Flashcards
Elections & Electoral Systems
Cards in this deck (14)
- 1What is an Electoral System & an Electoral formula?A set of laws that regulate electoral competition between candidates or parties. Electoral systems are attributes we can use to classify democracies. It determines how votes are translated into seats: Majoritarian, Proportional List or Mixed. The outcome of any election is dependent on social/political cleavages & the electoral formula.
- 2What is a Majoritarian Electoral System?The candidates or parties that receive the most votes wins. A single-member district plurality system (SMDP) is one in which individuals cast a single vote for a candidate in a single-member district. The candidate with the most votes wins (FPTP in UK).
- 3What is a Proportional Electoral System?A quota-based electoral system employed in multimember districts. The rationale behind PR systems is to produce a proportional translation of votes into seats. Proportional electoral systems can be divided into those that use party lists and those that do not (Belgium).
- 4What happens in a List PR?Each party presents a list of candidates for a multimember district. Parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the votes. These seats are then allocated among the candidates on the list. List PR systems differ by; the precise formula for allocating seats to parties, the district magnitude, the use of electoral thresholds & the party list used.
- 5What do all PR systems employ?Quotas or divisors to allocate seats to parties. A quota is the number of votes that guarantees a party a seat in a particular electoral district. A divisor divides the total number of votes won by each party in a district by a series of numbers (divisors) to obtain quotients. District seats are allocated according to which parties have the highest quotients.
- 6What is the key factor influencing the proportionality of an electoral system?The district magnitude. District magnitude is the number of representatives elected in a district. The larger the district magnitude, the greater the degree of proportionality.
- 7What is an Electoral tier?A level at which votes are translated into seats. Some countries allocate seats in two or more electoral tiers. The lowest tier is the district or constituency. Higher tiers are constituted by grouping together different lower-tier constituencies at the regional or national level (Sweden & South Africa).
- 8What is the purpose of having small and large district magnitudes in each tier?It's designed to create a strong link between constituents & their representatives, as well as a high degree of proportionality.
- 9What is an Electoral Threshold that all PR systems have?The minimum level of support a party needs to obtain representation. A natural threshold is a mathematical by-product of the electoral system. A formal threshold is explicitly written into the electoral law. Electoral system proportionality is low when the electoral threshold is high (5% in Belgium).
- 10Are Electoral Thresholds always good?They can have negative side effects. In Turkey 2002, so many parties failed to surpass the 10% threshold that fully 46% of all the votes were wasted.
- 11What is the difference between a closed, open & a free party list?Open - the order of candidates elected is determined by the party itself & voters are not able to express a preference for a particular candidate (Belgium).
Closed - voters can indicate not just their preferred party, but also their favoured candidate within that party, countries with closed list systems have higher levels of party discipline (France).
Free - voters have multiple votes that they can allocate either within a single party list or across different party lists. - 12What is the single trasnferable vote?A preferential candidate-centred PR electoral system used in multimember districts. Candidates that surpass a specified quota of first-preference votes are immediately elected. In successive counts, voters from eliminated candidates & surplus votes from elected candidates are reallocated to the remaining candidates until all of the seats are filled (used in Malta & Canada).
- 13What is a mixed electoral system?Voters elect representatives through two different systems, one majoritarian & one proportional (Germany).
- 14What is the difference between an independent & a dependent mixed electoral system?An independent one is when the majoritarian & proportional components of the electoral system are implemented independently. A dependent one is when the application of the proportional formula is dependent on the distribution of seats or votes produced by the majoritarian formula.
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- Introduction to Politics Yr 1 (Term 1) Flashcards on Elections & Electoral Systems, created by Miss Rogers on 07/12/2017.
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