Abstract
As it is well acknowledged that the electoral system is one of the fundamental rocks of our modern society, the behavior of electors engaged in a voting system is of the utmost importance. In this context, the goal of the study is to model the behavior of voters in a first-past-the-post system and to analyze its consequences on a party system. Among the assumptions of this study is Duverger’s law, which states that first-past-the-post systems favor a two-party system as the voters engage in tactical voting, choosing to vote in favor of a less preferred candidate who has better odds of winning. In order to test this assumption and to better analyze the occurrence of the strategic behavior, a laboratory experiment was created. A total of 120 persons participated in the study. An asymmetrical payoff function was created to value the voters’ preference intensity. As a result, it was observed that as voters got used to the voting system, they engaged in more tactical voting behavior in order to either maximize the gain or minimize the loss of their choice. Moreover, the iterations where voters started displaying tactical behavior featured a clustering around two main choices. The obtained results are consistent with both the empirical results of real-life elections and Duverger’s law. A further discussion regarding the change in voters’ choice completes the analysis on the strategic behavior.
Highlights
The electoral system plays an important role in modern democratic society, with an impact on the future of the societies we live in
Several studies have been written in the field, each of them addressing different aspects related to the electoral system, such as electoral disproportionality [1], electoral system comparison [2], influencing voters’ choice [3], election planning and election scenarios [4,5], e-voting and voting accounts [6,7,8,9], voting behavior [10], youth participation [11] and examination of the accuracy of forecasting methods [12]
In the present paper the focus is on first-past-the-post electoral systems, as these systems are widely used worldwide for various types of elections, such as presidential elections and legislative elections
Summary
The electoral system plays an important role in modern democratic society, with an impact on the future of the societies we live in. In the present paper the focus is on first-past-the-post electoral systems, as these systems are widely used worldwide for various types of elections, such as presidential elections and legislative elections. For parliamentary elections under a first-past-the-post system, elections are comprised of multiple local elections, each deciding the local representative for a seat in parliament. This system is used in many countries, including countries with large populations, around the world. First-past-the-post systems are used in two of the most populous democratic states
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