Unit 3: Electoral Systems

1 - Direct Democracy versus Representative Democracy

2 - Majoritarian systems versus Proportional Representation

M. Socorro Puy
Universidad de Málaga
1- Direct Democracy versus Representative
Democracy
 Direct democracy
Citizens directly vote on initiatives or proposals.
Switzerland, popular assemblies in the cantons approve initiatives by
popular vote.

United States, the process of initiatives and referendums allows

citizens:
- place new legislation on a popular ballot
- place legislation recently passed on a ballot for a popular vote.
Electronic direct democracy (EDD) is a form of direct democracy that
utilizes telecommunications to facilitate public participation.

This technique faces the problem of security, equal access of the

population to technologies,…
Standard Referenda (some examples):

• The 2016 UK referendum on Brexit: Should the United Kingdom

remain a member of the European Union or leave the European
Union? Select one:
1) Remain a member of the European Union. (48%)
2) Leave the European Union. (52%)

• The 1980 and 1995 secession of Quebec: Do you agree that Quebec
should become sovereign after having formally offered Canada a
new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill
respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on
June 12, 1995? YES: 49,42%, NO: 50,58%
 Representative democracy
Citizens vote to elect their representatives to whom they delegate decisions.

Majoritarian or Proportional Representation systems (PR) are used to elect

one (a president) or more representatives (a parliament) holding the
ultimate power of decision-making.
Types of Representative Democracy (regimes of the world according to Herre (2021)):
• Closed autocracies: no right to choose either the chief executive of the government or the legislature.
• Electoral autocracies: right to choose the chief executive and the legislature, but they lack of freedom of
association or expression.
• Electoral democracies: citizens can participate in multi-party elections and there is freedom of association.
• Liberal democracies, in addition to multi-party elections, the actions of the executive are constrained by the
legislative and the courts.
 Differences between Presidential and Parliamentary Systems:

Presidential System Parliamentary System

- The executive and the legislative powers are
separated from each other.
- The president (or prime minister) and the
members of parliament (or national assembly) - The people elect the members of parliament.
are elected separately by the people. - The parliament appoints or recommends one of
- The president is the head of government its members to be the chief executive.
(signing or vetoing laws) and head of the state - There are parliamentary republics and
(representing the country). parliamentary monarchies (monarch is head ).
- Presidents are more challenging to remove. - Presidents can be removed by parliament.

Semi-presidential system: There is a president (elected by the people) and a separate prime minister
dependent on parliamentary confidence.
E.g., In France, Macron is the president and appoints the prime minister.
Manus and Ozcan (2018).
Red: Parliamentary; Yelow: Presidential; Blue: Semi-presidential
 2. Majoritarian systems versus
Proportional Representation (PR)

These systems are used to elect a legislative body (members of parliament,

senate, national assembly…)
 Majoritarian systems

In an election for a legislative body (several members), each voter in a

geographically defined electoral district votes for one candidate from a list
of candidates competing to represent that district.

The election’s winner represents

the entire electoral district and
serves with representatives of
other districts.
Countries with majoritarian systems (Plurality Rule)

This system is used in US,

UK, Canada, India,…
Example: Suppose a nation elects its legislators by Majoritarian System

There are 7 Electoral Districts, and in each district, votes are distributed as follows

Districts Votes Party A Votes Party B Votes Party C

District 1 100 124 76
District 2 85 99 146
District 3 125 158 34
District 4 312 57 90
District 5 89 156 89
District 6 150 152 23
District 7 234 123 21

Party A Party B Party C

Electoral Results:
2 seats 4 seats 1 seat
Two problems associated with Majoritarian Elections:

- The tendency to eliminate weaker parties/candidates:

Duverger’s Law.
- The borders of the constituency/electoral district become
relevant: Gerrymandering.
 Duverger’s Law
Duverger’s Law says there is a strong tendency to have just two candidates
in majoritarian systems.
Example: Who has incentives to vote for Party C?
Party A Party B Party C
District 6 150 152 23

• Intuition: Voters can order the candidates in terms of the expected vote
given the behavior of other voters. They will vote strategically based on
their expectation.
• According to William Riker (1982), this is a law becausse “political
scientists had not yet discovered any other empirical regularity that was
worthy of being called a law.”
Duverger’s Law
Expected vote share in Arizona:
Democratic Candidate: 50,2%
Republican Candidate: 48%
Other: 1,8%

Pivotal voter: When voting can make

a difference in the outcome.

Suppose a voter with preferences:

1- Independent candidate
2- Republican
3- Democratic

She will vote for Republicans

because it can make a difference
 Gerrymandering
The borders of a constituency/electoral district are relevant in a majoritarian electoral system.
Consider the following figure with 50 territorial units: 20 Red, 30 Blue.
REDISTRICTING:
Divide the territorial into 5 equal-sized Districts so that: A) The blue districts win, and B) The red districts win:

50 territorial units A B
Gerry+Salamander= Gerrymanderin
(1812 redistricting in Boston area by governor Elbridge Gerry)
Pros of majoritarian systems are:

• Government effectiveness (on how parties implement their manifesto). There

is no need for coalition bargaining.
• Responsive and accountable government. The district can throw its
representative in the following election.

Cons of majoritarian systems are:

• It poses an obstacle to the appearance of new political parties.

• It tends to eliminate the weakest party if there are more than two parties
(Duvergers’ law).
• Exposed to redistricting strategies to manipulate vote results.
Proportional Representation (PR).
Legislators are elected in MULTI-MEMBER DISTRICS.
The number of seats received by a party in an electoral district is proportional to the
number of votes of that party.
There are different methods to aggregate votes: d’Hondt, Saint-Laguë, Hare quote,
Droop quote,…
Differents between Majoritarian/winner take all and PR:
Nations with Proportional Representation
This system is used in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria,…
• Example of D’Hondt: 8 seats are to be allocated, divide each party's total votes
by 1, then by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
The 8 highest distribution figures are highlighted in bold, ranging from 100,000 to
25,000.

Seats
/1 /2 /3 /4 /5 /6 /7 /8
won (*)

Party A 100,000* 50,000* 33,333* 25,000* 20,000 16,666 14,286 12,500 4

Party B 80,000* 40,000* 26,666* 20,000 16,000 13,333 11,428 10,000 3

Party C 30,000* 15,000 10,000 7,500 6,000 5,000 4,286 3,750 1

Party D 20,000 10,000 6,666 5,000 4,000 3,333 2,857 2,500 0

• Example Droop quote: The ballot contains more information. First, the
candidate you vote for. Second, the ranking of candidates.
Suppose an election of 2 seats to be filled and 3 parties. There are 100 voters.
45 voters 30 voters 25 voters
1. Party A 1. Party B 1. Party C
2. Party B 2. Party A 2. Party A

The Droop quota is defined by: Integer( 1

In the example, the quota is: Integer( 1 33+1= 34 votes

Only Party A reaches the quota: 1 seat.
The remaining votes go to the second party: 45-34=11 votes:
30+11=41 votes 25 votes
Party B now reaches the quota. 1. Party B 1. Party C
RESULT: Party A one seat, Party B one seat
 What would have happened in 2012’s UK election under a
proportional voting system (instead of Majoritarian system).
Assumption: use of the D'Hondt method of converting votes into
seats.

The UK Indepence Party (Right-wing Eurosceptic party) would have been a force with 83 seats in the Commons
Pros of proportional representation:
• More parties and voters are more likely to find a party representing their
major political convictions.
• Supporters of a small party are likely to be represented by at least one
member.
• As several seats are assigned to parties proportional to votes even within a
constituency, the borders of a constituency are not as relevant
(gerrymandering).

Cons of proportional representation:

• Too many small parties produce political instability.
• The problem of coalition-government formation (this requires complex
negotiations). It may take too long to form a government.
• Small parties may also abuse their position to get support for special interests in
exchange for their support for government policy.
Proportional Representation with D’Hondt
Procedure applied by provinces
3. ELECTION OF CANDIDATES: PRIMARIES
The primary elections are the process by which the electorate nominates its candidates for an
upcoming general election.

A classification of primary elections (based on US systems):

• Open primaries
• Close primaries PARTISAN PRIMARIES
• Semi-closed primaries
• Top-two primaries. NON-PARTISAN PRIMARIES

When is it more convenient to apply one or other primary?

Do primary elections foster competition among candidates which translates to the selection of
better nominees?
• Open Primaries: registered voters can vote in any party's primary regardless of their
party affiliation (these are also called blanket primaries).

• Closed primaries: only those voters that are officially registered members of the party
are eligible to vote in the primary.

• Semi-closed primaries: officially registered and unaffiliated voters can participate as

well.

• Top-two primaries: all voters (partisan or not) equally participate at every stage.
Candidates, whatever their affiliation (if any), are placed on the same ballot, and only
the first and second place winners pass to the general election.
Candidates have the option to add their party affiliation to their name on the ballot.
 Type of primaries in us FOR THe 51 STATES

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Open Closed Semi-closed Top-two or

Primaries are used to elect governor, major, senator,… different office-holding positions
CONCLUSION
We have learned

• Representative democracy is the most extended form of

democracy, but this is not the unique form. Direct democracy is
another way. Is direct democracy past or is it the future?

• The two widely spread methods of representative democracy:

Majoritarian System versus Proportional Representation.
Looking forward
• Different electoral systems produce different political scenarios.
• What’s the relation between the electoral system and the level of
public expenditure?
• Coalition governments, in comparison to majoritarian governments, spend more.
• What’s the relation between the electoral system and the country`s
income distribution?
• Coalition governments generate more redistribution.
• “We know relatively little about the politics that shape states’ choices of income
tax structures” Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, George Downs and Alastair Smith
(2016).

• What’s your question?? Economic growth/ Education level/Economic

stability /Woman…
Exercise:
There are 4 electoral districts with 4 parties :

District 1 Votes District 2 Votes District 3 Votes District 4 Votes

Party A 60 Party A 148 Party A 150 Party A 60
Party B 150 Party B 100 Party B 118 Party B 150
Party C 45 Party C 80 Party C 60 Party C 45
Party D 49 Party D 52 Party D 90 Party D 49

a) Calculate the assignment of the 4 seats using a majoritarian system (similar to US or

UK), where each electoral district elects a single seat in parliament.

b) Calculate the assignment of the 4 seats in a unique electoral district where the votes
of each party are added and where the D’Hondt procedure is used to assign seats.

c) Suppose we must assign 8 seats in a unique electoral district using D’Hondt

procedure. Calculate the proposed assignment.
Exercise:
Suppose an electoral district selects 3 seats under a Proportional
Representation system.

37 voters 28 voters 22 voters 15 voters

1. Party A 1. Party B 1. Party C 1. Party D
2. Party D 2. Party D 2. Party D

a) Calculate the assignment of the 3 seats using Droop Quota

b) Calculate the assignment of the 3 seats using d’Hondt procedure.