1. Electoral Systems

2. Overview: Before lunch
Majoritarian and consensus democracy?
Varieties of electoral systems:
Winner-take-all
Proportional representation
Mixed
Dimensions for evaluating institutions
Normative
Positive
Endogenous electoral rules

3. Overview: After lunch
The complex relationship between social cleavages, issue preferences, electoral systems, and party systems

4. Lijphart Westminster Consensus Democracy
1) Concentrated executive power Power sharing in the executive (coalition)
2) Cabinet Dominance Executive/Legislative Balance
3) 2-party Multiparty
4) Plurality Elections Proportional Representation
5) Pluralist interest groups Corporatism, peak associations, etc.
6) Unitary Decentralized
7) Unicameral legislature Strong Bicameralism
8) Constitutional Flexibility Constitutional Rigidity
9) No judicial review Strong role for judicial review
10) Central Bank controlled by Central Bank independence
executive

6. SMDP Systems
A single-member district plurality (SMDP) system is one in which individuals cast a single vote for a candidate in a single-member district. The candidate with the most votes wins.
Examples: United Kingdom, India, Canada, Nigeria, Zambia

7. How does SMDP work?

8. The Alternative Vote

10. Two-Round Systems
A two-round system (TRS) has the potential for two rounds of elections.
Candidates or parties are automatically elected in the first round if they obtain a specified level of votes, typically an absolute majority.
If no candidate or party wins this level of votes, then a second round of elections takes place.
Those candidates or parties that win the most votes in the second round are elected.

11. Who would win Aberconwy under TRS?

12. Two-Round Systems Examples:
Most presidential elections in Latin America
French legislative and presidential elections

13. Proportional Electoral Systems
A proportional, or proportional representation, electoral system is a quota- or divisor-based electoral system employed in multimember districts.
The rationale behind PR systems is to produce a proportional translation of votes into seats.
Proportional electoral systems can be divided into those that use party lists and those that do not.

14. Proportional Representation
How would a PR system work in the UK?

15. Votes and Seats, May 2010

16. List PR
In a list PR system, each party presents a list of candidates for a multimember district.
Parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the votes.
These seats are then shared among candidates on the list in various ways.

17. List PR List PR systems differ in important ways:
The precise formula used to allocate seats to parties
The district magnitude
The use of electoral thresholds
The type of party list employed.

18. Divisors, etc.
Some are more proportional, some more friendly to larger parties

19. District Magnitude
However, the key variable for determining the proportionality of an electoral system is the district magnitude.
The district magnitude is the number of representatives elected in a district.
The larger the district magnitude, the greater the degree of proportionality.

20. District Magnitude
Although all PR systems use multimember districts, the average size of these districts can vary quite a lot.
In the Netherlands and Slovakia, the average district magnitude is 150.
In Chile, the average district magnitude is 2.

21. Additional details about PR
Thresholds (e.g. Germany)
Open vs. Closed Lists

22. Types of Party List
In a closed party list, the order of candidates elected is determined by the party itself, and voters are not able to express a preference for a particular candidate.
In an open party list, voters can indicate not just their preferred party but also their favored candidate within that party.

23. Closed Party List
The electoral formula determines how many seats a party wins.
In a closed list system, these party seats are allocated according to the order of the party list.
Example: If a party wins 10 seats, then the top 10 candidates on the party list are elected.

25. Open Party List
The electoral formula determines how many seats a party wins.
In an open list system, these party seats are allocated according to whichever party candidates win the most votes.
Example: If a party wins 10 seats, then the top 10 vote-winners on the party list are elected.

27. Closed versus open list
Implications?

28. Mixed Electoral Systems
An electoral tier is a level at which votes are translated into seats.
The lowest electoral tier is the district level. Higher tiers are constituted by grouping together lower tier constituencies; they are typically at the regional or national level.
Many mixed electoral systems have multiple electoral tiers, with majoritarian formulas used in a lower tier and proportional formulas used in a higher tier.

29. So what?
Dimensions for evaluating electoral institutions

30. Dimensions for analyzing democratic institutions
Protection of liberty
Protection of minorities
Decisiveness, especially under stress
Credibility of commitments
Stability
Quality of democracy
Representativeness
Accountability
Rent-seeking and corruption

31. Dimensions for analyzing democratic institutions (cont.)
Public versus private goods
Broad versus targeted programs and expenditures
The extent of redistribution
Budget deficits
Size of government as a share of GDP

32. Protection of liberty
PR and minorities

33. Decisiveness? Are coalition governments less decisive?
What about minority governments?

34. Credibility of commitments?
Again, coalition versus single-party government

35. Stability
Weimar Germany?

36. Quality of Democracy

37. Representativeness What can go wrong under PR?
What can go wrong under SMDP?

38. Accountability
Clarity of responsibility
How important are districts?

39. Corruption
Barriers to entry
Party lists

40. Public vs. private goods, broad vs. targeted policies
Geography and marginal districts
Core support vs. swing district models.
Do small districts encourage pork?

41. Endogenous electoral rules
Functionalist arguments about social heterogeneity
Colonial and historical legacies
Strategic elites
Boix
Calvo
Strategic fools?