Plurality

• Winning candidate is one receving most votes in particular electoral district

• The candidate then represents the party in the legislature
• Offers bonus in seats to party leading in votes
• Amplifies winnings of parties whether losing or winning
• Based on representation of districts = offers no gurantes that party that leads in votes
nationally will have most seats in legis. Becase another party may achieve efficient
distribution of votes that it wins majority of seats with fewer votes
• Avg. number of votes req. to win a seat = unconstant =varies btwn parties according to
how their votes are distributed across constituencies.
• Encourages tactical voting
• Treats minority parties inconsistently based on geographicval concentration of support
• Gives incentives for gerrymandering because of constituency boundaries
Proportional
• Underlying principal for PR is to achieve representation for a range of parties rather than
just to elect representatives for a given territory.
• Offer bonus to largest party though less than non Proportional and PR discriminates by
design or practice against smallest parties. PR is not proportional
• Single party rarely wins majority of seats under PR = majority govs=unusual and
coalitions = standard
• Uses list system
• Elector votes for a slate of party’s candidates rather than one person
• The number of votes won by a party determines how many candidates are elected from
that party’s list, while the order in which the candidates are on the list (decided by party
itself) determines which people are elected as the parties representatives.
• (ex: a party winds 10 percent of the vote in an election to a 150 seat assembly; assuming
perfect proportionality, that party will be entitled to 15 members and these will be the 1st
candidates on the party’s list. The rest can be kept as alternates.)
• Closed party lists voters have no choice over candidates but can vote for a party = party
officials have large amt. of control over political recruitment, including ability to include
women and minorities near top of list.
• Preference voting allows voters to select one or more candidates from the party list. The
total votes cast for a given list still determine the party’s overall number of reps. But a
candidate’s preference votes influence the order of appointment..
• Luxembourg and Sweden operate free lists giving electors the opportunity to vote either
for a party’s list or for as many candidates as there are seats to be filled in the district.
• When voters in party list PR are req. by rules to vote for a specific candidate rather than a
party they usually select the one at the top, known informally as the list-puller or
locomotive.
• List systems req. multimember constituencies. Normally, the country is divided into set
of muit member districts and sets are allocated separately within each district = this
preserves some territorial basis to representation bu reduces the proportionality of the
outcome. As a result many countries have introduced a mechanism by which some seats
are held back from the district allocation to be reallocated at regional and or national
level. These seats go to parties with voted left over after intial lower level distribution. =
increases proportionality and complexity of system.
Majority
• Req. majority of votes for winning candidate, normally achieved through 2nd round
• Demo. Argument for maj. Syst = no candidate should be elected w/o being shown to be
acceptable to a majority of voters
• Alternate vote = efficient way to achieve majorit outcome in single round w/in single
member seats
• Voters rank candidates in order of preference, but lower preferences only are used if no
candidate gains a majority of 1st preferences on the first count.
• Compared ot plurality, alternate voting takes into account more info. About voters’
preferences but is not necessarily more proportional.
• Alternate voting encourages candidates to reach out beyond their natural supporters to
make sure they are the 2nd preferences of voters in other social groups.