scholarly journals Government Responsiveness under Majoritarian and (within) Proportional Electoral Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ferland
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Veto Player ◽  
Ideological Congruence ◽  
Government Responsiveness ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Advanced Democracies

AbstractGovernment responsiveness to citizens’ preferences is considered a sign of a well-functioning representative democracy. While the empirical literature has grown significantly, scholars have given less scrutiny to the conceptualization of government responsiveness and its relationship to policy/ideological congruence. We show that government responsiveness represents dynamic changes from governments in order to improve policy/ideological congruence. In addition, we consider how electoral systems influence governments’ incentives to be responsive as well as their capacity to be responsive. Building on a veto player approach, we argue that government responsiveness decreases as the number of parties in cabinet increases. We examine government responsiveness to citizens’ ideological preferences in 16 advanced democracies in 1980–2016 with respect to social spending. In line with our veto player framework, we show, first, that governments are generally more responsive under majoritarian than PR electoral systems and, second, that government responsiveness decreases under PR electoral systems as the number of parties increases in cabinet.

scholarly journals Ideological Congruence and Citizen Satisfaction: Evidence From 25 Advanced Democracies

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 822-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quinton Mayne ◽  
Armen Hakhverdian
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Political Judgment ◽  
Citizen Satisfaction ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Performance ◽  
Ideological Congruence ◽  
Advanced Democracies

Ideological congruence is an important and popular measure of the quality of political representation. The closer the match between the preferences of the public and those of elected elites, the better representative democracy is thought to function. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to the effects of ideological congruence on political judgment. We address this gap by examining whether citizens use egocentric or sociotropic judgments of congruence to evaluate democratic performance. Using a variety of congruence measures, we find that citizens are unmoved by sociotropic congruence; however, our analyses provide clear evidence that egocentric congruence boosts citizen satisfaction, especially among political sophisticates. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the study of ideological congruence and political representation.

The Japanese Diet: Parliamentary Groups and Lawmaking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikitaka Masuyama
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
The Government ◽  
Legislative Activities ◽  
Party Dominance ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Ruling Party ◽  
Democracy Functions ◽  
Japanese Diet

By exploring specific incidents and parliamentary practices and reviewing how parliament operates across a typical year, this chapter highlights the significance of the negotiation between parliamentary groups, explaining how the Diet rules and procedures strongly influence parliamentary behavior. Representative democracy functions through the interconnection of the legislative and electoral systems, affecting the fusion and diffusion of powers. The constitutional fusion of power underlies the whole process of lawmaking in the Diet. However, one-party dominance makes the government and opposition relations permanently asymmetrical. Unless elections allow voters to choose a government, the majoritarian control to make the ruling party accountable will not work, and legislative activities will remain mismatched with electoral competitions.

scholarly journals Thinking about elections and about democratic representation

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
LH ◽  
GvdS ◽  
WTE
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Modern Representative

[Political representation] is the basis of modern representative democracy. Older and less sophisticated forms, such as direct democracy, subsist marginally, even if they keep exerting a certain attraction. But representative democracy does not carry the self-evident authority it once had. Like every modern institution it is under challenge and consequently needs to be defended. In actual politics, the defence often takes the form of discussion of the merits of one system over the other and of proposals for change. The part of this defence appertaining to constitutional scholarship is not concerned primarily with proposals and changes. It is, before all, to brush up the fundamentals underlying representative democracy, on the basis of topical issues.There are three current issues upon which we would like to draw attention. They are: equality in structuring electoral systems, the processes of electoral reform and the rise of non-majoritarian institutions versus parliamentary democracy.

Predicting Party Systems from Electoral Systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rein Taagepera ◽  
Matthew Shugart
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Product Model ◽  
District Magnitude ◽  
Upper Limits ◽  
Predictive Relationships ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
Quantities Of Interest

The Seat Product Model matters to electoral and party systems specialists in what it is able to predict, and to all political scientists as one example of how to predict. The seat product (MS) is the product of assembly size (S) and electoral district magnitude (M, number of seats allocated). Without any data input, thinking about conceptual lower and upper limits leads to a sequence of logically grounded models that apply to simple electoral systems. The resulting formulas allow for precise predictions about likely party system outputs, such as the number of parties, the size of the largest party, and other quantities of interest. The predictions are based entirely on institutional inputs. And when tested on real-world electoral data, these predictions are found to explain over 60% of the variance. This means that they provide a baseline expectation, against which actual countries and specific elections can be compared. To the broader political science audience, this research sends the following message: Interconnected quantitatively predictive relationships are a hallmark of developed science, but they are still rare in social sciences. These relationships can exist with regard to political phenomena if one is on the lookout for them. Logically founded predictions are stronger than merely empirical relationships or predictions of the direction of effects. Finally, isolated equations that connect various factors are nice, but equations that interconnect pack even more predictive punch. Political scientists should strive for connections among connections. This would lead to a more scientific political science.

scholarly journals The economics of the democratic deficit: The effect of IMF programs on inequality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Lang
Keyword(s):  
Social Spending ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Absolute Income ◽  
Income Data ◽  
Imf Programs ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Government Responsiveness ◽  
Heterogeneous Effect ◽  
Spending Cuts ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

AbstractDoes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increase inequality? To answer this question, this article introduces a new empirical strategy for determining the effects of IMF programs that exploits the heterogeneous effect of IMF liquidity on loan allocation based on a difference-in-differences logic. The results show that IMF programs increase income inequality. An analysis of decile-specific income data shows that this effect is driven by absolute income losses for the poor and not by income gains for the rich. The effect persists for up to 5 years, and is stronger for IMF programs in democracies, and when policy conditions, particularly those that demand social-spending cuts and labor-market reforms, are more extensive. These results suggest that IMF programs can constrain government responsiveness to domestic distributional preferences.

scholarly journals Geography Matters: The Conditional Effect of Electoral Systems on Social Spending

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Jurado ◽  
Sandra León
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Distribution ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Representation Systems ◽  
Conditional Effect ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

There is a large body of research showing that the provision of social policies is higher under proportional electoral systems than under majoritarian systems. This article helps advance this literature by showing that the geographic distribution of social recipients plays an essential role in moderating the impact of electoral institutions on social provision. Using data from twenty-two OECD countries, the results show that majoritarian systems increase the provision of social spending when recipients are concentrated in certain regions. When levels of concentration are high, social spending in majoritarian countries can surpass levels of provision in proportional representation systems.

scholarly journals Enhancing Democracy Through Legislative Redistricting

1994 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gelman ◽  
Gary King
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Partisan Bias ◽  
The Relationship

We demonstrate the surprising benefits of legislative redistricting (including partisan gerrymandering) for American representative democracy. In so doing, our analysis resolves two long-standing controversies in American politics. First, whereas some scholars believe that redistricting reduces electoral responsiveness by protecting incumbents, others, that the relationship is spurious, we demonstrate that both sides are wrong: redistricting increases responsiveness. Second, while some researchers believe that gerrymandering dramatically increases partisan bias and others deny this effect, we show both sides are in a sense correct. Gerrymandering biases electoral systems in favor of the party that controls the redistricting as compared to what would have happened if the other party controlled it, but any type of redistricting reduces partisan bias as compared to an electoral system without redistricting. Incorrect conclusions in both literatures resulted from misjudging the enormous uncertainties present during redistricting periods, making simplified assumptions about the redistricters' goals, and using inferior statistical methods.

10. Elections and referendums

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Alternative Vote ◽  
Potential Impact

This chapter focuses on the two main opportunities that people have to vote in most societies: elections and referendums. Elections are held to fill seats in parliaments or to choose a president, whereas referendums allow citizens to decide directly on some issue of policy. Elections are the cornerstone of representative democracy, and referendums are sometimes regarded as the equivalent of ‘direct democracy’. In practice, referendums are used only as an option in systems of representative democracy. The chapter first provides an overview of elections and electoral systems, focusing on electoral regulations and the main categories of electoral systems, namely: single-member plurality, alternative vote, two-round system, and proportional representation. It then examines the rules under which elections are held as well as the consequences of this variation. It also considers the use of the referendum and its potential impact on politics.

Alternatywne ordynacje wyborcze. Przykład Australii i Irlandii

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-207
Author(s):  
Michał Urbańczyk
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Common Type ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Single Transferable Vote ◽  
Proper Functioning ◽  
Voting System

The essence of democracy is the rule of the sovereign, that is the nation, today understood as all of the state’s citizens. At present, the most common type of governance is representative democracy, exercised by representatives elected from the citizens themselves. Therefore, for the proper functioning of liberal democracy it is difficult to find a more important issue than the procedure for the election of those who govern us. The article presents two alternative electoral systems: an alternative voting system (AV) and the system of Single Transferable Vote (STV).

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