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.
Elections are the foundation and inevitable elements of democracy. As an inevitable element of democracy, it imposes democratic country to fix its election to be free and fair. Moreover, fair ...elections also enable regimes change and the implementation of good governance and may significantly advance or impede long-term democratic development. In recent years, the Malaysian government has increasingly faced negative perceptions toward the electoral system. The negative perceptions toward the Malaysian election are influenced by the performance of the Election Commission (EC). The ignorance or failure of the government to improve the credibility of every election led to the demand for reform from civil societies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to bring the election framework in line with the concept of an ideal election. Therefore, this article aims to explore the issues of electoral reform and to suggest a framework for electoral system reform in Malaysia. This research applies a qualitative method which is document analysis and interview. The result of this study found that issues on the electoral system includes all election cycle. The electoral system reform framework shows few elements on electoral cycle such as voter education, absentee voter, and empowerment of Election Commission (EC) need serious attention from the government. This research contributes in term of reform suggestion to increase the efficiency and election credibility.
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.
This article seeks to understand the circumstances under which minoritized women are descriptively represented. Drawing from a unique dataset of 7,978 legislators in 37 countries, we conduct the ...first cross-national examination of minoritized women's representation at the level of individual legislators. We find that gender quotas, ethnic parties, and ethnic seats are effective at enhancing minoritized women's political representation across different electoral systems, especially when clustered together. And, although ethnic parties and ethnic seats promote the representation of both minoritized women and men, ethnic seats provide a more level playing field between minoritized women and men than ethnic parties.
This study reconsiders the effects of uncontested elections on legislative behavior, based on a large dataset for 2002–2021 that was newly put together for Japan's prefectural assemblies. As ...uncontested politicians do not need to engage in as much constituency effort in vying for re-election, they may have additional time for intra-parliamentary work. However, although these incumbents were once elected without facing any rivals, they have some electoral vulnerability, as their seats may be challenged in future elections. I show that among those uncontested incumbents, the legislative performance is higher (lower) for those elected from districts of smaller (larger) magnitudes, as they are more (less) confident in their chances of re-election. My findings highlight the primacy of re-election motivations among uncontested politicians.
It is well known that different types of electoral systems create different incentives to cultivate a personal vote and that there may be variation in intra‐party competition within an electoral ...system. This article demonstrates that flexible list systems – where voters can choose to cast a vote for the list as ordered by the party or express preference votes for candidates – create another type of variation in personal vote‐seeking incentives within the system. This variation arises because the flexibility of party‐in‐a‐district lists results from voters' actual inclination to use preference votes and the formal weight of preference votes in changing the original list order. Hypotheses are tested which are linked to this logic for the case of Belgium, where party‐in‐a‐district constituencies vary in their use of preference votes and the electoral reform of 2001 adds interesting institutional variation in the formal impact of preference votes on intra‐party seat allocation. Since formal rules grant Belgian MPs considerable leeway in terms of bill initiation, personal vote‐seeking strategies are inferred by examining the use of legislative activity as signalling tool in the period between 1999 and 2007. The results establish that personal vote‐seeking incentives vary with the extent to which voters use preference votes and that this variable interacts with the weight of preference votes as defined by institutional rules. In addition, the article confirms the effect of intra‐party competition on personal vote‐seeking incentives and illustrates that such incentives can underlie the initiation of private members bills in a European parliamentary system.
A large body of literature suggests that electoral system type has an impact on voting behaviour, but little work has been done looking at its effects on other forms of democratic accountability, ...such as contacting elected representatives and protesting. Using data from 36 African countries, we find that the type of electoral system has a significant relationship with these other forms of participation. Citizens in PR systems are significantly more likely to protest than those in majoritarian ones, while those in majoritarian systems are more likely to contact elected representatives. We argue that this is because the connection between citizens and representatives in majoritarian systems is clearer, closer, and more responsive, making contact an effective strategy and providing an efficient "safety valve" when citizens want to hold their government accountable. The lack of a similar connection in most PR systems, in contrast, leads citizens to turn to protest more regularly.
Abstract
The hopes of Somalia transitioning to a democratic electoral system have once again dwindled following its recent decision to conduct the 2021/22 general elections using the old indirect ...clan-based model. Although this model has been widely faulted for being systematically unjust since it privileges the interests of the big clans, Somalia has for a long time relied on it to arrive at its political leaders. But the big question remains; why is it difficult for Somalia to transition to a democratic electoral system that will provide for competitive politics? The paper finds that implementing the proposed first-past-the-post electoral system in Somalia has proved difficult due to the following issues: A fragile security situation; weak state institutions; clan and sub-clan divisions; tensions between central government and federal member states; lack of political goodwill; financial and logistical challenges; and constant interference from external actors. The paper also observes that changing the electoral system is not the solution to the challenges facing the country. On the contrary, the cure to Somalia's political conflict can only be found in its own traditional institutions. As imperfect as the clan-based model may appear, it has succeeded to a great extent in promoting unity among the different clans. It is against this backdrop that this paper recommends the strengthening of the old clan-based electoral system to realize a stable Somalia so as to pave way for democratizing the country's electoral system in future.
Primaries are becoming the preferred mechanism to select parliamentary elites in an increasing number of parties across Europe. Recent literature has shown that certain party-level characteristics ...favour the implementation of this inclusive method of selection. However, despite its great relevance in party life, the impact of the electoral system has not attracted enough attention. In this article we wonder if the type of electoral list (blocked or not blocked) has an effect on how participative the method of candidate selection is. We expect primaries to be more popular where electoral lists are blocked, as an intermediate mechanism for the electorate to influence an otherwise leadership-driven process of candidate selection. However, the results of a survey of 2,561 candidates from 37 parties show that this expectation is not met, as primaries seem to be more common precisely in non-blocked lists systems, with this effect being especially visible among right-wing parties. These findings suggest that the type of list might play a key role in this important aspect of internal party life.
