The impact of using proportional representation system on the fragmentation of the party system in Algeria. Applied to the elections of the National People’s Assembly (1997–2017)

Ali Mahmoud Mahgoub

doi:10.1108/reps-01-2020-0012

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of using proportional representation system on the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system within the period from 1997 to 2017, in which Algeria has experienced five legislative elections regularly every five years by testing a hypothesis about adopting the proportional representation system on the basis of the closed list during the foregoing legislative elections has obviously influenced the exacerbation of the Algerian party system’s fragmentation, compared to other factors.Design/methodology/approachThe essence of the theoretical framework of this study is to address the effect of the electoral system as an independent variable on the party system as a dependent variable. The starting point for that framework is to reassess the “Duverger’s law,” which appeared since the early 1950s and has influenced the foregoing relationship, and then to review the literature on a new phase that tried to provide a more accurate mechanism for determining the number of parties and their relative weight, whether in terms of electoral votes or parliamentary seats. This means that researchers began to use a measure called the effective number of parties (ENP) for Laakso and Taagepera since 1979. The study elaborates the general concepts of the electoral system and the party system. It used Laakso, Taagepera index of the “ENP” to measure the phenomenon of fragmentation party during the five legislative elections from 1997 to 2017 in Algeria.FindingsThe results of the study reveal that the proportional representation electoral system – beside other factors – had clear impacts on the fragmentation of the Algerian party system by all standards, whether on the level of the apparent rise in the number of the parties represented in the Algerian parliament from 10 parties in 1997 election to 36 parties in 2017 election or according to the index of Laakso and Taagepera (ENP). The average number of effective number of electoral parties in the five elections was around 7.66, and the average number of effective number of parliamentary parties in the five elections was around 4.39, which puts Algeria in an advanced degree of the fragmentation of the party system.Originality/valueThis study about the phenomenon of the fragmentation of the party system, which is one of the new subjects in the field of comparative politics – globally and in the Arab world. Hence, the value of this study aims to shed light on this mysterious area of science, the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system during the period from 1997 to 2017.

Highlights

Researchers and scholars in the field of comparative political systems devoted their attention to the phenomenon of the party system’s fragmentation recently; it is an old phenomenon
From the above, it seems that the electoral system applied in Algeria since 1997 till 2017, which is based on the closed-list proportional representation system with the largest remainder (LR) method and with a 5% threshold, contains a number of positive points relevant to the process of democratic transformation, including the success of the implementation of the legislative elections regularly every five years over 20 years without an interruption as happened in early 1990s of the past century, allowing the representation of the small parties in all successive electoral processes, and permitting a steady increase in the number of parties in the parliament from one election to another
The first indicator ENEP averaged in the elections five was around 7.66 and the measure of the second indicator effective number of parliamentary parties (ENPP) in the five elections was around 4.39, which places Algeria in an advanced degree of the fragmentation party system

Summary

Introduction

Researchers and scholars in the field of comparative political systems devoted their attention to the phenomenon of the party system’s fragmentation recently; it is an old phenomenon. This study tries to shed light on the phenomenon of party system’s fragmentation within the Algerian political system from 1997 to 2017, in which Algeria has experienced five regular legislative elections, once every five years. The study attempts to test a hypothesis about adopting the proportional representation system on the basis of the closed list during the foregoing legislative elections has obviously influenced the exacerbation of the Algerian party system’s fragmentation, compared to other factors. 3. The scientific importance of the study Analyzing the impacts of the electoral system on the party system has become increasingly important because few researchers are interested in studying the electoral systems of noncompetitive political systems in the Arab region, in general, and Algeria, in particular. If the hypotheses of the electoral system literature are valid in the Arab context, this would be a proof of their strength, and the difference between the Algerian and Arabic culture would not influence the anticipated relations between the variables of that study

The theoretical and conceptual framework

Findings

Conclusion