Comparative Analysis of Democratization prof. Fulvio Venturino Comparative Politics Principles of Democracy and Democratization Chapter 7: Electoral Systems

Elections for what? Elections are used to choose heads of state heads of government members of the legislature

What is relevant in an electoral system? the electoral formula the district magnitude the ballot structure the electoral thresholds

Types of electoral formulas Plurality (FPTP): the candidate who receives the most votes, but not necessarily the majority of the vote, wins the election Majority: candidates win the office in a single round of voting by gaining a majority of the ballots cast; if this is not the case, a runoff round is held at a subsequent date with the top two finishers running Proportional Representation (PR): the proportion of a party’s seats in the legislature reflects the strength of the party in the electorate

District magnitude Single-member district Multi-member district Multiple districts Single national district

Ballot structure Choosing candidates Choosing parties closed party list systems open party list systems Choosing parties categorical systems ordinal systems

Electoral thresholds Thresholds qualify parties to obtain representation in the legislature. They are an increasingly common way for PR systems to limit the entry of minor parties into legislatures 2 percent: Israel 5 percent: Germany and Belgium 10 percent: Turkey

So what? Plurality systems involve winner-takes-all formula small district magnitudes categorical ballot structures Proportional representation systems involve proportional formulae large district magnitude categorical ballot structures (on occasion ordinal ballots, as with STV

The effects of electoral systems The scholarly work on the effects of electoral systems has focused on the relationship between electoral rules and the ideological polarization and size of political party systems the tendency of electoral systems to impact voter turnout and citizen participation the potential for electoral systems to affect the course of democratic development

The effects on party system Plurality systems provide for incentives for political moderation in the party system and the political system generally Plurality systems tend to reduce the number of parties and hence promotes governmental stability

The impact on voter choice and turnout 1 Plurality systems encourage strategic voting, where voters prevent their least preferred choice from getting elected Many voters under such conditions vote against their least preferred candidates, as opposed to voting for their most preferred This ‘voting against’ behavior makes voters susceptible to negative campaigning

The impact on voter choice and turnout 2 Under PR there is a greater likelihood of electoral success for minor parties Hence voter efficacy (the sense that one’s vote counts) and the incentives to cast ballots should increase Thus, voter turnout is generally much higher in countries that use PR systems when compared to countries that use FPTP electoral rules

Electoral systems and democratic transition Many potential cases to test these theories post-communist states in Central and Eastern Europe post-authoritarian countries throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan

The relevance of electoral engineering for transitions Encouragement of women’s representation Promotion of interethnic accommodation in ethnically divided societies Improvement of the citizens’ satisfaction with the political system

The case of Alternative Voting (AV)

AV logics

AV in practice

The advantages of AV supporters from one ethnic group may choose moderate candidates associated with the other ethnic group ahead of radical candidates associated with their own ethnic group candidates seek second preferences votes outside their own ethnic group, thus they have an incentive to adopt conciliatory or moderate stances on ethnically divisive issues AV provides an incentive for parties to make post-election deals on divisive issues