Electoral Systems and Redistricting

2017 ◽  
pp. 512-532
Author(s):  
Lisa Handley
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Election Process ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Impact

Redistricting—also known as redistribution and delimitation—refers to the redrawing of the boundaries of geographically based districts for electing representatives to legislative office. A majority of countries rely to some degree on electoral districts that must be delimited, but the impact that redistricting has depends on the electoral system in place, as well as the authority assigned the task of redistricting, the role that parliament and the courts play in the process, and the rules that govern the redistricting process. This chapter discusses the redistricting practices countries have adopted and considers their potential impact on the election process and its outcome.

Special elections in alternative vote electoral systems: Exploring turnout and the vote in Irish by-elections 1923–2019

2021 ◽  
pp. 136914812110457
Author(s):  
Stephen Quinlan
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Multifaceted Approach ◽  
Decisive Effect ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Alternative Vote ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The Impact

Most literature on special elections has focused on first-past-the-post contests and on the performance of governments. Turnout, candidates, and how the electoral system impacts the result have received less attention. This contribution fills these voids by exploring special elections in Ireland, elections conducted under the alternative vote system. Taking a multifaceted approach, it investigates the correlates of turnout, the impact of candidates and the decisive effect of lower preferences, while also testing multiple explanations of government performance. I find Irish special elections live up to the by-election truisms of lower turnout and government loss. Government performance is associated with national economic conditions. By-election victory is more likely among candidates with familial lineage and former members of parliament. Where they come into play, one in five candidates owe their victory to lower preferences.

7. Elections and voting

UK Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 145-169
Author(s):  
Andrew Blick
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
National Level ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Different Types ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

This chapter looks at how voting helps people to take a direct role in politics. The chapter discusses the rules by which the electoral system operates. It discusses the different types of electoral systems used in the UK. It connects General Elections and the formation of government at the national level. The chapter then offers a number of theoretical perspectives from which to consider voting in terms of fairness, mandates, and effectiveness. The chapter looks at the impact of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 and how the integrity of elections is maintained. Finally, it looks at the plan to equalize the size and reduce the number of UK parliamentary constituencies.

Reforming the Algerian electoral system

2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youcef Bouandel
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Survival Strategy ◽  
Political Reforms ◽  
Incumbent Regime ◽  
The Impact

In October 1988, Algeria began a process of transition from authoritarianism. Political reforms were introduced, on the surface, to facilitate the process of transition, but in reality to ensure the survival of the incumbent regime. The reform of the electoral system played a significant part in this survival strategy. Between 1989 and 1997, Algeria witnessed the adoption of three distinct electoral systems as the authorities sought ways to give a façade of democratisation while manipulating the rules to suit their purposes. This paper looks at the Algerian transition, asks why the Algerian authorities switched from one system to another, and assesses the impact of the three different electoral systems that the country has experienced.

Personal vote, spatial registration rules, and party system nationalization in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-Pin Su
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Party System ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Spatial Registration ◽  
Party Registration ◽  
The Impact

While many studies of party system nationalization examine the effects of various institutional factors, few take into account the impact of party formation cost. This paper aims to fill the empirical gap by focusing on the interactive effect of electoral systems and party registration rules. I argue that the effect of electoral systems on party system nationalization is conditional on spatial registration rules, a requirement that requires a party to collect signatures or organize local branches in a specified geographical manner to maintain the party’s legal status. Based on data for 97 legislative elections in 18 Latin American countries from 1978 to 2011, the empirical analysis demonstrates that a country with an electoral system that encourages a personal vote tends to have a much lower level of party system nationalization when that country does not have spatial registration requirements. The result is robust across different model specifications and estimation techniques.

The Impact of Mixed-member Districts on Legislators' Behavior: The Case of Bolivia

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita Corral ◽  
Francisco Sánchez ◽  
Cristina Rivas Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Personal Assistants ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractMany studies suggest that mixed-member electoral systems produce different attitudes and behaviors among representatives. This article assesses how this type of electoral system shapes Bolivian legislators' perceptions of their roles as representatives, their district activities, and their relationships with their political parties. It examines these dimensions using elite survey data and interviews with legislators and their personal assistants. The results show that the electoral system does not produce a uniform impact. It shapes how legislators perceive their role as representatives and the nature of the relationship they build with their political parties, but it does not produce differences in the kinds of activities that both types of legislators carry out in their districts.

scholarly journals Electoral Institutions and Women’s Representation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael FitzGerald ◽  
Melody E. Valdini
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Candidate Selection ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
The Impact

While there are many factors that drive women’s descriptive representation (i.e., the percentage of women in the legislature) the electoral institutions generate some of the most powerful and consistent effects. In the first breaths of this literature, the focus was firmly on the impact of majoritarian electoral systems versus proportional representation (PR) systems on women’s descriptive representation. Since then, the literature has grown to engage broader ideas regarding the complicated nature of analyzing institutions in different cultural contexts and under different social conditions. Particularly in the later decades of the 20th century, scholars found that structural factors, such as economic disparities between men and women and the balance of women in careers that are typical paths to political office, were important to consider in concert with electoral rules. More recently, as more women gain access to the economic elite, the literature has focused more on cultural factors such as the historical legacies of Communism and the general societal reactions to women’s leadership. These non-institutional factors are now widely engaged as an important component of understanding why and to what extent we can expect an electoral system to generate a certain outcome. Beyond the impact of the electoral system itself, there is also relevant literature that engages how electoral institutions such as gender quotas and candidate selection processes affect women’s descriptive representation. There is wide variation in the design of gender quotas as well as candidate selection processes, just as there is in the design of electoral systems, and therefore a fuller understanding of the relationship between electoral institutions and women’s representation requires consideration of the interaction of candidate selection procedures, gender quotas, and electoral systems. For example, the presence of a placement mandate (i.e., a requirement stipulating where on the list women candidates must be positioned) or a decentralized candidate selection process each has a different effect on women’s representation in an electoral system that includes a preference vote. The sections below highlight some of the existing literature on electoral institutions and their impact on women’s descriptive representation. This is by no means an exhaustive list but does offer insight into the general themes and research areas that are common in this field of study.

Electoral Systems and Electoral Misconduct

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (12) ◽  
pp. 1533-1556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Birch
Keyword(s):  
System Design ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
National Study ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Cross National Study ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cross National

This article is a cross-national study of the impact of electoral system design on electoral misconduct. It argues that elections held in single-member districts (SMD) under plurality and majority rule are more likely to be the object of malpractice than those run under proportional representation (PR). Two reasons are advanced in support of this argument: Candidates in SMD systems have more to gain from individual efforts to manipulate elections than is the case for candidates in PR contests; and malfeasance is more efficient under SMD rules, in that the number of votes that must be altered to change the outcome is typically smaller than it is under PR. This hypothesis is tested and confirmed on a new data set of electoral manipulation in 24 postcommunist countries between 1995 and 2004. The proportion of seats elected in SMDs is found to be positively associated with levels of electoral misconduct, controlling for a variety of contextual factors.

scholarly journals Electoral Systems, Ethnic Heterogeneity and Party System Fragmentation

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lublin
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Multivariate Models ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Number Of Parties ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Proper Account

Taking into proper account the geographic distribution of ethnic groups and the operation of electoral systems within individual countries reveals that the impact of ethnic diversity and electoral systems on the number of parties has been underestimated. Contrary to earlier findings, this study reveals that ethnic diversity spurs party proliferation in countries with both majoritarian and proportional electoral systems, though the effect is stronger in the latter. The insights gained here provide a theoretically derived measure of ethnic diversity that is useful for estimating its effect on specifically political phenomena and generating an improved holistic measure of the impact of electoral systems. More crucially, the results indicate that electoral system designers have a greater capacity to structure electoral outcomes. The results rely on multivariate models created using a new database with election results from 1990 through 2011 in sixty-five free democracies.

Electoral System Changes and Voter Turnout: Reflections on New Zealand Local Elections

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Jacky Yaakov Zvulun
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Single Transferable Vote ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Impact

Voter turnout in local and general elections is a key element in measuring citizen participation. From 2004, New Zealand local elections were unique in that local councils had the choice of two different electoral systems: plurality majority and proportional representation. We have here the opportunity to study more about New Zealand local elections and changes in electoral systems. This article analyses the impact of the "Single Transferable Vote” electoral system in those councils that adopted it, comparing it to those councils which used "First Past the Post". This article explains how the STV electoral system has not increased voter turnout and was not the cause of low voter turnout in the 2004-2007 local elections. It might, however, offer voters a better way to choose their preferences.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of determining election results in proportional electoral systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-29
Author(s):  
Oleksandr DROZDYK ◽  
Daniil POLISHCHUK
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
General Idea ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Minority Representation ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Constituent Elements ◽  
The Impact

Introduction. This paper examines the issue of proportional electoral system, its constituent elements and types. Most types of elements of this system are analyzed here, indicating the specific countries that use them. This paper discusses in detail the basic electoral formulas of the proportional system, these formulas are usually based on the quota method or the method of divisors. The use of different methods makes it possible to favor smaller parties or, conversely, to restrict access to representative bodies to weak political forces. In practice, the application of appropriate formulas can achieve the required level of representation. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the impact of electoral formulas and voter lists on the results of popular will. Results. In recent decades, there has been a trend towards a shift from a majority electoral system to other types. Most countries choose a proportional electoral system. The relevant system has the highest number of qualitative indicators of minority representation, by minimizing the loss of votes. According to the experience of the countries listed in the paper, comparative characteristics of each type of proportional system are obtained. Properly selected and implemented electoral system is the key to the proper functioning of all democratic institutions. The analysis of electoral systems is based on modern tasks, such as the formation of authorities by persons with real support in society, increasing the representation of the interests of regions and minorities. For example, with the change of parameters, such as quotas, the order of counting of votes changes, which in turn affects the distribution of different interests in the representative body. Conclusion. For countries reforming their electoral system in the direction of proportionality, it is first necessary to determine the parameters of the electoral formula and the formation of electoral lists, then determine the method of voting. These issues are considered in this paper and give a general idea of the features of the most popular elements of the classification of the proportional electoral system and are justified by the practice of each of them.

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