The Baltics: Independence with Divergent Electoral Systems

Abstract

Although Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania share a common recent past as Soviet-era republics and as independent states before that, their electoral systems in the contemporary era differ significantly. These divergences span almost every electoral category, including assembly size, district magnitude, ballot structure, vote counting formulas and legal thresholds. Since the early 1990s, each country has travelled a separate path both in terms of the creation of electoral institutions as well as their reform later during the decade. They illustrate diverse patterns of conflicting political interests, limited knowledge about electoral systems, rushed institutional bargains, controversial compromises and post-hoc decision-making. As a result, the three states also represent an ideal laboratory to test for the effect of electoral institutions on parties, party systems and democratic governance (Pettai and Kreuzer, 1999). In this chapter, we will concentrate on the main tenets of the three Baltic electoral systems. But in our conclusion we will aim also to contribute to broader knowledge about institutional design by addressing these important after-effects.KeywordsElectoral SystemParty SystemBaltic StateParliamentary ElectionNational ListThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.