Assessing and
Ranking Democracies
Nov. 3
Assessing and Ranking
Democracies
 Freedom House releases an annual report each year:
Freedom in the World. Countries are assessed as free,
partly free, or unfree.
 The Economist magazine releases an annual Index of
Democracy. Countries are assessed as full democracies,
flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, or authoritarian.
 The Ibrahim Index focuses on African countries. It “provides
a comprehensive ranking of African countries according to
governance quality” It “uses indicators across four main
pillars: Safety and Rule of Law; Participation and Human
Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human
Development as proxies for the quality of the processes and
outcomes of governance.”
Electoral Systems
and Referenda
Nov. 3
Elections and Referenda
 Elections and referendums are the two main
voting opportunities in modern democracies.
 Elections are held to fill seats (representatives)
in a parliament or some other institutions.
 Referendums are votes on a specific issue to
be approved or rejected.
Significance of Electoral
Systems
 The electoral system is the set of rules
governing the conversion of votes into
seats.
 Electoral systems have a huge influence
on a country’s party-system, governmentcoalition, representation etc.
Different Electoral
Systems
Billy Ballot:
Electoral Systems Around the World
prepared by the Ontario Citizens’ Assembly
Single-Member Plurality
(SMP)
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Often called First Past the Post (FPTP)
One member elected per district.
The candidate with the most votes wins.
Voters select one candidate on the ballot.
 Animation: SMP prepared by BC
Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform.
Single-Member Plurality
(SMP)
 USA, UK, India, Canada, Bangladesh,
Botswana, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya,
Nigeria, among others.
Majority Systems
 Alternative Vote
 Preferential or ordinal ballot, voters rank candidates
on ballot.
 all ballots are counted on the basis of first
preferences, if no one receives a majority of the
vote, then the last-place finisher is dropped off, and
ballots for that candidate are redistributed based on
their second choices. This continues until a
candidate wins majority support.
 Two-round system
 Works like the SMP system, but it is followed by a
second round of voting on a later date (usually)
between the top two finishers.
Majority Systems
 Alternative Vote: Australian House of
Representatives
 Two-Round System: Used to elect
parliaments in over 20 countries around
the world. Common in presidential
elections around the world.
Proportional
Representation Systems
 List PR
 Voters select between competing slates of candidates.
 Representation in the legislature per party approximates the
percentage of the vote each party receives.
 Single Transferable Vote (STV)
 Voters use a preferential ballot to rank candidates in multimember constituencies.
 Candidates that surpass the necessary threshold are elected.
“Surplus votes” are then transferred to other candidates to
elect the required number of candidates.
 BC-STV in Action: Animation prepared by the BC Citizens’
Assembly.
Proportional
Representation Systems
 STV: Ireland, Malta, the Australian Senate
 Party List PR: Argentina, Belgium, Benin, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland,
Greece, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel,
Latvia, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands,
Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Sierra Leone,
Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay.
Proportional
Representation Systems
 Important variations:
 In some cases, the entire country is treated
as one large constituency: Israel,
Netherlands, Slovakia. More commonly, the
country is divided into a number of smaller
constituencies.
 PR systems inevitably involve the use party
lists. These lists may be closed lists or open
lists (preferential lists).
Mixed Systems
 Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)
 Combines the geographical representation of singlemember districts with an additional allotment of
adjustment or compensatory seats allocated in
terms of proportional representation.
 Billy Ballot promotes MMP
 Ontario Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform.
MMP: System at a Glance. How the System Works.
 Parallel Systems
 Similarly combines single-member districts with PR,
but there is no direct relations between the two
votes.
Mixed Systems
 Mixed Member Proportional (MMP):
Bolivia, Germany, New Zealand,
Venezuela
 Parallel Systems: Albania, Andorra, East
Timor, Georgia, Guatemala, Japan,
Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar,
Senegal, Seychelles, South Korea,
Thailand
Moving to PR or a mixed
system?
 What are the advantages (real or
alleged) and disadvantages (real or
alleged) of PR and mixed systems?
 What would be the impact of moving to
PR or a mixed system?
Referenda
Referenda
 Referendums are often described as “direct
democracy”. But referendums should not be seen as
being opposed to representative democracies, but as
an institution within them.
 Types of referendum:
Uleri (1996) introduced a typology of referendums along
five dimensions:
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Procedural or ad hoc promotion of referendum
Procedural referendum as mandatory or optional
Promoted by voters or some other agent
Decision-promoting (ratification) or decision controlling (veto)
Binding or advisory impact of referendum vote
Why Referenda?
 The rationale of a referendum:
 (1) Process-related arguments:
 Referendums increase the legitimation of
policies
 Referendums increase political participation
/ level of political knowledge
Why Referenda?
 (2) Outcome-related arguments:
 Referendums work against the interest of those who do not
usually vote
 Referendums can result in an infringement of the rights of
minorities, but:
 Access to referendums is restricted
 Veto role of constitutional courts
 Qualified majorities (e.g. double majorities)
 Referendums may prevent policy innovation
 Lower quality of decisions (“cognitive incompetence”)
Referenda: When?
Empirical patterns:
 Widespread but uneven distribution of referendums.
 Huge variation in the frequency of referendums.
 Some empirical evidence of an increasing number of referendums.
 Referendums are often held on sovereignty-related questions
such as secession, independence or EU. For example 14 of 19
countries that joined EU between 1973 and 2004 held a
referendum to decide whether to join. In Norway, joining the EU
was rejected in two referenda.
 Secessions of Norway from Sweden (1905), Iceland from
Denmark (1944) East Timor from Indonesia (1999) and
Montenegro from Serbia (2006) all involved referenda.
Referenda in New Zealand
What is a Citizens Initiated Referendum (CIR)?
 A citizens initiated referendum is a referendum
promoted under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act
1993. A referendum question must have only two
possible answers.
 A referendum is required if 10% of enrolled electors
sign a petition calling for a referendum. The form of the
petition must be approved by the Clerk of the House of
Representatives and the signatures must be collected
within 12 months of the Clerk’s approval.
Source: http://www.elections.org.nz/democracy/referendum/referendums.html
 Information on the 2009 referendum in New Zealand.