AP Comp Gov't: Electoral Systems for Legislative Elections

UK Legislature

House of Commons

Nigeria Legislature

House of Representatives

Mexico Legislature

Chamber of Deputies

Russia Legislature

State Duma

Iran Legislature

Majlis

UK/Nigeria Electoral Type

First-past-the-post

Mexico/Russia Electoral Type

Mixed

Iran Electoral Type

Single and multi member voting districts (constituencies), candidates are background-checked

Electoral system

set of rules used to translate citizens’ VOTES into legislative SEATS

First-past-the-post

electoral system where the candidate with the most votes in an electoral district wins the seat

PLURALITY election (doesn’t need 50% or higher, just the MOST votes)

First-past-the-post features

• single member district

• voting for individuals

Proportional Representation (PR)

electoral system that proportionally translates each parties’ share of the votes into seats

Proportional representation features

vote share more closely corresponds with seat share

hence “proportional”

Mixed Electoral System

mix between district-based elections with proportional representationm

has MANY different forms

Constituency

a geographic electoral istrict represented by an elected official

single-member district

a district that elects one representative

multimember district

a district that elects multiple representatives

proportionality

the degree to which a party’s share of legislative SEATS corresponds to its SHARE of the vote

electoral threshold

a minimum percentage of votes that a party must receive to qualify for representation

strategic voting

voting for a candidate or party partly because of their probability of winning rather than voting for their merit/values

Duverger’s Law

single-member plurality systems encourage fewer political parties

typically resulting in two dominant parties (e.g. Republicans and Democrats)