Electoral Systems and Election Management

Abstract

The sine qua non of representative democracies is a process of elections that is fair and competitive. This is the role of electoral institutions, which determine how elections are fought, how the act of voting results in the election of political representatives and the determination of which political leader (in a presidential system), or party or set of parties (in a parliamentary system), is to form the executive leadership for the next few years.Electoral institutions cover a multitude of responsibilities. This chapter deals with two: the electoral system, which is responsible for determining how the voting act translates into an election result; and election management bodies, providing the over-arching structure within which the electoral process occurs. We spend most time on the first of these issues, starting in section 2.1 with a classification of the world's different electoral systems. This is followed, in section 2.2, by a review of the main political consequences of electoral systems. Section 2.3 deals with questions relating to electoral system design and reform. In section 2.4 our attention shifts to a focus on the issue of election management, with an overview of how this varies across our range of democracies. Classifying electoral systems1 We are grateful to Hein Heuvelman and Joanna Rozanska for gathering the data used in Table 2.2, and to our editors for their advice and feedback; the usual disclaimer applies.

Immigrant political integration in Ireland: unpacking the puzzle

“…Distinctive from the plurality and majority electoral systems, are three families of proportional electoral systems: list, mixed-member proportional and single transferable vote (STV). The Irish electoral system is the STV system (Carter & Farrell, 2010). …”

The classification of electoral systems around the world

“…Ця система була впроваджена в демократіях, що проходили шлях становлення, у кінці XIX -на початку ХХ століть. Ця система й досі широко використовується в світі -20 % сучасних країн, включаючи найбільші, застосовують саме плюральну виборчу систему в одномандатних округах [9]. «Перший на фініші» -така виборча система, за якої виграє кандидат, що набрав найбільшу кількість голосів у цьому виборчому окрузі.…”

Confused or competent? How voters use the STV ballot paper

“…Unlike (typically proportional) systems that use open or flexible lists, expressing a preference for one of the candidates nominated by a particular party does nothing to enhance the chances of any other of that party's candidates being elected (Cox, 1997;Shugart, 2005). Yet at the same time, STV usually produces results that are reasonably proportional to the total of (first preference) votes cast for each party's set of candidates, and, as a result, it is widely regarded as a proportional system (Lijphart, 1994;Carter and Farrell, 2010). The system is thus 'fair' to parties yet also ensures that who is elected depends entirely on the level of support expressed for individual candidates.…”

“…Indeed, we already know from the relatively limited experience of STV to date that different electorates can respond to the system very differently (Bowler and Grofman, 2000b;Farrell, 2010). In Ireland, nearly all voters express more than one preference, and while most cast some kind of preference for all of the candidates of their first preference party, less than half place all of that party's candidates above those of any other party (Marsh et al, 2008).…”