute majority of the 1st-preference votes=> automatically elected. If not=> 2 leading candidates remain, all others are eliminated=> 2nd-preference votes are reallocated to determine the winner. 
=> like majority-runoff TRS but only 1 round of voting. 
=> less costly. 
e.g Sri Lanka. 

- Single non-transferable vote: voters cast a single candidate-centred vote in a multimember district=> candidates with highest number of votes are elected. 
=> equivalent of SMDP. 
+ n seats to be filled=> win if having 1/ (n+1) of the votes. 
+ advantages: 
  • more proportional outcomes
  • representation of smaller parties and minority ethnic groups
+ disadvantages: 
  • also compete against candidates from their own party=> intraparty fighting, factionalisation=> weaken parties
  • centred on candidate characteristics rather than policy differences
  • voter confusion 
  • bribes to interest groups
  • favour incumbent and well-organised parties
  • not depend on transfer of preference votes=> less incentive to build broad-based coalition=> need not moderate political message (more extremist rhetoric)

- Block vote: in multimember districts, voters give as many votes as they like (except: 1 vote to any 1 candidate)=> candidates with highest number of votes are elected. 
Party block vote: also in multimember districts, but voters have only a single vote, and allocate it to a list of party candidates rather than an individual candidate=> party with most votes wins all district seats. 
e.g Singapore 
=> highly disproportional outcomes 

II/ Proportional electoral systems: 
- n% of votes=> n% of seats. 

- advantages: 
  • proportional outcomes 
  • representation of small parties 
  • essential for ethnically and religiously divided societies 
- disadvantages: 
  • may replicate bitter societal division within the legislature without creating incentive for cooperation and accommodation 
  • tend to produce coalition governments=> hard to identify who's responsible 
  • representation of small, extremist parties=> undermine democracy 
  • weak link between constituents and representatives because no single representative is responsible for policy in a given district

- List PR system: each party represents a list of candidates for a multimember district=> parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the votes. 
+ Based on quota (number of votes that guarantees a party a seat in a particular electoral district) or divisor (divides total number of votes won by each party in a district by a series of numbers to obtain quotients=> district seats are allocated according to which parties have the highest quotients). 
+ Electoral threshold: minimum level of support a party needs to obtain representation. 
Natural threshold: mathematical by-product of electoral system. 
Formal threshold: explicitly written into electoral law. 
=> Apparentement: provision in a list PR system for 2 or more separate parties to reach an agreement that their votes will be combined for the purposes of seat allocation (small parties group together to surpass the threshold). 
+ Closed party list: order of candidates elected is determined by the party itself. 
Open/ preferential/ unblocked party list: voters can indicate not just their preferred party but also their favoured candidate within that party. 
Free party list: voters have multiple votes that they can allocate either within a single party or across different party lists (=> intraparty fighting). 

- Single transferable vote: multimember districts. 
preference (like AV, SV, BC)=> candidates that surpass a specified quota of 1st-preference votes are immediately elected=> in successive counts: votes from eliminated candidates and surplus votes from elected candidates are reallocated to the remaining candidates until all the seats are filled. 
+ advantages: 
  • convey information about preferences
  • minimise wasted votes
  • less incentive to vote strategically 
  • allow voters to vote for candidates from different parties
  • incentive for candidates to appeal to groups outside core set of supporters 
  • more proportional outcomes than majoritarian systems 
  • candidate-centred system=> strong link between representatives and constituents 
+ disadvantages: 
  • weaken parties, make them less cohesive
  • incentive for members of the same party to campaign against each other (though not much, because of the transference of votes) 
  • hard to operate in large districts
  • less proportional than list PR 

III/ Mixed electoral systems: voters elect representatives through 2 different systems, 1 majoritarian and 1 proportional. 
- Independent mixed electoral system: the majoritarian and proportional components of the electoral system are implemented independent of 1 another. 
Dependent mixed electoral system: the application of the proportional formula is dependent on the distribution of seats or votes produced by the majoritarian formula. 
- Illustration: 2 parties compete over 10 seats, 5 seats at the constituency level and 5 at the national level. 

SMDP=> party A comes 1st in constituency=> wins all 5 seats. 
PR=> party A wins 60% of votes=> 60% of seats=> 3 seats. 
=> 8 seats. 
Party B: no constituency seat but 40% of party list seats=> 2 seats. 


PR=> party A: 60% of votes=> 60% of seats=> 6 seats. 
SMDP: party A comes 1st in constituency=> all 5 seats. 
=> 1 party list seat. 
Party B: 40% of votes=> 40% of seats=> 4 seats. 
=> no constituency seats but 4 party list seats. 
=> dependent: more proportional. 
advantages and disadvantages of list PR system. 
other disadvantage: 2 classes of legislators (responsible and accountable to a geographical constituency, and more beholden to a party)=> influence the cohesiveness of parties. 

IV/ Electoral systems around the world: 
- Dictatorships are much more likely to use majoritarian electoral systems than democracies. 
=> easier to manipulate. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Be not afraid, gentle readers! Share your thoughts!
(Make sure to save your text before hitting publish, in case your comment gets buried in the attic, never to be seen again).