Core Issues in Comparative Politics
(PO233)
Module Director: Dr. Renske Doorenspleet
Associate Professor in Comparative Politics
director Centre for Studies in Democratization
Department of Politics and International Studies
University of Warwick, UK
www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/staff/doorenspleet/
www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/csd/
e-mail: renske.doorenspleet@warwick.ac.uk
Types of Democracies
Consensus versus Majoritarian Systems
(Lijphart 1999, see also week 11):
Executive-parties dimension (how easy is it for one party to
take control of the government?)
1. concentration of executive power (week 14)
2. dominance of executive (week 14)
3. two-party vs. multiparty system (week 12)
4. majoritarian electoral rules vs. PR (week 13)
5. types of interest groups
Federal-unitary dimension
Content Lecture week 13
Electoral Systems
A. Types of Electoral Systems (read Gallagher 2008; Hague and
Harrop 2007, Ch. 10!)
B. Link Electoral and Party Systems
C. Back to Lijphart (read literature week 11)
D. Contents of seminar week 14
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Elections and referendums:
the two main voting opportunities in democracies
Elections: people’s participation, link between people and their
representatives, legitimation
Referendums… see Gallagher 2008: 250-259!
Focus in this lecture: elections  electoral systems
A. Types of Electoral Systems
dimensions of electoral regulations:
-
Extent of franchise (see also week 3, 4, 5)
-
Voluntary or compulsory voting
(see Hague and Harrop 2007: 202; Gallagher 2008: 243)
-
Terms: Presidential versus Parliamentarian Systems
(see also week 14)
A. Types of Electoral Systems
electoral system: the set of rules governing the conversion of votes
into seats
 impact on a country’s party-system, government-coalition,
representation etc.
Electoral systems can be categorized along the magnitude of the
constituencies:
Multi-member constituencies (PR-systems)
 ‘proportionality’ is key!
Single-member constituencies (Majoritarian- or non PR-systems)
 ‘winner takes all’ is key!
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Three main categories of PR-systems:
(1) List systems: The party presents a list of candidates.
Voter votes for party (sometimes for candidates on party list)
Methods to award seats in list PR-systems:
Perfect proportionality means (%) of votes = (%) of seats
A. Types of Electoral
Systems
List systems: in 70 countries
including Brazil, Israel and the Netherlands
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Three main categories of PR-systems:
(2) Mixed systems: Voter has two votes, one for a candidate and
another for the party-list. But… in the end: PR!
A. Types of Electoral
Systems
Mixed systems: in nine countries, including Germany and New Zealand
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Three main categories of PR-systems:
(3) Single transferable vote: Application of alternative vote to PRsystems. Extremely complicated! Used in Malta and Ireland
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Three main categories of non PR-systems (majoritarian and plurality
systems):
1. Single-member plurality (First past the post):
The candidate with the most votes is elected, majority not needed,
within single-member districts.
A. Types of Electoral
Systems
Single-member plurality: in 47 countries, including Canada, India, UK
and USA
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Three main categories of non PR-systems (majoritarian and plurality
systems):
2. Alternative vote:
Rank order of candidates. The lowest placed candidate is eliminated
and his votes are redistributed to second preference. The process is
repeated until one candidate gets the majority.
A. Types of Electoral
Systems
Alternative vote in Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Three main categories of non PR-systems (majoritarian and plurality
systems):
3. Two-round systems:
If no candidate reaches the majority in the first round, the least
successful candidates are eliminated and a second round takes place
Used in 22 countries, including Egypt, Mali and Vietnam
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Electoral systems vary in the following dimensions:
(1) District magnitude:
From single-member constituencies to whole-country
constituencies
The bigger the constituency the more proportional
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Electoral systems vary in the following dimensions (continued)
(2) Intra-party choice:
How much intra-party choice is there among candidates?
Single-member constituencies: No choice
PR-systems:
Closed lists: Party determines order of candidates
Preferential lists: Voters can express their preference
A. Types of Electoral Systems
Electoral systems vary in the following dimensions (continued)
(3) Thresholds:
Electoral systems often contain some institutions to prevent very
small parties from winning seats:
Preventing fragmentation
Facilitating stable government
Thresholds are normally between 3-5% (Netherlands 0.67%,
Russia 7%). Thresholds usually exist at national level, rarely at
constituency level.
B. Link Electoral and Party
Systems
Link Electoral and Party Systems:
1. Duverger (1954): electoral system  party system
versus
2. Rokkan (1970): social cleavages  party system  electoral
system
And Jasiewicz (2003): political fragmentation  adoption PR (not
other way around, cf post-communist Europe)
And Miller (2005): cracks in two-party system BEFORE adoption
of PR (based on New Zealand’s introduction of PR in 1996)
C. Back to Lijphart
Lijphart’s executive-parties dimension
(how easy is it for one party to take control of the government?):
Fourth element: types of electoral systems
According to Lijphart, most important indicator of different types
of political systems, to distinguish consensus and majoritarian
systems
Problem of dichotomy, again!
Strong link with types of party systems (week 12)
D. Contents of Seminar week 14
Homework seminar week 14:
1) Read the required literature of week 13
2) Choose one country and describe the following:
- Types of electoral system over time
- Why has the system been changed?
- Advantages and disadvantages of the change/ different systems
See www.electionworld.org/ and www.ipu.org/ and
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
and links in module outline
Prepare a presentation (around 5 minutes)