The Norwegian Electoral System and its Political Consequences

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernt Aardal
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
The One ◽  
The Ideal

The electoral system is an integral part of any representative democracy, and the choice of system is an important framework for individual behavior and party competition. An electoral system is a result of compromise between parties with vested interests in the system setup. However, no system satisfies all ideal claims. This article is an introduction to the electoral system used in parliamentary elections in Norway; it emphasizes the political consequences of vital elements such as the balance between provincial and compensatory seats, and the geographical distribution of seats and electoral formulae. In sum, the system introduced in 2003 is more proportional in terms of the parties’ share of seats compared with votes, and the geographical distribution has become more systematic and less skewed, although the ideal of one vote-one value has not been achieved. Both the present and previous electoral systems combine elements reflecting different principles and concerns such as increased proportionality, on the one hand, and the fear of a fragmented party system on the other. The analyses show a complex interplay between different parts of the system. One and the same system may have different effects depending on the balance between the parties and between electoral districts. Thus, in order to study the effect of changes in the electoral system one needs to use simulations based on election outcomes over time.

The Electoral System, the Party System and Accountability in Parliamentary Government

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 744-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER KAM ◽  
ANTHONY M. BERTELLI ◽  
ALEXANDER HELD
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Party System ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
Electoral Accountability ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Parliamentary Government

Electoral accountability requires that voters have the ability to constrain the incumbent government’s policy-making power. We express the necessary conditions for this claim as an accountability identity in which the electoral system and the party system interact to shape the accountability of parliamentary governments. Data from 400 parliamentary elections between 1948 and 2012 show that electoral accountability is contingent on the party system’s bipolarity, for example, with parties arrayed in two distinct blocs. Proportional electoral systems achieve accountability as well as majoritarian ones when bipolarity is strong but not when it is weak. This is because bipolarity decreases the number of connected coalitions that incumbent parties can join to preserve their policy-making power. Our results underscore the limitations that party systems place on electoral reform and the benefits that bipolarity offers for clarifying voters’ choices and intensifying electoral competition.

The Spanish Electoral System

2020 ◽  
pp. 388-409
Author(s):  
Agustí Bosch
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Regional Parties ◽  
Lower House ◽  
System P ◽  
The Future ◽  
The One

This chapter examines the Spanish electoral system, meaning—first and foremost—the one used to elect the lower house (Congreso de los Diputados). After a brief description of its components, the chapter assesses how its scarce proportionality has traditionally led Spanish politics towards a two-party system. The chapter also assesses some other of its alleged outcomes (such as the malapportionment, the weight of the regional parties, or the robustness of democracy) and its prospects for the future. Finally, the chapter also examines the ‘other’ Spanish electoral systems—that is, the ones used to elect the Senate, the local councils, the regional parliaments, and the Spanish seats in the European Parliament.

The Logic of Inter-Party Competition and Cooperation

2021 ◽  
pp. 8-26
Author(s):  
Fernando Casal Bértoa ◽  
Zsolt Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Competition And Cooperation ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Party System Institutionalization ◽  
Three Components

The first chapter lays the foundation for a cooperation-focused way of thinking about party politics. It provides reasons why its analysts should go beyond individual parties and consider blocs of parties. It introduces the concept of poles, as distinct from blocs, and builds a party system typology around them. The second part of the chapter elaborates the concept of party system closure, relating it to the wider notion of party system institutionalization, and identifies its three components: alternation, innovation, and access. The chapter ends by considering the most likely causes and most important political consequences of closure.

Nationalism and political competition in Central Europe: The case of Poland

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Vermeersch
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Objective Reality ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Constant Flux ◽  
The Creation

To explain nationalist politics in Poland, researchers and observers have sometimes speculated about the dispositions of the electorate, popular sentiments, public fears for the loss of sovereignty, the people's historically ingrained preference for nationalist rhetoric, and their feelings of discontent about the economy. This article argues that hypotheses about the existence of nationalist sentiments within the electorate have tended to eclipse an important question about the main producers of nationalist rhetoric: Why do certain mainstream parties at certain points in time decide to frame their program as nationalist, even when there is no objective reality that seems conducive to the creation of great public concern about typically nationalist issues? This article explores this question by looking at various campaigns for Polish parliamentary elections since 1997. My argument is that when seeking to explain the motivations behind major campaign turns toward nationalism we should not merely understand them as responses to voter sentiment and voting behavior. Instead, we should see them as crucially driven by the transactional logic of inter-party competition in a party system that is in constant flux.

scholarly journals Syriza in power (2015-2019): A Review of Selected Aspects

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Lorencka ◽  
Giulia Aravantinou Leonidi
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Nationalist Party ◽  
Weimar Germany ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
First Time

What are the consequences of Syriza coming to power in Greece in 2015? Did it become a new Weimar Germany for the future Europe? In this article we test the hypothesis that winning two consecutive parliamentary elections in 2015 and forming a government contributed to a farther institutionalisation of this party within the rules of Greek democracy. This article is based on data from the Greek Ministry of Interior and the website of the Greek parliament. This text aims at presenting the process of transformation of Syriza - a radical, left-wing, anti-establishment and anti-austerity party into a governmental entity, pro systemic and accepting the principle of the democratic state of law. All this was due to the establishing of the governmental coalition with ANEL, a nationalist party; social-economic reforms; the reform of the electoral system for parliamentary elections; the proposal of a constitutional reform and the ending of the nearly 30-year dispute with Macedonia. The electoral failure during the parliamentary elections on the 7th of July 2019 finishes a 4-year governance of Syriza and enables us to try to evaluate this experiment for the first time. A key finding of our investigation is the need to highlight the respect for the democratic rules by Syriza during its government and its further institutionalisation as one of the main groupings of the contemporary party system in Greece.

scholarly journals Collapse and Re-Emergence of the Two-Party System in Greece

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-80
Author(s):  
Y. Kvashnin
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Crisis Recovery ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The One

The article examines the Greek party system under the Third Republic and identifies the key trends in its development during the years of the “great recession” (2008–2016) and the subsequent post-crisis recovery. Economic and social cataclysms led to the political fragmentation, the decline of the once largest party PASOK, the rise of radical parties, both left and right wing. However, the period of political chaos was short-lived. As a result, Greece has come to a quasi-two-party system, similar to the one that functioned in the pre-crisis decades. The return to normalcy was partly caused by the failure of the anti-European agenda, which brought SYRIZA and Independent Greeks to power in 2015 on the crest of a populist wave. But there were other reasons. First, the revitalization of the bipartisan system was facilitated by a reinforced proportional electoral system, which gave 50 bonus seats to the leading party. Second, political competition is constrained by the conservatism of Greek society, its weak susceptibility to new ideas (liberal, «green», regionalist, etc.). Third, bipartisanship is cemented by widespread clientelistic ties between the largest parties and voters who receive public sector jobs and other benefits in exchange for their loyalty. Fourth, the lion’s share of media resources is concentrated in the hands of a small number of media moguls associated with the leading parties, and citizens receive rather scant information about smaller political actors. These factors contribute to political stability, but at the same time they limit political competition, which poses serious risks for the country.

Effects of the Mixed Parallel Electoral System in Lithuania: The Worst of All Worlds?

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mažvydas Jastramskis
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
High Volatility ◽  
Pessimistic Scenario ◽  
Election Results ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
Mixed Systems

Abstract This article analyses the political effects of the mixed parallel electoral system in Lithuania. According to the ‘best of both worlds’ logic, mixed systems could combine advantages from both the majoritarian and proportional formulas. However, counterarguments were also presented in the literature, pointing to the possibility of the ‘worst of both worlds’. According to presented analysis of Lithuanian parliamentary elections between 1992 and 2016, the pessimistic scenario is expected when a mixed parallel electoral system is used in a new democracy with a weakly institutionalised party system and high volatility. Lithuania’s mixed parallel system produces relatively disproportional election results. However, it also facilitates the fragmentation of party system. Moreover, the effects in a concrete election are hardly predictable, especially the seat bonus of election winner. Evidence in the article points to a conclusion that mixed parallel electoral systems could contribute to the ‘worst of all worlds’ and new democracies should avoid them.

The Party System

2020 ◽  
pp. 211-229
Author(s):  
Christoffer Green-Pedersen ◽  
Karina Kosiara-Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
New Parties ◽  
People's Party ◽  
The Core ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The Social ◽  
Internal Coherence ◽  
The One

The earthquake election in 1973 could have been the beginning of the end of the Danish party system, which was very stable up to that point. However, more than 45 years later, the core of the Danish party system is still the one that was formed in the early twentieth century. The core of party competition is on the left-right dimension between the four old parties. The Social Democrats and the Social Liberals are on the centre-left side, with the Liberals and the Conservatives on the centre-right side. However, several related developments challenge this core. The four old parties have lost electoral support to new parties. The Danish People’s Party in particular has become a central actor in the Danish party system. New issues like immigration also challenge the internal coherence of the blocs. In terms of party organization, the Danish political parties have undergone a development similar to that of many other Western countries. Party membership has declined significantly, but not disappeared, and public funding plays a central role today. The new parties have also come to resemble the old ones in terms of internal structure.

scholarly journals Ideology, Partisanship, and Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 7-28
Author(s):  
Višeslav Raos
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Party System ◽  
Gradual Increase ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Main Center

This paper analyzes changes in the Croatian party system in the 1990-2016 period by looking at trends in the ideological makeup of voters of the main center-right (HDZ) and center-left (SDP) parties. An assessment of changes in voter self-placement on a left-right scale has shown a gradual increase in the ideological distance among voters of these parties. Further, the paper detected a trend towards an increase in the share of self-declared far-right voters among HDZ voters and far-left voters among SDP voters. In addition, an analysis of categorical ideological identification has demonstrated that, on average, two thirds of HDZ voters were Christian Democrats, while two thirds of SDP voters were Social Democrats. However, among all Christian Democrats, an average of 55 percent voted for the HDZ, while just shy of 60 percent of Social Democrats voted for the SDP. Finally, a logistic regression analysis has confirmed the importance of the cultural dimension of voter behavior in Croatia. Religiosity levels, as well as left-right self-placement serve as rather good predictors of a vote for the HDZ and the SDP, with the model showing greater explanatory strength for HDZ voters. In conclusion, the observed trends in ideological characteristics of HDZ and SDP voters could serve as pointers of underlying shifts in patterns of party competition and offer clues to the increased instability of the Croatian party system following the 2015 and 2016 parliamentary elections.

Voting Amid Violence: Electoral Democracy in Colombia. By Steven L. Taylor

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 889-891
Author(s):  
Desmond Arias
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Political System ◽  
English Language ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Language Writing

Much of English-language writing on contemporary Colombia focuses on that country's extended armed conflict and the challenges posed by international drug trafficking to both hemispheric security and local political stability. Often overlooked, however, are the dynamics of Colombia's long-standing democratic political system. In his book, Steven L. Taylor offers readers a detailed discussion of the constitutional structure of party competition in one of Latin America's oldest democracies. Taylor is a capable scholar of Colombia's institutions and does an excellent job of shedding light on the complex interplay between parties in that country's evolving electoral system.

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