Electoral Systems and Party Systems in Germany on the Local Level

Abstract

ABSTRACT The question of how electoral systems should be designed has already been broadly discussed. One of the most promising electoral system types are mixed-member proportional (MMP) systems. However, the positive evaluation of MMP systems strongly depends on the most prominent case applying such a system, Germany. In order to better understand the performance of MMP systems, we focus on this case and research to what extend German party systems are affected by electoral system designs. For this purpose, an examination of the local level is most fruitful. This level provides important variation in electoral systems in terms of two important factors – the general system type (MMP or proportional representation) and the prevalence or absence of a legal threshold. Our results show that (effective) thresholds affect the proportionality of election results whereas the general system type does not. The fragmentation of German local party systems is largely independent of both variables.