PS 153 Exam 2

Electoral system

set of laws and regulations that govern the electoral competition between candidates and parties

Majoritarian

The candidate that gets the most votes wins. Election of one candidate in each electoral system, Either by plurality/first pass the post or two-round system. Less about representation and more about accountability.

Plurality or First Pass the Post (Under Majoritarianism)

The candidate with the most votes wins. May not always be a majority. Ex: UK

Two Round System (Under majoritarianism)

Single member district decided in 2 rounds. A limited number of candidates can reach the 2nd round.

Representation

selection of agents that act in parliament on behalf of principals

Accountability

Ability of voters to reward or punish politicians and parties for policy choices.

Single member district plurality (SMDP)

There is one member representative, one vote for one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins. It is simple and has a clear responsibility. But less representation.

List PR Systems

More than one representative, one vote or multiple for multiple parties/candidates. The seat distribution is equal to the vote distribution. Ex: European parliament. ex: Netherlands and Spain. Most of Europe.

Mixed systems

Voters cast 2 votes, one for party and one for a candidate. ex: Germany

Disproportionality

Gap between votes party gets v.s. the actual number of seats they win. In winner-take-all systems (like the UK or US), disproportionality is high: a party can win a "manufactured majority" of seats (e.g., over 60%) with only a minority of the total popular vote (e.g., ~34%) because votes aren't pooled nationally.

Duverger’s Law

A SDMP system tends to favor a two party systems. This is mechanical because larger parties tend to be favored over small ones. This leads to a psychological effect where voters use strategic voting to vote for the party or candidate that actually has a chance of winning.

Party system

the collection of parties, their characteristics, and their interactions with one another – it tells us something about how politics is structured in a given country/context.

Effective number of parties

A measure that captures both the number and the size of parties in a system.

Elections Systems are Stable

They are difficult to change and lack ruling party incentives to change if it works out well for them.

Losers Consent

Voters and parties accept the result even when they lose

Winner-loser gap

Voters of governing parties are more satisfied with

democracy than voters of opposition parties.

Descriptive Representation

When the representatives resemble the represented based on characteristics like gender and ethnicity.

Substantive Representation

policies adopted by elected representatives reflect the preferences of voters.

Symbolic Representation

Representatives stand up, take action, speak out, and participate for the represented.

Congruence

do voters and representatives (or the government) hold similar policy positions? When it is high the party and median voter are close. When it is low the party and median voter are further away.

responsiveness

do representatives change their positions when voters

change theirs?

Betz et al 2021

Can increasing women’s political power mitigate the penalty that is the pink tax on womens goods?

Direct Democracy

Chain of delegation to representatives is bypassed and voters decide directly on policy. This can enhance representation when representatives stray too far from the public.

Referendum

A type of democracy that allows citizens a popular vote on an important issue. Can be elite defying.

Mandatory constitutional referendum

mandated in the constitution and binding.

Abrogative referendum

Triggered by citizens or minority parties to veto a law.

Consultative referendum

Non binding and usually triggered by the government on an issue like Brexit.

Citizens Initiative

Any issue brought out by the public that is binding.

Hainmueller and Hangartner 2019

Does direct democracy hurt minorities? Citizens in Swiss towns voted on every individual immigrants application to approve citizenship. Found that they were largely excluding minority groups such as balkans and turkish people. Swiss court forced them to change process to a elected municipal court where the naturalization rates rose by 60%.

EU Responsiveness to voters

Traditionally not but more studies have shown a selective responsiveness.

Thermostatic Model

When policy-making moves too far in one direction, public opinion tends to slowly move back in the opposite direction.