Type Of Electoral System Research Articles

Women's Representation in Europe — A Comparison Between the National Parliaments and the European Parliament

Prior research on women's representation conducted in various areas of the world has emphasized the type of electoral system, quotas, the economic affluence of a country and the timing of women's suffrage, as well as the percentage of women in leadership positions and the political culture. In this comparative study all of these characteristics are first investigated for each country's national parliament. In a second step, the robustness of the model is tested by applying it to the European parliamentary elections. In this sense, this study is novel, as it is the first comparative study to test the robustness of a model in two different settings. This analysis reveals that the model generated for the national level does not provide a good fit for explaining women's representation in the European Parliament. Consequently, it is still impossible to generalize about the state of women's representation in Europe.

Women's Representation: A Comparison between Europe and the Americas

Prior research on women's representation conducted in various parts of the world has indicated that the type of electoral system, quotas, the timing of women's suffrage, women's participation in the workforce and a country's development all have an influence. In this study all of these characteristics are first investigated for the national parliaments of Europe. In a second step, the robustness of the model is tested by applying it to the Americas. This analysis reveals that the model generated for Europe does not provide a good fit for explaining the extent of women's representation in North, Central and South America. Consequently, it is still impossible to generalise about the state of women's representation.

Measuring expectations: Comparing alternative approaches

The paper compares three alternative approaches employed by the Canadian Election Study to measure voters' perceptions of parties' chances of winning in their local constituency. The first approach, used in 2000, consists of asking respondents to rate parties' chances on a 0 to 100 scale in a random sequence. The second, used in 2004, entails first asking whether each party had a chance of winning and then inviting people to rate the chances. In the third approach, adopted in 2006, respondents are first asked which two parties had the best chance of winning and, then, if any other party has a chance, before requesting that they rate the mentioned parties. By comparing “objective” and “perceived” chances of winning, the paper concludes that the third approach provides a more valid measure of voters' expectations. The paper discusses the implications for the measurement of expectations in different types of electoral systems.

Why are there differences in the political representation of women in the 27 countries of the European Union?

Although there have been many studies that address the representation of women in parliament, few explore gender representation in the 27 countries of the European Union. Prior research on women's representation conducted in different areas of the world has emphasized the type of electoral system, quotas, the economic affluence of a country, the timing of women's suffrage, as well as the political culture. In this evaluation these commonly used indicators are complemented by two factors that are not frequently employed – the percentage of women in managerial positions and the political ideology of parliamentary parties. This cross-national analysis reveals that the electoral system type, the number of women in managerial positions and the years women have had the right to vote are the most important factors in determining women's representation.

Who’s Cueing Whom?

The 2005 French and Dutch referendum campaigns were characterized by an alleged disconnect between pro-European political elites and Eurosceptic masses. Past evidence regarding elite-mass linkages in the context of European integration has been conflicting. Whereas some scholars argue that political elites respond to the changing preferences of their electorates, others suggest that party elites cue the mass public through a process of information and persuasion. We contend that these conflicting results stem from the reciprocal nature of elite-mass linkages and estimate a series of dynamic simultaneous equations models to account for this reverse causation. Using Euro-barometer and expert survey data from 1984-2002, we find evidence of a dual-process model, whereby party elites both respond to and shape the views of their supporters. We also find that the strength of these results is contingent on several factors, including the type of electoral system, intra-party dissent and voter characteristics.

Industrial Location and Voter Participation in Europe

Does the geographic concentration of industry ‘matter’ outside the United States? Observers have long speculated that while geographically concentrated industries may be influential in American politics, this is probably not the case in countries where the electorate votes more as a national constituency. Others disagree, urging that clustered industries have an advantage regardless of how the political map is drawn. We sharpen the terms of debate and weigh in with empirical evidence from a cross-sectional analysis of intended voter turnout in eight member-states of the European Union and a multi-year study of voter turnout in the Netherlands. These tests uniformly show that, across different types of electoral systems, including those in which voters vote as a national constituency, thereby removing any effects of electoral geography per se, workers in traded industries that are physically concentrated are, in fact, substantially more likely to vote than employees in traded but geographically dispersed sectors.

How the world votes: The political consequences of ballot design, innovation and manipulation

There has been limited research into the impact of some aspects of voting procedure but very little research into ballot paper design and the act of voting in itself. This article gives a historical overview of the evolution of voting procedures from ancient times to the modern day, describes the results of a survey of 134 paper ballots used over the last decade for national legislative, executive and referenda elections in 107 countries, and gives the findings of a laboratory experiment testing the impact of ballot paper design. The evidence suggests three things: first, elaborate ballots (incorporating colors, symbols and photographs) are more likely to be found where literacy is lower and competitive multi party elections are a new phenomenon. But elaborate ballots are not significantly related to the level of democracy, the effective number of parties, or the type of electoral system. Second, there is little evidence to suggest that elaborate and costly ballots reduce spoilt ballot rates or are essential tools for illiterate voters. Rather, the negative correlation between ballot design and spoilt ballots, combined with the weight of historical evidence which shows that ballots are often a highly manipulative tools of political symbolism, implies that ballot papers symbols, photographs, layout, and color are of most interest as political cues (for both literate and illiterate voters). This intuition is confirmed by the results of a vote simulation experiment conducted on 401 students in which ballot design had a pronounced effect on voting behavior.

Electoral Systems and Democratic Quality: Do Mixed Systems Combine the Best or the Worst of Both Worlds? An Explorative Quantitative Cross-national Study

Following the recent explosion of new democracies, there has been a wave of constitution-building and electoral reform. The choice of the electoral system has been topic of debate among elites of the new democracies, knowing that this choice is an important one with different consequences. The effects of majoritarian and proportional electoral systems have been broadly investigated in the literature. Until recently, however, mixed electoral systems have attracted minimal academic attention. Although a growing number of new democracies have introduced hybrid types of electoral systems, which are neither proportional nor majoritarian, there are hardly any studies on the effects of these mixed electoral systems. This study explores not only the effects of majoritarian and proportional systems, but also the consequences of the mixed systems as compared to the two other systems. Not only 32 established democracies, but also 55 ‘new’ democracies are included in the multivariate regression analyses. Different measurements of the dependent variable (democratic quality) are taken into account, and some important control variables (especially human development) are incorporated in the analyses. It appears that it is important to differentiate between different types of electoral systems. The results show that such a distinction is crucial, since one particular type of mixed systems is associated with lower levels of democratic quality than the other types of electoral systems. In fact, they seem to combine the worst effects of both proportional and majoritarian systems.

Political parties, electoral systems and democracy: A cross‐national analysis

Abstract. The number of political parties and the type of electoral system may impact the level of democratic functioning within a government. Models are used to explore whether the number of political parties increases a country's democracy score on the POLITY IV measure of democracy, and whether countries with proportional representation electoral systems have higher democracy scores than those without. Multiple regression analysis reveals that countries with proportional electoral systems have higher democracy scores. Countries involved in the Third Wave of democracy may find the choice of an electoral system among the most important issues in structuring a democratic government.

Women in political decision-making in the SADC region

abstract Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of government have committed themselves to reaching a ‘critical mass’ of 30% representation of women in political decision-making structures by 2005. This article reflects on the extent of women's political representation in the SADC countries, the barriers to their political participation, and the merits and demerits of quotas and types of electoral systems as means of securing women's representation at a significant level. The focus then moves from the quantitative to a qualitative assessment of such representation in countries of the region. Particular attention is paid to the differences women make and the extent of their commitment to promoting women's/gender issues.

Does PR promote political extremism? Evidence from the West European parties of the extreme right1

Focusing on the West European parties of the extreme right, this article considers the validity of the claim that proportional electoral systems promote political extremism. After a systematic, empirical examination of the relationship between electoral systems and the electoral scores of right‐wing extremist political parties it concludes that there is little evidence to support the assumption that PR fosters extremist party success. Instead, the share of the vote going to these parties appears unrelated to the type of electoral system employed.

Determinants of Legislative Turnover: A Cross-National Analysis

Two decades of turnover data were collected for the national legislature of twenty-five industrialized countries. After a discussion of turnover's significance, we compare turnover rates across countries. A set of variables expected to influence turnover rates is described and multiple regression is used to test the hypotheses developed. Results show that frequency of elections, opportunity for double listings, electoral volatility and legislative institutionalization have statistically significant effects on turnover. In addition the type of electoral system (majoritarian versus proportional representation) is shown to have a statistically and substantively significant effect, with turnover much greater in the latter. Possible explanations for this effect are explored.

Voter turnout dynamics in post‐Communist Europe

Abstract. Declining levels of turnout recently observed in some East European elections have generated concerns about the performance of the newly emerging democracies. Theories developed to explain turnout in industrialized democracies emphasize the importance of two major groups of factors: institutional and socioeconomic. This article argues that a comprehensive model of voter participation in post‐Communist settings should also include a dynamic component to account for temporal changes generated by the transitional process. I test a model of voter turnout that incorporates explanations of temporal (sequence of elections) and spatial differences (electoral system type, party system characteristics and economic development). Multivariate regression is used to estimate the model, with data from fifteen East European countries over four consecutive elections.

Electoral System and Gender Representation in Sub-National Legislatures: Is there a National—Sub-National Gender Gap?

Although there have been many studies which have looked at the impact of gender representation at the national level, there are relatively few which explore the sub-national level. In this article we provide an exploration of the patterns of representation of women within democratic countries, both developed and transitional that have elected regional, state, cantonal, or provincial legislatures which occupy the middle ground between the central government and local or municipal administration. We provide a systematic comparative analysis of women’s access to and representation in such bodies. The focus is on a cross-national comparison of gender representation at the meso level and the gap in representation between meso and national legislatures. The impact of electoral system type, party magnitude, economic development, constitutional structure, and institutionalization of democratic structures are examined. The data on which this analysis is based are drawn from 536 meso legislative bodies in 29 countries. This is supplemented by party level data (n = 1,348) for the issue of party magnitude. Both OLS and logistical regression are used to test these propositions.

Electoral Systems, Ethnic Fragmentation, and Party System Volatility in Sub-Saharan African Countries

This paper thus addresses two primary issues. What is the relationship between the types of electoral systems that have been used to govern initial elections in the democratizing states of Africa and the degree to wh ich party systems volatility has emerged? What other factors impact on the levels o f volatility? I examine the above questions using data from 31 African countries. I find that most of the factors often cited as impacting on party systems development do not account for the level of legislative volatility. However, the dominance of the ruling pa rty in the first election following democratic transition does impact the extent of leg islative volatility later. Nonetheless these cases are also less likely to lead to democra tic or politically stable outcomes

Size and Electoral Participation in Local Elections

This paper reviews local election turnout for the period since the 1970s in five European countries: Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It explores especially the relationship between size of municipality and turnout in local elections. The author seeks to explore this issue in the light of Dahl and Tufte's 1973 classic study Size and Democracy (Stanford University Press) which claimed that citizens' motivation to participate is greater in small governmental units than in large ones. This study confirms the Dahl and Tufte hypothesis, in that turnout is consistently higher over time in small municipalities in all the countries reviewed, although the strength of the relationship varies between the different countries. The paper also shows that other factors, such as the type of electoral system used or whether voting is compulsory or not, also have an effect on turnout.

Institutions and Market Reform in Emerging Economies: A Rent Seeking Perspective

The role of institutions as determinants ofrent seeking success is well established. In this paper, we focus on institutionsthat have received little attention in theliterature, namely electoral institutions. We examine three measures of electoralinstitutional structure that arehypothesized to be instrumental indetermining the level of rent seekingsuccess. These are the type of electoralsystem, pluralistic or proportional; methodof selection of the chief executive,presidential or parliamentary; and thenumber of electoral districts. An index ofeconomic freedom is used as the metric forrent seeking opportunities created bygovernments. Theoretical implications ofvariation in these electoral institutionsare developed. These implications areempirically tested employing data from 29countries classified as having emergingmarket economies. Countries with emergingeconomies are expected to exhibit moreinstitutional flexibility that moredeveloped countries whose property rightsare well established and defended. Theempirical results are controlled fordifferences in a number of demographic andhistorical factors. Plurality electoralsystems are more resistant to the politicaldemands of rent seeking than proportionalsystems. Fewer election districts seem toreduce rent seeking opportunities. However, conditional on the type ofelectoral system, presidential systems arefound to be no more resistant to rentseeking than parliamentary systems. Finally, we find strong control effects. Literacy increases a country's resistanceto rent seeking while military spending andyears of institutional entrenchment reduceit.

Proportional Representation and the Fortunes of Right-Wing Extremist Parties

This article examines the relationship between electoral systems and extremist political parties. Focusing on the West European parties of the extreme right, it first investigates the extent to which district magnitude and electoral formula - the two main dimensions of electoral systems - influence the scores of these parties. It then considers the overall impact of the disproportionality of the electoral system. The article concludes that whilst proportional electoral systems do undeniably make it easier for extremist parties to gain legislative representation, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that they promote extremism. Instead, the share of the vote going to extremist parties appears unrelated to the type of electoral system employed.

Politics, Government Size, and Fiscal Adjustment in Industrial Countries

It is now well established that political and institutional factors matter for fiscal outcomes. Following a review of the literature, this paper examines the relationship between a variety of political-institutional variables and fiscal aggregates-encompassing the overall balance as well as expenditure and revenue and their various components-across 19 industrial countries over the past two decades. It finds strong effects on fiscal policy from such factors as type of electoral system, degree of legislative or government fragmentation, and stability of government. Some of the strongest results emerge for certain components of expenditure, such as transfers, and for the balance between labor and consumption taxation. There are clear relationships between the type of political system and choice of tax and expenditure system. The paper also examines fiscal adjustment since the late 1980s in light of these political factors, finding some evidence of a reversal in trend, but only when growth has been high or when debt has become problematic.

Politics, Government Size, and Fiscal Adjustment in Industrial Countries

It is now well established that political and institutional factors matter for fiscal outcomes. Following a review of the literature, this paper examines the relationship between a variety of political-institutional variables and fiscal aggregatesencompassing the overall balance as well as expenditure and revenue and their various componentsacross 19 industrial countries over the past two decades. It finds strong effects on fiscal policy from such factors as type of electoral system, degree of legislative or government fragmentation, and stability of government. Some of the strongest results emerge for certain components of expenditure, such as transfers, and for the balance between labor and consumption taxation. There are clear relationships between the type of political system and choice of tax and expenditure system. The paper also examines fiscal adjustment since the late 1980s in light of these political factors, finding some evidence of a reversal in trend, but only when growth has been high or when debt has become problematic.