Coordinating nominations: how to deal with an incumbent surplus after electoral reform

How do parties and candidates react to electoral system reform? While the literature on causes and consequences of electoral reforms is receiving increasing attention, we lack a systematic micro-level account on how parties and candidates adopt to changes in electoral rules and district boundaries. This paper examines the case of the Japanese Liberal Democrats to explore how the party has managed to accommodate a surplus of incumbents to a reduced number of nominal tier seats following the 1994 electoral reform. By using micro-level data, I examine how the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has matched candidates based on their expected electoral strength and ideological positioning to new districts. Moreover, I investigate how the newly instituted party-list allowed the LDP to avoid its disintegration at the local level by systematically defusing local stand-offs through the handing out of promising list positions. My findings help to understand how the LDP could avoid its disintegration and could continue to dominate Japanese politics until today.

Malaysian Electoral System Reform and the Challenges of its Implementation After the 14th General Election

Prior to the 14th general election (GE-14), electoral practices in Malaysia have been often criticised as being obscure and biased since it was plagued with issues such as dubious voter registers and ballot paper fraud. Therefore, in its manifesto during GE-14, Pakatan Harapan (PH) promised to reform this electoral practice to make it more independent, transparent, and fair. PH then won the GE-14 on the strength of this vow, forcing it to keep its manifesto pledge. However, implementing the said promise is not easy as most of the proposals involve amendments to the Federal Constitution that require the support of at least a two-thirds majority. The fact that PH lacks such a majority has raised the issue of whether or not the objective to reform the electoral system can be materialised. Thus, this article examines the aspects of electoral reform implemented by PH during its 22 months in power and assesses the challenges faced in implementing such electoral system reform. The concept of electoral reform was used as an analytical tool in this article. This article mainly obtained its data from secondary sources including books, journals, theses, official government documents and websites, while primary data were collected from unstructured interviews with authoritative informants. Findings revealed that among the important reforms of the country's electoral system that have been accomplished by PH are improving the standard operating procedures of elections, enhancing election rules that do not require amendments, amending laws that require simple majority support in the parliament, and implementing ‘high-impact’ electoral reforms that require amendments to the Federal Constitution. Moreover, it was also discovered that the main challenge to reforming the electoral system was the constraint of electoral rule amendments that require the approval of a two-thirds majority of parliamentarians. Other obstacles included politicians' unwillingness to accept a new electoral system culture, barriers to accessing data and information owned by other agencies, discrepancies between federal and state legislation, and financial constraints on improving existing hardware and systems necessary for electoral reform success.

Were Elections in the Socialist Countries Elections at All? The Case of Elections to the Sejm in Communist-Ruled Poland

The article presents the current state of research into parliamentary elections in Poland during the period of communist rule. The author outlines the development of the electoral system of the Polish People’s Republic in the 1940s and 50s, and also analyses its singular features in the years when elections to the Sejm were fully controlled by the ruling Polish United Workers’ Party. The final part of the paper is devoted to elections in the 1980s, when this electoral model collapsed, thereby contributing to the disintegration of the communist dictatorship in Poland.

City Elections in Kuban (Spring — Autumn 1919)

The article is devoted to the elections to the city councils of the Kuban Territory, which took place in the spring and autumn of 1919. The author dwells in detail on the Kuban electoral law, according to which, for the first time in Russia, a rather rare electoral system — раnаchage — was used, and on the results of its application. Election campaigns in Yekaterinodar and other cities of the region are considered, the results of voting and the composition of councillors are analyzed. By the example of Yekaterinodar, the difference in electoral preferences of residents of “bourgeois” and “proletarian” regions is shown, as well as the influence of the educational and property level, occupation on the political preferences of the townspeople. Special attention is paid to the story of the murder in the editorial office of the newspaper “Utro Yuga”, which was caused by the struggle between moderately socialist electoral associations, and one of the immediate reasons was S. Ya. Marshak's election poems. The general results of the elections show that in most cities of the region the victory was won by the “right” homeowners' lists, but the author believes that the reason for this was not so much a change in the mood of the masses as the absenteeism of the left and centrist electorate.

Technologies of Manipulation During the Presidential Elections of 1999 in Ukraine

The article examines the election campaigns of the late twentieth century. in Ukraine and proved, that they operated manipulation technologies. The state was democratizing the political system, adoption of new election legislation, transition to a mixed electoral system; political pluralism was formed, the number of parties has increased significantly, the struggle for power intensified. With each subsequent election campaign (presidential, parliamentary), the political struggle intensified, and voter engagement technologies have become more vulnerable. The author proves, that the ways and purposes of application of technologies depend on motivations of subjects of the power, as: obtaining, exercising and retaining power; the desire to achieve political and social results, most profitable for pragmatic actors, although this may run counter to collective goals. In Ukraine, democratic processes are not yet complete, traditions of democracy and stable political institutions are absent. Instead, manipulation technologies, electoral engineering, which are aimed at limiting the actions of competitors and creating favorable conditions for their own victory. This prevents the formation of certain restraints, barriers to manipulation technologies, familiar to many civilized democracies.

Political Process in Bulgaria: Failed Coalition and the Third Parliamentary Elections during One Year

The article analyzes the political process in the Republic of Bulgaria and a number of elections to the National Assembly,which in 2021 were already in April, July and announced for November.The factors, which influenced the need to hold parliamentary elections three times in a row.This shows, that the state is going through a difficult period of instability and turbulence.Building a democratic state governed by the rule of law in Bulgaria,despite its membership in the EU, it is still in its infancy. The author emphasizes that the state is growing alienated from democratic political processes and despair of their effectiveness.This requires legal regulation of the following issues:ensuring universal suffrage;the possibility of campaigning and outreach among voters on others,in addition to the state (Bulgarian) languages,after all, large minorities live in Bulgaria (Turkish, Roma, etc.);improving the financing of election campaigning and the mechanism for appealing the results of parliamentary electionsbased on the transition from indirect to direct appeal by election participants to the NZB of their results. Solving the main problem of Bulgaria – reducing corruption,in fact, it did not happen.Positive success in the fight against corruption can be achieved with the support of the population,his belief that the state will be able to defeat corruption,clear enforcement of anti-corruption measures in various government agencies and institutions.The growth of political consciousness of citizens,which is expressed in a broad protest movement,in the medium term may become the internal basis for the formation of real,rather than a formal electoral system organized according to European standards.

5. Winning and Losing Elections

This chapter assesses what politicians and members of political parties really care about: getting into office on the back of a successful election campaign. Rather than the general determinants of voting outlined in the previous chapter, this is about the choices voters and parties face within a particular system, so they can organize themselves to win. For that they need to play by the rules of the game, which includes developing strategies within electoral systems. The chapter then discusses the impact of electoral systems on that calculus, and how the number of parties is affected by the electoral system in place. It also looks at the factors that assist the winning of elections, and the extent to which the choices of parties and voters are affected by growing instability in the system. Overall, the chapter provides an overview of British political parties and party systems.

Party Fragmentation, the Proportional System and Democracy in Slovenia

In Slovenia, political parties have been the key actors in opting for a proportional electoral system and constitutional choice of a parliamentary system, both of which are believed to help to develop a consensual type of democracy. However, a vicious circle involving a fragmented party system and a proportional electoral system has not only led to polarisation within the party system, but has also contributed to problems of democratic governability and legitimacy. The destabilisation of the party system since 2011 has not only caused a crisis of political legitimacy and accountability, but has also contributed to a recent trend of de-democratisation. At the moment, there does not appear to be a realistic alternative to the existing electoral rules in the near future, in spite of recurring calls by an anti-communist party (Slovenian Democratic Party) to introduce a majoritarian system.