Single-member District Electoral Systems Research Articles

The IMF Rice Liberalization Policy in Indonesia: The Case Study of Elite Behaviors in the Era of Gus Dur, Megawati, and SBY Government

The research aimed to explain elite behaviour in Indonesia's political reform era. This research was based on primary data collected from unstructured interviews with respondents or samples and secondary data collected from library studies. In analyzing the data collected, descriptive and qualitative methods are applied. This research found that adopting the electoral system of the Proportional Multi-Member District and the lack of power and authority distribution from elite to interest groups tended to result in the emergence of small and pragmatic political parties trying to get constituent votes using political mobilization of the constituent voters. The emergence of political parties induces a patron-client relationship between the political candidate and his constituent voters through a broker-generating oligarchy within the party. For that reason, the policy-making process in the rice sector depends on the relative power of ideologist party coalitions and pragmatic party coalitions. The changes in rice policy depended on the political interaction between the old and pragmatic political oligarchy and the new and ideologist political oligarchy. The stronger the political coalition of the new political oligarchy consisting of new ideologists and reformist political parties, the more protective the rice policy will be, and vice versa. That is why we suggested that the election system should be changed into Single-Member District Electoral System to create a smaller number of political parties to avoid the emergence of pragmatic political parties. And interest groups should be strengthened to prevent the dominant power of the oligarchy.

Gender differences in campaigning under alternative voting systems: analysis of election manifestos

ABSTRACT Growing evidence reveals that candidate issue engagement differs between men and women. However, recent research suggests that individual-level differences among candidates should be small under the strategic incentives inherent in single-member district elections that encourage party rather than personal-vote seeking. We examine whether men and women candidates emphasize different issues in their electoral campaigns and if the magnitude of the gender gap varies under different electoral rules. Our analysis of 7497 Japanese election manifestos spanning more than 20 years, from 1986 to 2009, reveals significant gender differences in the issues candidates emphasize in their electoral campaigns, regardless of party affiliation or other attributes. Moreover, these differences remain salient after an extensive change from a multi-member district to single-member district electoral system.

Incumbency Turnover of Local Government Councillors in Malawi

ABSTRACT Since Malawi adopted democratisation in 1994, local government elections have been erratic. To date, only three rounds of local government elections have been conducted against six rounds of Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The first local government elections took place in 2000. When the first term of office expired in 2005, local government councils were dissolved. Thereafter, local government elections were postponed for a variety of reasons, until 2014 when the country conducted its first tripartite elections. The most recent local government elections took place in 2019 and have seen a huge turnover rate for incumbent councillors. This paper draws from the 2014 and 2019 elections data and Afrobarometer round 7 survey data, to explore the extent, origins and drivers of the 2019 councillor incumbency turnover rate under a single-member district electoral system. Are voters expressing dissatisfaction with these representatives as has been argued about Members of Parliament, or does this high turnover have other origins?

Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the U.S. Single-Member District Electoral System. By Jay K. Dow. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2017. 332p. $50.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the U.S. Single-Member District Electoral System. By Jay K. Dow. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2017. 332p. $50.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Lawyers and law graduates in parliaments as a consequence of SMD electoral systems: a comparison of Japan, South Korea, and Germany

AbstractThis study addresses the question of why so many of the world's legislators are lawyers or law graduates. Drawing from previous studies on lawyer-legislators and electoral systems, it develops the argument that ‘first-pass-the-post’ single-member district electoral systems presume a principal-agent logic of representation and are therefore conducive to political parties selecting representatives with either occupational experience or educational training in the field of law. By contrast, proportional representation (PR) elections presume a microcosm model of representation incentivizing parties to select candidates representing diverse demographic and occupational backgrounds. This conjecture is tested by examining legislator backgrounds in three large parliaments with mixed electoral systems: Germany, Japan, and South Korea. As expected, single-member plurality elections are linked to a greater share of lawyers and law graduates in parliaments compared to those elected via PR even after controlling for several alternative explanations.

Social networkers and careerists: Explaining high-intensity activism among British party members

Drawing on survey data on the members of six British parties gathered in the immediate aftermath of the general election of 2015, this article asks what motivates members to engage in high-intensity election campaign activism. It argues that two factors are especially prominent: the aspiration to pursue a career in politics (which only accounts for a small minority of these activists) and becoming integrated into a local social network (which accounts for a much larger proportion). By contrast, members who lack either of these characteristics, but are mainly motivated to join by ideological impulses, largely restrict themselves to low-intensity activity. These findings are likely to be especially pertinent to countries with single-member district electoral systems.

Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the U.S. Single-Member District Electoral System

Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the U.S. Single-Member District Electoral System

Multiculturalism, political parties, and the conflicting pressures of ethnic minorities and far-right parties

Multiculturalism is an increasingly salient election issue. The growing size of many countries’ ethnic minority populations pushes parties to support multiculturalism, whereas the emergence of far-right parties in many countries pressures them to oppose it. This article examines parties’ positions on multiculturalism in a comparative context. It looks at 19 countries including most of Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. It argues that the influence of ethnic minorities over parties depends on electoral systems, and the strategies mainstream parties adopt in response to the far-right. The article finds that increases in ethnic minorities’ electoral strength lead parties to increase their support of multiculturalism to a greater degree in single-member district electoral systems than in proportional ones. Further, parties co-opt the anti-multicultural positions of far-right parties, and right parties do so more than left parties.

Unpacking Party Unity: The Combined Effects of Electoral Systems and Candidate Selection Methods on Legislative Attitudes and Behavioural Norms

This article analyses the effect of electoral systems, candidate selection methods and the interplay between them on individual legislative attitudes and behavioural norms, specifically on two facets of party unity: party agreement and party loyalty. Our main argument is that one must take into account the effect of inter- as well as intra-party competition, and the interaction between the two, in order to explain individual legislative attitudes and norms. Using data from 34 European parties across 10 countries, we show that under exclusive candidate selection methods, there are large differences between proportional representation and single-member district electoral systems in their effect on party agreement and party loyalty. Under inclusive candidate selection methods, however, such differences are much less apparent. In other words, the candidate selection method conditions the influence of the electoral system on legislative attitudes and behavioural norms.

Why Are Active Labor Market Policies Underdeveloped in South Korea?

Active labor market policies (ALMPs) including employment services and training have become representative labor market policies in most European countries regardless of the ideological orientation of the government. ALMPs have been receiving growing attention in South Korea as well. In fact, the Korean government expanded ALMPs during both the Asian financial crisis in 1997-8 and the global financial crisis in 2008-9. Nevertheless, ALMPs in Korea remain underdeveloped relative not only to ALMPs in other industrialized economies but also to other social welfare programs in Korea. This article seeks to empirically verify the causes of this underdevelopment of ALMPs in Korea. While sharing the basic tenets of the power resources model, we focus on the dynamic correlates of enterprise unionism, a big business(or chaebol)-dominated economy, and plurality-based electoral rule. This paper finds an interaction effect of unionized labor in big business and the single-member district electoral system on the underdevelopment of ALMPs. Our study highlights the importance of institutional arrangements on the policy orientation or preferences of main actors such as unions, employers and politicians in the politics of labor market policies.

Gender quotas in single-member district electoral systems

Conventional knowledge on the effectiveness of gender quotas for enhancing women's political participation has, to date, been unanimous on the superiority of quotas in proportional representation (PR) systems. Yet this view overlooks the many possible alternatives to implementing gender quotas in single-member district (SMD) systems. This paper studies gender quotas (or temporary special measures) in SMD electoral systems. Drawing on case examples from Uganda, France, India and elsewhere, we refute the myth of the incompatibility of quotas in SMDs. Our research investigates and presents multiple ways in which quotas can be successfully implemented in SMDs.

Gender Quotas in Single-Member District Electoral Systems

Conventional knowledge on the effectiveness of gender quotas for enhancing women's political participation has, to date, been unanimous on the superiority of quotas in proportional representation (PR) systems. Yet this view overlooks the many possible alternatives to implementing gender quotas in single-member district (SMD) systems. This paper studies gender quotas (or temporary special measures) in SMD electoral systems. Drawing on case examples from Uganda, France, India and elsewhere, we refute the myth of the incompatibility of quotas in SMDs. Our research investigates and presents multiple ways in which quotas can be successfully implemented in SMDs.

Measuring Partisan Bias in Single Member District Electoral Systems

In recent decades, the literature has coalesced around either symmetry or responsiveness as measures of partisan bias in single-member district systems. I argue neither accurately captures the traditional idea of an efficient gerrymander, where one party claims more seats without more votes. I suggest a better measure of efficiency and then use this new measure to reconsider a classic study of partisan gerrymandering. Contrary to the original study findings, I show that the effects of party control on bias are small and decay rapidly, suggesting that redistricting is at best a blunt tool for promoting partisan interests.

Party Discipline and Coalition Management in the French Parliament

Increased cohesion of groups and political blocks within the French parliament is one key reason for the stabilisation of the political regime under the Fifth Republic. This article starts with precise measures of the extent to which patterns of cohesion have changed throughout the twentieth century in France. It then moves to explain why cohesion has improved with the new regime of the Fifth Republic despite the change to a single member district electoral system and the direct election of the president. Both are generally expected to threaten cohesion. The two-round electoral system and semi-presidentialism prove, however, to be important explanations of the emergence of strict discipline in the French parliament.

Governance by decree: the impact of the Voting Rights Act in Dallas

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which originally was intended to prohibit barriers to black registration and voting, has been hailed as a triumph for civil rights and as a catalyst for the election of minorities to public office in both the Deep South and the urban North. To advance its objective, federal courts instructed many cities to change from at-large to single-member district electoral systems as a way to ensure that minorities had a reasonable chance to elect representatives of their choice. In the first book to critique the implementation of this landmark legislation in a major American city, Ruth Morgan examines its effect on local governance over forty years in Dallas and shows that it had unintended consequences for racial politics, representation, and public policy. Breaking from studies that measure the success of the VRA in terms of increased minority representation. Morgan assesses the consequences of the Act for Dallas city government - and for the wider interests of minorities as well. While endorsing the original intent of the VRA, Morgan believes that this intent was subverted by subsequent amendments to the Act.

Single-member district electoral systems and democratic transition

A considerable number of democratizing states have made the transition to competitive politics on the basis of single-member district electoral systems. This paper argues that such electoral systems often do not provide viable mechanisms for the consolidation of democracy. This is because the use of single-member districts works against the institutionalization of democratic politics in a newly competitive state. If the party system is geographically heterogeneous and/or poorly entrenched, a single-member law will encourage the multiplication of small, regionalized political support bases and the dominance of one large party. This aspect of electoral institutional design is therefore likely to be destabilizing, making it possible to predict that states which inherit or adopt single-member systems will either change their electoral systems or fail to democratize. This hypothesis is tested and largely confirmed on an exhaustive set of 78 cases from the ‘third wave’ of democratization.

Uncontested Seats and the Evolution of Party Competition

Representative democracy presumes competitive elections at which voters have a choice of candidates. This is consistent with the current nature of electoral campaigning, which is system-wide and embraces every opportunity for partisan competition. From this perspective, uncontested seats in parliamentary systems are associated with earlier stages of representative government before modern parties emerged. Yet a survey of Australian state and federal general elections since 1890 shows that uncontested seats persisted in most systems well after the establishment of the current party system and, in two states, until the 1980s. In examining various explanations for the existence of uncontested seats in parliamentary systems, the article finds that the nature of the electoral system, the characteristics of the party system and party organization are key factors. Given a single-member district electoral system, the pattern of uncontested seats can be used as an indicator of the evolution of the party system and the structure of partisan competition.

The Contagion of Women Candidates in Single-Member District and Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Canada and Norway

There is a distinct gap in women's representation in national legislatures between countries with single-member district electoral systems and those with proportional representation electoral systems. While this gap has been well documented, there have been only limited attempts at explaining its existence. After reviewing the literature on the representation gap, we turn to the party change literature and propose a modified contagion theory as one possible explanation for the gap. Contagion theory suggests that traditional parties will feel pressured to nominate more women if one of their political rivals, usually a smaller party farther to the left, starts to promote representation of women. We distinguish between macrocontagion and microcontagion and argue that especially microcontagion is more likely to occur in party list proportional representation systems than in single-member district systems. This should be true because contagion pressures are more likely to develop, and the costs of adapting to ...

The Growth of Women's Representation in the Canadian House of Commons and the Election of 1984: A Reappraisal

AbstractIn the 1980s, Canada went from having one of the lowest levels of female representation in its national legislature to having one of the highest among countries with single-member district electoral systems. The authors examine the common assertion that this increase was largely due to the surprising Progressive Conservative landslide in the 1984 federal election. By simulating plausible alternative election results they find there would have been a substantial increase in the number of women in the parliament, regardless of how the vote split in 1984. The simulations are followed by probit analyses for 1980, 1984 and 1988 which examine what factors affected the probability a major-party candidate would be a woman and what factors affected the probability that a successful candidate would be a woman.