scholarly journals Electoral Systems, Competition, and Incentives for Corruption

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umberto Guarnier Mignozzetti

What is the effect of electoral rules on political corruption? While the influence of electoral systems on accountability and representation has been widely studied, the link between electoral systems and corruption remains sparse. This paper develops a model for the interplay between corruption and electoral rules, considering the incentives for challengers to expose the corruption undertaken by the incumbents. I identify two major components: first, rules that increase competition create incentives for freeriding, as challengers would prefer that other challengers pay the cost of exposure. Second, larger district sizes create coordination problems, as the same incumbent may be overexposed, while others were not exposed at all. These characteristics make a mix of high competitiveness and PR the worst system regarding incentives for corruption. I show that these predictions hold empirically using quasi-experimental data from Brazilian municipalities. This study has implications for the design of electoral institutions.

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882199372
Author(s):  
Marius Radean

When legislators switch parties between elections this may be viewed as undemocratic since, bypassing voters, they are changing the outcomes of elections. Do electoral institutions affect the likelihood of party switching? I argue that legislators are less likely to switch in candidate-centered electoral systems where, because of personal voting, parties cannot insulate defectors from voter retribution. When they switch though, legislators do so early in the term to exploit voters’ short retrospective time horizon. These expectations are tested using a quasi experimental research design that estimates the effect of the 2008 Romanian electoral reform on party switching. In 2008 Romania changed its electoral system from a closed-list PR to a candidate-centered electoral system, where all candidates compete in single-member districts. Both hypotheses are supported by empirics. This helps weed out competing explanations which now have to account for both the decrease in and the different timing of party switching.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Lago

Electoral rules are a crucial institutional factor shaping the entry and success of new parties. However, testing how they affect voting behavior is problematic when using observational data in cross-national studies. As district magnitude is usually correlated with politically salient features affecting the likelihood of voting for new (and small) parties, the latent support of small parties differs across electoral systems. Using a quasi-experimental design in Spain focused on the district viability of a new party, Vox, in two elections held within 196 days, I provide a more robust estimate of the impact of electoral systems on the success of new parties. Strong evidence that the electoral system makes a difference for new parties has been identified: strategic considerations found in the districts where Vox was not successful prevented a significant number of voters from supporting the party.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882199025
Author(s):  
Patrick Cunha Silva ◽  
Brian F Crisp

Electoral systems vary in terms of the choice and influence they offer voters. Beyond selecting between parties, preferential systems allow for choices within parties. More proportional systems make it likely that influence over who determines the assembly’s majority will be distributed across relatively more voters. In response to systems that limit choice and influence, we hypothesize that voters will cast more blank, null, or spoiled ballots on purpose. We use a regression discontinuity opportunity in French municipal elections to test this hypothesis. An exogenously chosen and arbitrary cutpoint is used to determine the electoral rules municipalities use to select their assemblies. We find support for our reasoning—systems that do not allow intraparty preference votes and that lead to disproportional outcomes provoke vote spoilage. Rates of vote spoilage are frequently sufficient to change control over the assembly if those votes had instead been cast validly for the second-place party.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-99
Author(s):  
Eduardo Alemán ◽  
Juan Pablo Micozzi ◽  
Pablo M. Pinto ◽  
Sebastián Saiegh

ABSTRACTAccording to conventional wisdom, closed-list proportional representation (CLPR) electoral systems create incentives for legislators to favor the party line over their voters’ positions. However, electoral incentives may induce party leaders to tolerate “shirking” by some legislators, even under CLPR. This study argues that in considering whose deviations from the party line should be tolerated, party leaders exploit differences in voters’ relative electoral influence resulting from malapportionment. We expect defections in roll call votes to be more likely among legislators elected from overrepresented districts than among those from other districts. We empirically test this claim using data on Argentine legislators’ voting records and a unique dataset of estimates of voters’ and legislators’ placements in a common ideological space. Our findings suggest that even under electoral rules known for promoting unified parties, we should expect strategic defections to please voters, which can be advantageous for the party’s electoral fortunes.


Author(s):  
Jude C. Hays

Abstract A prominent line of research on electoral systems and income redistribution argues that proportional representation (PR) leads to tax-and-transfer policies that benefit the poor at the expense of the rich. This is because PR produces encompassing center-left coalitions that protect the poor and middle classes. Yet countries with PR electoral systems tend to rely heavily on consumption taxes and tax profits lightly, both of which are inconsistent with this expectation. Both policies are regressive and seem to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. This article argues that PR electoral institutions, when combined with trichotomous multipartism, are not as hostile to the rich as commonly believed, and that it is important to understand how electoral and party systems interact with labor market institutions in order to explain the puzzling pattern of taxation that is observed. The author develops a theoretical model and evaluates its empirical implications for a world in which production has become multinational.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Yuli Hermansyah ◽  
Dinda Ayu Wanodya Supriatiningsih ◽  
Bagus Hermansyah

Stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a condition where the renal function decrease, marked by the GFR value < 15/ml/minute/1,73 m2 with or without kidney damage history for 3 months or more that needs kidney replacement therapy, including hemodialysis. In Indonesia, hemodialysis was chosen for 82% from all the cases that needs kidney replacement therapy. However, the cost for hemodialysis therapy is considered as too expensive and burdens The National Health Insurance, Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (BPJS), allowing the reuse of hemodialyzer as an alternative for cost-effectiveness. Re-use hemodialyzer is a term for using the same hemodialyzer for the same patient but on different therapy session. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the difference of Potassium level in stage 5 chronic kidney disease patients whose using new and re-use hemodialyzer in RSD dr. Soebandi Jember. This research used quasi experimental design by using blood sample that will be measured for the potassium level after using new hemodialyzer and re-use hemodialyzer for the 4th time in Hemodialysis Installation of RSD dr. Soebandi Jember on December 2018. Total sample of 19 patients chosen using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Collected data were analyzed using paired t-test. The result of statistical test shows that there is no significance potassium level difference in stage 5 chronic kidney disease whose using new and re-use hemodialyzer for the 4th time (p=0,094). The effectivity of hemodialyzer that still has a good condition and hemodialysis therapy that has been done in accordance with the procedure until the 4th reuse is the main factor of this result.   Keywords: CKD, potassium, re-use hemodialyzer


Author(s):  
Ola Listhaug ◽  
Tor Georg Jakobsen

Research on political trust has been through a period of strong growth and now constitutes an important field within political behavior. The research growth is driven at least partly by access to new sources of data, which are relevant for testing many of the explanations of political trust discussed in the research literature. Research has moved in several directions. Overall, we observe that research on political trust is strongly integrated into mainstream research on political behavior with an emphasis of attitudes and other political psychology constructs. Complementing the micro-level approach, there is also a movement toward macro-level studies, with strong links to institutions. The institutional approach is primarily linked to electoral institutions and serves to test main hypotheses about differences between electoral systems.


2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110282
Author(s):  
Yesola Kweon ◽  
Josh M. Ryan

How do electoral rules shape the substantive representation of traditionally underrepresented groups? Using an original dataset of introduced and passed bills in the Korean National Assembly, which has both single-member districts and proportional representation, we examine the extent to which institutions condition the relationship between lawmaker gender and the substantive representation of women. While women lawmakers engage in higher levels of substantive representation of women, proportional representation allows both women and men to introduce more women’s issue bills than their counterparts elected through single-member districts. Furthermore, legislators elected through proportional representation are more effective at achieving passage of women’s issue legislation when compared with those elected in single-member districts, and this effect is especially pronounced for men. Our findings show that electoral systems matter for the representation of marginalized groups and that proportional representation systems allow both female and male politicians to increase their substantive representation of women.


Author(s):  
Jan E. Leighley ◽  
Jonathan Nagler

This chapter considers the electoral impact the new, wider array of voter registration and election administration laws using a new data set collected on state electoral rules between 1972 and 2008. States vary tremendously as to how easy it is to register and to vote, and previous research suggests that these laws affect who votes because they change the cost of voting. However, most of these studies rely on cross-sectional data, and usually consider the influence of one reform at a time. The chapter provides aggregate (state-level) analyses of the effects of changes in these rules on voter turnout. These analyses help us address the question of whether overall voter turnout has increased as a result of these legal changes. It finds modest effects of election day registration, of absentee voting, and of moving the closing date for registration closer to the election on overall turnout. The effect of early voting is less clear.


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