Spanish Politics and Society
The Institutions of Spanish Democracy:
the electoral system.
Anthony Gilliland
Office 20.123
anthony.gilliland@upf.edu
Introduction
 Representative democracy and the importance of
electoral system.
 The electoral system as an institutional element of the
political system.
 The electoral system as shaping the political system.
Contents
 Democracy, elections and the electoral system:

What is an electoral system? Why are they important for
democracies?
 Studying electoral systems: two ways of analysing
electoral systems:


Types of electoral system (institutional aspects, or what the law
says)
Political consequences of the electoral system (political aspects or
how they actually play out)
 The Spanish electoral system:


institutional aspects
political consequences of the electoral system
The electoral system (i):
 What are electoral systems?

more than just mechanism of translating votes into seats, it is the
set of rules that guide electoral competition.
 Why are electoral systems important for democracy

Lets start thinking about why are elections important for
democracies:
 They express the representative link between citizens and
public office
 Choose representatives and shape the political elite
 Determine and influence government formation
 Shape and affect political party programmes
 Allow for citizens to express preferences
 Give legitimacy to the system and to parties
The electoral system (ii):
 Given the definition of electoral system, the
importance is clear. Electoral system produces:
 Representation
 Government
 Legitimacy
Main elements of electoral systems
 To analyse electoral systems we focus on different
elements of it:

Those primarily related to the expression of preferences
(electoral register, campaign regulations, ballot paper)

Those primarily related to the conversion of votes into
political power. (electoral formula, district magnitude and
number of districts).
As expression of preferences:
 Who can vote (or express a preference)?
 The electorate
 In democracy: universal suffrage, free, fair and equal
elections.
 Conditions on who can vote:
 Citizenship and Nationality
 Age
 Those that are in full possession of their political and civic
rights)
 electoral register or census and eligibility
As expression of preferences:
 Electoral process and regulation



Administration of elections
 Independent authority but linked to public administration
Calling elections
Presentation and selection of candidates, commonly
 Need backing of a political party or a specific number of
signatures of voters.
 Territorial attachment of some sort with the region in which
the candidate wishes to run
 A financial deposit that is not returned if the candidacy does
not gain a minimum number of votes.

Note: in reality political parties have gained the upper hand in
proposing candidates. Independent candidates often cannot
compete with the organisation and resources of political
parties.
As expression of preferences:
 Electoral campaign:
 Regulation to ensure competitiveness
Duration of campaign
Access to media
 Electoral propaganda in public and private networks
 News coverage of campaigns
Polls
Electoral watchdog
Campaign finance (by State or others)
As expression of preferences:
 Voting, the count and the proclamation of
winners:




Where to vote
The organisation and supervision of the logistics
Ensuring secret ballot
The count




Public
Validation
Official results
Transforming votes into seats
Examining the electoral system as way to convert
preferences into political power and office:
 electoral district:
 District, population and territory
 One district vs multiple districts
 Drawing boundaries: boundary setting and modification
 Using existing boundaries vs creating electoral
boundaries
 District magnitude
Examining the electoral system as way to convert
preferences into political power and office:
 electoral formula
 The main formulas:
 Majoritarian vs proportional formulas
 Different logics: exclusion or cooperation
 Majoritarian formulas
 Proportional formulas
 The reality is often mixed. Different levels of
government use different electoral formulas.
Examining the electoral system as way to convert
preferences into political power and office:
 threshold



Level of application: statewide or by district
Threshold of votes vs threshold of seats
Legal threshold vs “real” threshold (the Spanish example)
 ballot paper
 Voting for an individual or a group
 Transferable?
 Open or closed list?
Political consequences of electoral
system
 Representation: do all votes count the same?





Size
Number of districts
Proportionality
Territorial divisions and boundaries
Electoral formula
 Government formation and durability
 Fragmentation and number of parties
 Electoral magnitude
 Electoral formula
 Threshold
 Formation of majorities and durability of government.
 Legitimacy
Spain and its electoral
system:
General elections and Congress
Spain’s electoral system:
 Focus on Congress:
Size: 350 seats
Number of districts: 50 provinces (plus Ceuta and
Melilla)
District magnitude: varies with a minimum of 2 seats
per province.
 Consequence: means vote does not count the same. A seat
in Soria represents around 30 thousand people while its 150
thousand in Madrid.
 Existence of a fair amount of low magnitude districts (there
are 34 districts with a magnitude of less than 7). This
exacerbates disproportionality.
Spain’s electoral system:
Electoral formula: variety of d’Hondt
Threshold of 3% per district
 Consequences: The effect of the threshold in reality
is only relevant in Madrid and Barcelona (low district
magnitude means that in reality the threshold is
much higher).
Closed list ballot
Some reflections:
 Low turnout in general although higher in elections
where uncertainty was highest (1977, 1979 and later
1993, 1996 and 2004)
 Parties that gain representation are the 2 main ones and
regionally concentrated ones.
 How has electoral system affected party system?


Low magnitude districts help parties with majorities in
those districts as proportionality is low but also indirectly
as voters feel their choice of useful vote is limited
IU is systematically disadvantaged
 How can we explain the electoral system in Spain?
How can we explain the electoral
system in Spain?
 Set up in 1977, little change since then.
 Transition is therefore key:




Set up for first elections, so wanted to reduce number of
parties with representation
Right wing favouring through low district magnitude and
use of provinces as electoral districts
Need to endure nationalist party representation
Try to kick-start party organisation: closed list ballot
Conclusions