general terms

hung parliament

there is not majority party in parliament (France)

closed list system

order of names on party list cannot be changed

open list system

order of names on party list CAN be altered/ranked by voters

election threshold

minimum number/percentage of votes a party/person needs to be voted into office

national ballot

same across the country, voters choose of 52 parties, represents 200 seats

regional assembly ballot

unique to each province, voters select either a party or a person to represent the remaining 200 seats

provincial legislative ballot

unique to each province, voters elect a party or a person, number of seats is determined by the population size in each province

overhand seats

when someone gets more votes so to account for them and keep everything proportional, seats are added

who is TRS?

france

who is PR?

south africa and israel

who is MMP?

new zealand and germany

who is unicameral?

israel and new zealand

reserved seats

some # of seats in a legislative body are reserved for a certain gender (rowanda)

legislative candidate quotas

parties must put up some # of candidates of a certain gender (mexican)

political party quotas

parties must put up some # of candidates of a certain gender, but the quota amounts are self imposed (south africa ANC)

confederate structure

power rests with the govt subunits, not the PEOPLE or the CENTRAL GOVT

ex. EU, AoC

Unitary Structure

power is with the central govt, subunits are given pwoer by the central govt

ex. south africa, UK

federal structure

power is given both ways

ex. US, Russia, Australia

bicameralism

two houses of legislative body

ex. US, Canada, UK

double dissolution

when the house passes something so it goes to the senate but no comprise accords so houe waits three months and passes it again but its rejected again, so there are snap elections for ALL of both chambers and once the new chambers are elected, they try to pass it again