Determinants of disproportionality in new and established democracies. Michael gallagher, proportionality, disproportionality and electoral systems. Thus, party systems characterised by electoral disproportionality, legislative concentration, cleavage cumulation and, to a lesser extent, parliamentarism as well as institutionalised political. First, electoral systems have an influence on disproportionality of outcomes which can affect efficacy and turnout. Pdf the new italian electoral system and its effects on. Proportional representation pr characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body.
Measures of disproportionality athens university of. A mong their other effects, the seismic political events of late 2010 and early 2011 have set off a wave of actual and proposed electoral reforms throughout the middle east and north africa mena. Disproportionality, multipartism, and majority victories. Contextual determinants of electoral system choice core. The choice of a particular electoral system has a profound effect on the future political life of the country concerned, and electoral systems, once chosen, often remain fairly constant as political interests solidify around and respond to the incentives presented by them. Election indices the figures below represent the values of three. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party as their favorite, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party.
Estimation of electoral disproportionality and thresholds via mcmc1. Taking up these findings, and adopting a dynamic approach, this article explores the effect of electoral refoms on electoral disproportionality. We propose a learning theory of electoral systems effects, and test it in a crossnational analysis and by using spain as a case study. Electoral rule disproportionality and platform polarization jstor. Details of these indices, and of how they have been calculated, can be found in appendix b of.
National electoral thresholds and disproportionality. A new quota approach to electoral disproportionality. After long decades of stability, notable number of established western democracies united kingdom, japan, new zealand and italy introduced major changes in their electoral law grofman, 2004. Department of political science, trinity college, university of dublin.
Electoral rule disproportionality and platform polarization konstantinos matakos orestis troumpounisy dimitrios xefterisz june 6, 20 abstract we analyze the e ect of electoral rule disproportionality on the degree of platform polarization by the means of a unidimensional spatial model with policy motivated parties. In order to evaluate the analyzed greek parliamentary electoral systems, we examine the concept of electoral disproportionality, performing some different. First, we investigate the causal connection between electoral law and disproportionality, taking particular. Electoral systems and electoral reform in canada and. Election laws, disproportionality and median correspondence as such would therefore be inappropriate for normative evaluations of electoral systems from a majoritarian point of view. Measurement of disproportionality in proportional representation systems. A longstanding puzzle in electoral research is why the disproportionality of electoral systems has a negative effect on voter participation in established democracies, but not in new democracies. Figure 3 shows two measures of disproportionality across the regions of great britain in 2005. The measures of disproportionality, we use, are described. Recent decades witnessed two major trends in the world of electoral systems. Following this introduction, the theory of assembly size and electoral consequences is elaborated, and the hypothesis of the study is presented.
In studying the consequences of electoral systems, two central concepts are the extent of party system fragmentation and disproportionality. Thecaseforlowmagnitude proportionalrepresentation the central tradeoff in the design of electoral systems is often characterized as being between the representation of voters preferences and the accountability of governments cf. Measures of disproportionality in order to evaluate the analyzed greek parliamentary electoral systems, we examine the concept of electoral disproportionality, performing some di. Lindberg department of political science, lund university, po box 52, lund 221 00, sweden abstract based on an original data set of elections in africa, this article addresses the orthodoxy of theoretical hypotheses regarding the e. Electoral rule disproportionality and platform polarization. Impact of uk electoral systems parliamentary affairs. Cox department of political science, university of california, san diego, lajolla, ca 92093, usa matthew soberg shugart graduate school of international relations and pacific studies, university of california, san diego michael gallagher, in a recent article. They find that voters for both small and large parties dislike disproportionality in electoral systems, with little crosscountry variation. In 2015, the uk independence party ukip received 12. Michael gallagherthe political consequences of the electoral system in the republic of ireland. Disproportionality and voter turnout in new and old democracies. The information provided covers racial and lgbtq equity issues and the related outcome disparities for children and families. Malapportionment may systematically favor one or more parties, and introduce an element of disproportionality into the electoral system lijphart 1994b.
This chapter discusses the dimensions of the seventy electoral systems used in twentyfour countries that hold democratic and parliamentary elections. As the title suggests, the defining characteristic of these electoral systems is the use of a majority electoral formula in which, to get elected, a candidate needs a majority of the total vote. The main measure of disproportionality has been to compute measures of deviation from pure proportionality in the allocation of seats to parties. Election laws, disproportionality and median correspondence 385 as such would therefore be inappropriate for normative evaluations of electoral systems from a majoritarian point of view. The new italian electoral system and its effects on strategic coordination and disproportionality may 2018 project. Michael gallagher and paul mitchell eds, the politics of electoral systems. Another concept widely used in the analysis of electoral systems is the effective threshhold. Electoral reforms and party system change in italy.
Learn about disproportionalities and disparities within the child welfare system and how to mitigate them through a variety of resources. These dimensions are the district magnitude or the number of representatives elected in a district. The two modal electoral system con gurations involve either systems with positive thresh olds and proportional allocation for parties exceeding thresholds 38. Political efficacy and participation in twentyseven. Comment on gallaghers proportionality, disproportionality. The problem is to assign integral values to the elements of a matrix that are proportional to a given input matrix, and such that a set of row and columnsum requirements are fulfilled. Racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare. We apply the proposed procedure on 45 electoral systems in use over 216 election to the national.
Pdf electoral systems and the sheriff of nottingham. The resultant twodimensional summary of electoral systems has several advantages over measures of disproportionality currently used in comparative politics. Proportionality, disproportionality and electoral systems. Voters dislike disproportionality in electoral systems. This issue brief explores the prevalence of racial disproportionality and disparity in the child welfare system. A new quota approach to electoral disproportionality mdpi. There are two main forms of majority electoral systems. The choice of electoral system is one of the most important institutional decisions for any democracy. Michael gallagher, proportionality, disproportionality and electoral systems, electoral studies 10. Biproportional apportionment methods provide twoway proportionality in electoral systems where the electoral region is subdivided into electoral districts. Proportionality, disproportionality, and electoral systems. Disproportionality child welfare information gateway. An electoral system may impose a high barrier to representation in the form of. The resulting whole number is the initial number of seats each party gets second, unallocated seats are awarded to.
The most widely used indices to measure these are, respectively, the effective number of parties and the least squares index lsq of disproportionality. I am grateful to arend lijphart, ivor crewe and the anonymous referees for comments on an earlier draft. Comparing proportional representation electoral systems. The literature on electoral systems and turnout has proposed several paths linking efficacy and turnout to the electoral system. Election laws, disproportionality and median correspondence. Abundant research provides evidence that electoral systems have an impact on party system fragmentation. The article examines the impact of assembly size on the degree of disproportionality and party system fragmentation. The chapter explains the different measures of disproportionality and suggests that the link between the party system as the independent variable and disproportionality as the dependent variable has an important implication for two of the four additional dimensions of electoral systems, which are presidentialism and ballot structure. Nov 18, 2016 adrian kavanagh, 18th november 2016 latest update. National electoral thresholds and disproportionality university of. Estimation of electoral disproportionality and thresholds via. Effects of the mixed parallel electoral system in lithuania. Thereafter, the relevant elements of electoral systems are dealt with, beginning with the effective threshold.
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