Dissertations / Theses: 'Electoral Systems'

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Rottwilm, Philipp Moritz. "Electoral system reform in early democratisers : strategic coordination under different electoral systems." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6c3ebcf9-f25b-4ce8-a837-619230729c33.

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On the basis of case studies of 19th and early 20th century Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, I address the question of how and when incumbent right elites reformed electoral systems under a rising political threat from the left. Some states adopted proportional representation (PR) earlier than others. Why did different states adopt PR at different times? One important factor was the existing electoral system before the adoption of PR. This has been missed in academic research since most scholars have assumed that the electoral system in place before the adoption of PR in most Western European states was single-member plurality (SMP). I show that the system in place prior to PR in most Western European states was not SMP but a two-round system (TRS). TRS effects are still poorly understood by political scientists. I argue that both PR and TRS were used as safeguards by the parties on the right against an electoral threat from the left, which originated from the expansion of suffrage. PR was used as a last resort after other safeguards had been exhausted. I state that in the presence of a strong left threat, countries with TRS could wait longer to implement PR than countries with SMP in place. Under TRS, the adoption of PR was considerably delayed since electoral coordination between parties could be applied more effectively than under SMP systems. This was largely due to the increase of information and time after the first round of TRS elections, which was used by right parties to coordinate votes around the most promising candidate before the second round. First round results under TRS were used as an "electoral opinion poll". Based on these results, the right could react more effectively than the left in order to improve outcomes in round two.

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Asmal, Kader 1934-2011. "Electoral systems: critical survey." Centre for Development Studies, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66455.

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Ever since union - and before - black South Africans have been excluded from parliament, provincial councils and other law-making bodies. This means that blacks have never participated in the electoral process. The voting (electoral) system - its nature and workings - remained the sole preserve of white political parties and the Apartheid government of the day. As a result of a conjuncture of circumstances (as per Harare Declaration), the African National Congress and the apart0heid government are now engaged in talks. Hopefully this will ultimately lead to negotiations towards a new Constitution which will make provision for a single unitary, non-racial, non-sexist South Africa with universal franchise on one single common voters roll and one person one vote. Part of the process of constitution-making for such a South Africa, will be the working out of a system of voting, an electoral system, which would be appropriate for the country. The African National Congress has recognised the need for a multi-party system, the right of all other political forces and organisations to organise and to compete for power on the political terrain. The ANC also recognises that all parties enjoying significant support should have the right to be represented in a Constituent Assembly and parliament. The question which needs to be resolved is: What would be an appropriate electoral system to achieve the stated objec0tive? It is to place the issue before the people of our country and to ensure participation at the widest levels by all the organisa0tions of the people in the process of constitution-making (including formulating and/or agreeing upon an acceptable system of voting), that the African National Congress, Community Law Centre (University of the Western Cape) and the Centre for Development Studies have organised a conference to be held in the Western Cape on 2 - 4 NOVEM0BER 1990. This conference will not be a decision-making one. nor will there be any resolutions at the end of the conference. The objective is to facilitate meaningful discussions throughout the country. To facilitate this process, we present a discussion document entitled "ELECTORAL SYSTEMS: A CRITICAL SURVEY" which has been prepared by Professor KADER ASMAL, a member of the Constitutional Committee of the ANC and Professor of Law at Trinity College, Dublin. It is hoped that arising from these discussions, there will be more meaningful discussions and consultations amongst or0ganisations such as trade unions, civic organisations, women’s organisations and other sectoral or0ganisations - ultimately leading to a situation which we would be better able to decide on an acceptable, unity building and democratic electoral system.
"The Community Law Centre (UWC) & Centre for Development Studies in conjunction with the ANC Constitutional Committee."--Cover

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Verardi, Vincenzo. "The Economics of electoral systems." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/211302.

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Troumpounis, Orestis. "Electoral systems and forms of abstention." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/51487.

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Esta tesis es de carácter interdisciplinario, entre economía y ciencias políticas. Usando métodos bien explotados en economía explico como las instituciones electorales afectan las decisiones de los individuos en varios contextos políticos. El capítulo 2 es normativo y propone dos modificaciones en los sistemas electorales. Ambos resultan en una participación más alta y dan incentivos a los partidos políticos a que sean de mejor calidad. Primero, analizo un sistema electoral donde el número de los candidatos que obtienen representación en el parlamento es endógeno y depende del nivel de la participación. Segundo, analizo el efecto de un quorum de participación en elecciones parlamentarias. Según mis resultados, las dos modificaciones implican beneficios más bajos para los partidos, y bienestar más alto para los ciudadanos. Dichos resultados explican porqué los partidos usan otros tipos de medidas para incrementar la participación en las elecciones. Además, mis resultados explican la evolución del uso de un quorum en algunos países. El capítulo 3 es un trabajo junto con Sabine Flamand. Estudiamos el efecto de un quorum de participación en reuniones de pocos miembros. Usando un modelo de reuniones repetitivas, demostramos que la decisión se retrasa cuando el quorum es alto, y que los miembros no pierden utilidad por el hecho de retrasar la decisión. Finalmente, la presencia de un quorum puede tanto aumentar como reducir el número de miembros tomando la decisión final. El capítulo 4 ofrece un análisis empírico de las decisiones de votar en blanco y votar nulo. El análisis es innovador porque por primera vez se tratan las dos decisiones por separado. Demuestro que el voto blanco contiene un mensaje de insatisfacción contra los partidos políticos, mientras que el voto nulo contiene insatisfacción contra las instituciones y los niveles de democracia.
The present thesis lies at the intersection of economics and political science. Using methods, well developed in economics, I try to understand how electoral institutions shape individuals' behavior in different political contexts. Chapter 2 has a normative flavor. Focusing on the interplay between low quality parties and citizens' apathy, I try to break the vicious cycle that links the two, by proposing two electoral rules that increase turnout in PR elections, and at the same time give incentives to parties to be of better quality. First, I propose an electoral rule where the number of candidates elected depends on the level of participation. Second, I propose the introduction of a participation quorum that has to be met in order for the election to be valid. The common feature and innovation of these rules is that turnout affects the electoral outcome, and as a consequence these rules incentivize parties to care about the level of turnout. I show that both rules, while they increase turnout they imply lower profits for parties. My results explain why parties target to increase turnout through a certain type of measures that do not necessary improve the quality of the vote. Moreover, I also explain the evolution of the use of the participation quorum in certain countries. Chapter 3 is coauthored with Sabine Flamand, and tries to understand the effect of such a participation requirement on individuals' behavior and the decision outcome. To this end, we model a setup of repeated meetings, where a small group of individuals has to take a decision. We show that the decision is delayed when the quorum requirement is high and members are not harmed by postponing the decision. Surprisingly, the presence of the quorum may decrease the number of attendees taking the decision, while we show that in order to avoid policy distortions, the required number of participants must be even. Apart from abstaining, voters that are not willing to support any of the candidates in most parliamentary elections, are given the choice to participate in the election and cast a blank or a null vote. A blank vote is a disapproval vote of all competing candidates, while a null vote is a vote cast erroneously or deliberately in a way not conforming with the legal voting procedure. Political scientists were treating blank and null votes in an identical way. My attempt in chapter 4 is to study these two protest actions on a separate basis, in order to understand, why in some elections blank votes are many more than null votes and vice versa. After constructing a database considering the percentages of blank and null votes separately, I show that the amount of blank and null votes cast in an election are not affected by the same factors. Null votes convey dissatisfaction towards the electoral and democratic institutions, while blank votes convey dissatisfaction towards the parties. More important, my results go against one of the prevailing criticisms of compulsory voting. The latter has no significant effect on the amount of uninformative votes since it has no significant effect on the amount of null votes. On the contrary, it increases only the amount of blank votes, which by definition disclose information, and in particular voters' disapproval of all competing parties. Although abstention is one of the most studied issues both by political scientists and economists, the current thesis extends our knowledge, by giving insight into some of abstention's unexplored but widely observed aspects.

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Church, Stephen. "Electoral systems, party systems and stability in New Zealand." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Political Science, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/4680.

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In 1996 New Zealand changed its electoral system from single-member-district plurality to a form of proportional representation known as MMP. One of the most persistent theories in political science posits that plurality systems produce two dominant parties, which in turn leads to stable single party government. By contrast, it has been hypothesised that systems of PR multiply the number of parties, thereby encouraging governments which are less stable because more than one party is required to share in government. This thesis uses New Zealand as a test case for this

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Monroe, Burt L. "Electoral science : the analysis of voting systems." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.358508.

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Heine, Rebecca. "Electoral Systems and Women’s Political Representation : A Quantitative Case Study of Female Legislators in Mexico’s Mixed Member Electoral System." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-373871.

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This paper uses the case of Mexico to explore the effects of electoral systems on women’s representation in legislatures. While a number of studies have looked at how electoral rules affect women’s presence in parliament (descriptive representation), less work has focused on how these rules affect female legislators’ inclination to promote policy directed toward women as a constituency (substantive representation). Mexico’s mixed member electoral system serves to compare legislators operating within the same cultural, institutional and political context but who were elected under distinct electoral formulas, either through the local popular vote in single member districts (SMDs), or through proportional representation (PR) on the basis of party lists. A quantitative approach is adopted to explore the differences between the two groups when it comes to introducing legislative proposals related to women’s rights and gender equality. Based on data from the Mexican Chamber of Deputies covering a time span of 20 years, the results show that female legislators elected through Mexico’s PR tier are more likely to put forward bills on these issues than their SMD elected counterparts, independently of their party identification and where in the country they belong geographically. This suggests that the design of the electoral system can have an impact on legislative behavior, in this case that of female politicians when it comes to advancing women’s rights policy.

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Dirke, Lundberg Tora. "Voting Women? : A Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of Electoral Systems on Women's Electoral Participation." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-402757.

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The matter of a gender gap in electoral participation is a fact in many parts of the world but has mostly been investigated by, and studied within, the Global North. In spite of this, scholars have not reached an undisputed conclusion for why this is. Scholars have argued for the importance of studying the institutions and systems composing voting in order to explain electoral participation, especially since the form and degree of direct influence of voters are differing within different electoral systems. Relying on the rational voter hypothesis in combination with feminist theory this thesis suggests that women have different experiences of civic duty and influence, and therefore participate in elections to a lesser extent than men. The main results suggest that presidentialism, to an extent which is neither statistically nor practically significant, decrease women’s electoral participation while majoritarian electoral rules seem to have an even smaller, but similar, effect. Testing electoral systems’ effect on the gender gap, statistically significant results points to the fact that presidentialism increases the gender gap in electoral participation. Majoritarian electoral rules do too increase the gender gap, but to a more restricted extent. This thesis concludes that electoral systems do have a gendered effect on electoral participation and that these effects need to be further investigated by future research.

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Townsend, David James. "Electoral and party systems in post-Communist Russia." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/mq22038.pdf.

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Johnson, Joel W. "Electoral systems and campaign finance in legislative elections." Diss., [La Jolla] : University of California, San Diego, 2009. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3371953.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed October 13, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Ekdahl, Oscar. "Possibilities of Electoral Reform in Zambia : A Study on Electoral Systems in Zambia and its Consequences." Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Political Science, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-962.

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The topic of this thesis is electoral systems and electoral reform in Zambia. In Africa, democratization is on its way in many countries. However, the democratic upswing in the early 1990s was in most countries followed by a standstill. In recent years the tendency has been a renewal of democratization which makes it possible to reach new heights. As a part of this recent democratic progress questions regarding constitutional reform and electoral reform have been raised. It is within that context that this thesis has its setting. In search for the incentives behind electoral reform the purpose of this thesis revolves around what the consequences are of the current electoral system in Zambia. A complimentary purpose is how an electoral reform can take place and what it might result in.

A qualitative literature study with a hermeneutic approach has been used in this thesis. A theoretical framework has been created which focuses on different types of electoral systems and their respective consequences on the political system. Important key points of electoral reform have been discussed to give an understanding and foundation for the analysis. The result of the study is that there are several negative consequences with the current electoral system in Zambia. The negative effects range from minority and gender marginalization, lacking representation, weak governments with lacking legitimacy and wasted votes. Some surprising positive traits include the absence of ethnic politization, from time to time a strong opposition and possibilities of coherent policing. It is also believed that there is a profound support for an electoral reform with in many levels of the country and there are.

Sammanfattning

Denna uppsats tar sin start i valsystem och valreform i Zambia. Demokratisering är ett vanligt tema i Afrika och många länder är i full gång med att befästa sin nyvunna mark. Det demokratiska uppsving som kunde ses i början av 1900-talet följdes i många länder utav ett stillestånd i utvecklingen. På senare år har en tydlig tendens kunnat ses där demokratiseringen på nytt har tagit fart. Som en konsekvens av denna nytända demokratisering i Afrika har frågor kring valsystem, valreform och dess effekter på det politiska systemet börjat att cirkulera. Det är i det sammanhanget som uppsatsen finner sig.

På uppdrag att finna vad som driver valreform, cirkulerar syftet med denna uppsats kring vilka konsekvenser det nutida valsystemet har i Zambia. Ett kompletterande syfte, eller frågeställning, för analysen vidare mot valreform och vilka utsikter som finns. En kvalitativ literaturstudie med en hermeneutisk ansats har använts i denna uppsatsen. Ett teoretiskt ramverk har skapats som fokuserar kring olika valsystem och deras respektive konsekvenser för det politiska systemet. Teorier kring valreform har också beskrivits och diskuterats fär att ge en förståelse och bakgrund till analysen. Slutsatsen för uppsatsen är att det finns många negativa kopplingar till valsystemet I Zambia. De tydligaste effekterna är att minoriteter och kvinnor blockeras från att delta i parlamentet, att svaga regeringar har funnits trots ett pluralistiskt valsystem som i sig självt har resulterat i en legitimitetsbrist och bortfallna röster. En del positiva inslag kunde även hittas, däribland en saknad av etniska konflikter, en stundom stark opposition och en möjlighet till sammanhängande politik. Som en del av resultatet verkar det också som att det finns ett stöd för en valreform på många olika nivår i Zambia. Detta anses vara nödvändigt om Zambia vill fortsätta att utveckla sin demokrati.

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Dahlerup, Drude Freidenvall Anita. "Electoral Gender Quota Systems and Their Implementation in Europe /." Brussels : European Parliament, 2008. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/studies/download.do?file=22091.

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Miller, Sara Ann. "Ethnic Conflict, Electoral Systems, and Power Sharing in Divided Societies." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2006. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/political_science_theses/7.

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This paper investigates the relationship between ethnic conflict, electoral systems, and power sharing in ethnically divided societies. The cases of Guyana, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago are considered. Electoral systems are denoted based on presidential versus parliamentary system, and on proportional representation versus majoritarian/plurality. The paper concludes that, while electoral systems are important, other factors like the power distribution between ethnic groups, and ensuring a non-zero-sum game may be as important.

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Yuan, Kai-Jung. "Gender Quotas and Electoral Systems : A case study of Taiwan." Thesis, University of York, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.534925.

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Niläng, Gustav. "PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER: Electoral Systems and Threats To Democracy." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-453164.

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Democracies are considered to be the ideal form of government, but it needs constant attention and care. It is supposed to involve the citizens of a society and thus their participation, representation and the will of the people are important factors. Throughout the world, the two most common electoral systems are the majoritarian first-past-the-post system and proportional representation systems. This thesis will compare the two systems and their effects on democracy, along with constitutionalism and restraints placed on democracy to harness its effects. Additionally, it will examine how the two systems can respond to the antidemocratic movements that have been growing across Europe and the world in general. The findings point to both systems having strengths and weaknesses in terms of creating stable governments, including the population and dealing with antidemocratic groupings. Both are susceptible to antidemocratic movements gaining influence and undermining the democracy, albeit in different fashions and through different means. As such, more precise requirements might be needed to suss out a definitive winner concerning which electoral system is preferable, if one such even exists. Until then, subjective values as to what is most important in a democratic society is the best systemic yardstick.

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Reimink, Elwin. "Electoral reform: why care? Opinion formation and vote choice in six referendums on electoral reform." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209040.

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This PhD thesis explores the question how citizens react when they are confronted with complex institutional questions related to politics. Specifically, we look at how citizens vote when they are asked for their opinion in a referendum on amending the electoral system of their country. Traditionally, electoral systems have been considered the political playing ground of political elites. It is hence interesting to see what happens when the ‘power of decision’ shifts to citizens, who are supposed to have little interest in, or knowledge about, electoral systems. We observe that citizens partially mimic political elites in their behaviour, by following partisan considerations: citizens judge electoral reforms on the consequences for their favoured parties. Moreover, citizens tend to incorporate values when judging electoral reforms: a particular effect is caused by the left-right-distinction, with left-wing voters being more attracted towards more proportional systems. Finally, we observe that how citizens react to electoral systems is affected by their baseline knowledge on politics. More knowledgeable citizens tend to judge more on substantial grounds, while less knowledgeable citizens rather tend to judge on miscellaneous grounds. We conclude by arguing that citizens can and do form substantial opinions on complex subjects like institutional reforms, but that some baseline knowledge is nonetheless required in order to substantially participate in the democratic decision-making process.
Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Harrison, Lisa Sheila. "Sub-national electoral systems and minority parties in the European Community." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/1659.

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This thesis analyses the extent to which particular electoral system features and rules affect the opportunities for, and proportionality of, the representation of certain far right and regionalist at various sub-national levels in key European Community member states. The thesis employs data provided in a unique data base at the University of Plymouth. This data includes a wealth of information concerning shares of the votes and shares of the seats for as many identifiable parties as possible in a range of sub-national elections in the post World War Two period and measures the proportionality of elections using three indices of proportionality. Various authors have previously attempted to identify which electoral features are primarily the cause of disproportionalty at the national electoral level. Within this thesis we will test their claims at various sub-national levels in several west European states. We will also assess the impact of these electoral features upon the representation opportunities of certain far right and regionalist parties, as we have examples of these parties being both 'small' and 'large' at the sub-national level.

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Ritter, Michael James. "Accessible electoral systems: state reform laws, election administration, and voter turnout." Diss., University of Iowa, 2017. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5836.

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Compared to most Western democracies, voter turnout in the United States is consistently lower. Individuals from disadvantaged groups such as the poor are also less likely to vote than more affluent citizens. To counteract these trends, American state governments since the 1970s have adopted election reform laws (early voting, no-excuse absentee or mail voting, and Same Day Registration [SDR] voting) to make voting easier for the citizen. Paradoxically, most research on election reform laws has found that these laws have a minimal effect on turnout, and do not reduce disparities between more and less advantaged voting groups. This study argues that past studies have not properly accounted for features of a state’s electoral system – combinations of voting reform laws, election administration, and history of turnout – that structure the impacts of these laws on turnout. The goal of this research is to re-evaluate the performance of these election reform laws by contextualizing the laws in a state’s electoral system. This study makes several unique contributions to the literature on election reform laws. First, convenience voting laws and state election administration are reframed as components of the overall accessibility of a state’s electoral system. Using a policy feedback framework, this reframing recognizes how citizens, political campaigns, and accessible electoral systems shape turnout. The study then evaluates the effects of accessible electoral systems on overall turnout, and turnout among the poor. Additionally, this project analyzes how these laws structure the mobilization strategies of political campaigns. Finally, this research utilizes two large datasets containing millions of respondents from all fifty American states (Catalist and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study) with advanced statistical methods to assess the effects of these laws at the individual level in the 2008-2014 midterm and presidential elections. After controlling for the accessibility of state electoral systems, this research finds that convenience voting laws do increase turnout, encourage participation from the least likely voting groups, motivate campaigns to mobilize voters, and reduce turnout inequality.

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Juklíček, Petr. "Postoje českých politických stran k reformě volebního systému." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2014. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-206869.

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This diploma thesis researches the stance of czech political parties to reform of the electoral systém. The goal of the paper is to find out what form of electoral systém is prefered by each political party. The paper itself is divided into three parts. The first part is analysis of electoral systems, which should serve as theretical foundations for next parts of the thesis. In the second part the author analyses electoral reforms in Czech republic and in Czechoslovakia after the year 1989. The third part is research, for which the author states three hypotheses, which are absed on work of Maurice Duverger and Giovanni Sartori. The first hypothesis assumes, that big parties favour majority voting, or certain form of proportional system which favours big parties. Second hypothesis puts emphasis on smaller political parties. The author thinks, that small political parties will favour proportional system in its current form, or in that kind of form which favours small parties. The third hypothesis assumes, that small political parties, which were not elected into the House of representatives will advocate for banning or at least reducing of the electoral threshold. These hypotheses are confronted with data. Data was collected via interviews and surveys with party members and representatives.

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Groenewald, Petrus Johannes. "Die Suid-Afrikaanse nasionale kiesstelsel :|b'n kritiese ontleding en alternatiewe / P.J. Groenewald." Thesis, North-West University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/9662.

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The Republic of South Africa entered into a new constitutional dispensation in 1994. As part of this new constitutional dispensation, a new electoral system, i.e. the closed-list proportional representative electoral system, was adopted. This electoral system was accepted for elections on a national level of representatives for the National Assembly and has certain advantages and disadvantages. Some political scientists, political parties and opinion formers are of the opinion that this electoral system brings about poor contact between the representatives in the National Assembly (Parliament) and the voters. Critics are also of the opinion that party leaders obtain too much power within this electoral system, in that the parties appoint candidates to the candidate lists. In elections, voters vote for specific political parties and therefore do not have a choice with regard to who their representatives are. The result is that South Africa adheres to the representative aspect of democracy, but is lacking with regard to the accounting of representatives to voters. The legitimacy of Parliament is impaired by this defect. The aim of this study is to provide a critical analysis and investigate alternative frameworks of the South African electoral system and its functioning on a national level. In the analysis it is determined to what extent the South African electoral system meets the criteria set for an electoral system to ensure the legitimacy of Parliament, a sustainable representative democracy and an accountable government in the long term in the country. This analysis and evaluation was used to determine whether the existing closed-list proportional representative electoral system is the most suitable electoral system for South Africa and, if not, to identify and analyse an alternative electoral system for South Africa. The analysis entails a literature overview analysis of electoral systems. From the study it appears that modern democracies use a wide variety of different electoral systems. There is consensus that no single best electoral system exists which could be used by all countries, since every country has its distinctive circumstances and an electoral system’s functioning and outcomes are affected by it. In this study, twelve different electoral systems are identified with specific advantages and disadvantages. Criteria were set with which electoral systems had to comply in order to promote democracy and ensure the legitimacy of Parliament. These criteria require that electoral systems have to promote and ensure broad representation, accessible and meaningful elections, reconciliation, stable and effective government, accountability of government, accountability of representatives, promotion of political parties, opposition and oversight, sustainability of the electoral process, and international standards. The listed criteria were placed in order of priority according to those which are the most important in the current South African circumstances. In accordance with this, an evaluation model was drawn up which was quantified in order to calculate the extent to which every electoral system met the requirements and priority order. In determining the order of priority of the requirements in the criteria, the historical circumstances of South Africa, of discord, conflict, racial hatred, riots and suspicion between races, were taken into account. When applying the evaluation model to the twelve different electoral systems, it was found that the current closed-list proportional representative electoral system is the most suitable electoral system for South Africa and should be retained. In terms of the criticism of the current electoral system, the conclusion drawn is that electoral systems cannot ensure the measure of accountability of representatives. It is ensured by the internal rules and discipline of the political parties they represent. The contribution of electoral systems to the accountability of representatives is to ensure that voters have a choice between more than one candidate, or more than one political party at a following election. Furthermore, electoral systems also do not appoint candidates in an election; the respective political parties appoint them. In any appointment of candidates, the leadership and party bureaucracy will play a specific role, regardless of the type of electoral system.
Thesis (PhD (Political Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

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Sithanen, Ramakrishna. "Evaluating and proposing electoral systems for plural societies : the case of Mauritius." Thesis, Brunel University, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.589624.

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Suh, Jaekwon. "Political barriers to market convergence electoral systems, political coalitions, and corporate governance /." Diss., Restricted to subscribing institutions, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1693027131&sid=6&Fmt=2&clientId=1564&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

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Trounstine, Jessica Luce. "Urban empires : causes and consequences of biased electoral systems in American cities /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC IP addresses, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3138826.

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Andersson, Petra. "The Impact of Electoral Systems on Women’s Political Representation : A Quantitative Study." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-402949.

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Frye, Saylor. "The Unrepresentative Nature of the Electoral College." Wittenberg University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wuhonors1623847201581298.

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Vaidyanathan, Karthik. "Explaining unexpected electoral openings in authoritarian systems a comparative analysis of parliamentary elections /." Diss., [La Jolla] : University of California, San Diego, 2010. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3398834.

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Luhiste, Maarja. "Candidate gender and electoral success in party list proportional representation (PR List) systems." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/4371.

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This thesis studies women politicians’ journey along the path from candidates to elected representatives in party list proportional representation (PR list) systems. While past literature provides sufficient evidence that more women are elected in proportional electoral systems than in majority / plurality systems, there is limited research explaining the differences in women’s representation across varying types of PR list systems. This thesis aims to fill that gap, by focusing primarily on the election of women across preferential (open and ordered list systems) and non-preferential (closed list systems) PR list voting systems. Moreover, unlike the vast majority of previous research, which has relied on aggregate level data only, this research investigates the election of women at the individual candidate level. Such an approach allows the present thesis to consider, next to traditional aggregate level predictors, how party gatekeepers and the news media may either support or hinder women in progressing from candidates to elected representatives. Since the focus is set on the 2009 European Parliament elections, this thesis investigates the process of electing women cross-nationally. The results show that female candidates have a higher likelihood of being elected in non-preferential closed list voting systems than in preferential ordered list voting systems. The results suggest that this is the case because, first, party gatekeepers in ordered list systems place women in less viable electoral list positions than party gatekeepers in closed list systems; second, media cover female candidates less in ordered list systems compared to closed list systems; and finally, female candidates in ordered list systems fail to make up their less competitive starting position with preference votes because preference votes in ordered list systems do not significantly alter the initial party list rankings.

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Seegobin, Krishna Sham. "The human rights implications of the ‘best loser system’ in Mauritius and the prospect of reform." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/12470.

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The Best Loser System (BLS) in Mauritius is a component of the electoral system where candidates are selected by established procedure on the basis of their race or community to stand as members of parliament It is as a tool to protect minority interests. The main research question is the following : what are the human rights implications and the prospect of reform of the BLS in Mauritius?
A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Mr Angelo Matusse, Faculty of Law, Universidade Eduardo, Mondlane Mocambique.
Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2009.
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Centre for Human Rights
LLM

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Shearman, Leah Claire. "The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/3696.

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The early 1990's marked the beginning of a new era for Southern Africa when a number of single party states began the transition to multiparty democratic systems. Within this process, democratic institutions were established and then have since played varied roles in normalizing of democratic norms in their respective countries. The elites who make these institutions play a vital role in maintaining democracy within these countries. This study examines their perceptions and actions in order to get a better understanding of the quality of representation and as a result the quality of democracy. More specifically the study examines how possible micro and macro level factors, such as electoral competitiveness, role orientations and electoral systems affect the level of constituency service performed by legislators in five Southern African countries (South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Zambia). The majority of data used in this study comes from Module 3 of the African Legislatures Project. Electoral data was also collected from national electoral commissions and country experts. The results indicate that as a whole the electoral system has an effect on the level of constituency service conducted by legislators. Role orientation does not appear to be a factor in legislator's decision about the amount of constituency service they will perform. Electoral competition is a factor for number of countries in the study. However, the evidence shows that in some cases higher levels of electoral competitiveness actually induce legislators to perform less constituency service.

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Zelaznik, Javier. "The building of coalitions in the presidential systems of Latin America : an inquiry into the political conditions of governability." Thesis, University of Essex, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.341237.

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Boaz, Cynthia Anne Marie. "Extreme democracy : electoral rules and the development of party systems in the former Soviet Union /." For electronic version search Digital dissertations database. Restricted to UC campuses. Access is free to UC campus dissertations, 2003. http://uclibs.org/PID/11984.

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Gervais, Trevor Joseph. "Defining Unlikely Candidates Across Electoral Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Barack Obama and Alan García." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/579150.

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Defining candidates is a longstanding tradition in political science. It makes it possible to form a greater understanding of how candidates are influenced by electoral systems and how they operate within those systems. Significant research has been completed to understand the impacts of electoral systems on candidates that seek public office and strong definitions have been developed for outsider candidates who rise to power despite existing outside of the traditional party system. However, little attention has been paid to candidates who exist within the traditional party structure but still cannot be classified as likely to find electoral success. Yet despite the odds against them, these candidates do win elections and it is important to understand the factors that allow this to occur so that the role of unlikely candidates can be better conceptualized. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a greater understanding of these unlikely candidates and form a definition that can be utilized across various electoral systems. This definition will then be applied to two candidates in separate systems to confirm its utility regardless of each country's individual electoral laws.

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Coimbra, Mesquita Nuno, and Aníbal Corrado. "Corruption, media systems and governments: contexts of prosecution and defense from the public authority in Argentina and Brasil." Politai, 2015. http://repositorio.pucp.edu.pe/index/handle/123456789/91698.

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This article analyzes the role of political scandals at different times of the government’sactivity, with the intention to verify if news of corruption differs in electoral and non-electoral periods. We try to verify in what contexts Argentinean and Brazilian governments are more permeable to political scandals and respond more actively. We consider the electoral schedule and the type of Presidentialism in Argentina and Brazil. We argue that after an accusation of corruption in media, public officials assess risks in order to consider if their reputation were erode by not facing scandals of corruption. During electoral periods politicians fear of punishment from voters through mechanisms of electoral accountability. Finally we say that the majority Presidentialism is less permeable to allegations that coalition one. To corroborate these hypotheses we investigate responses of governments in Argentina (as a case of majoritarian Presidentialism),and in Brazil (as a case of coalitional Presidentialism).
Este artículo se propone analizar el papel de los escándalos políticos en diferentes momentos de actividad de un gobierno, con la intención de verificar si existen variaciones en los niveles de denuncias de corrupción entre los períodos electorales y los no eleccionarios. Asimis- mo, se intenta verificar en qué contextos los gobiernos de Argentina y Brasil son más permeables a las denuncias mediáticas y responden más activamente. Para ello, consideramos el calendario electoral y el tipo de presidencialismo de cada país. Se argumenta que, tras una acusación de corrupción en los medios, los funcionarios públicos evalúan los riesgos de ver sus reputaciones erosionadas por no enfrentar la denuncia. El costo para contrarrestar la opinión pública tiende a ser mayor en los períodos electorales, ya que el temor al castigo de los votantes mediante mecanismos de accountability electoral también aumenta. Finalmente, afirmamos que el presidencialismo mayoritario resulta menos permeable a las denuncias que uno de coalición. Para corroborar estas hipótesis se investigan las respuestas de los gobiernos en Argentina, como caso de presidencialismo mayoritario, y en Brasil, como caso de presidencialismo de coalición.

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Kawera, Marie Sylvie. "Proportional representation electoral system and conflict management in divided societies: the case of Rwanda and Kenya." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/12431.

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Critically examines the role of electoral systems in the democratisation process and conflict management in divided societies such as Kenya and Rwanda. Analyses the power sharing arrangement institutionalized in Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide in order to demonstrate the potential to mitigate issues of ethnic. Also explores the anomalous results caused by the current electoral system in Kenya (First Past The Post) in its process of democratization and then find out which is the most suitable electoral system which encourage co-operation and inclusiveness and discourage conflict and exclusiveness. minority representation
A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Atangcho N Akonumbo, Faculté de Sciences Sociales et de Gestion, Université Catholique D’Afrique, Centrale Yaounde Cameroun.
Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2009.
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Centre for Human Rights
LLM

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Ortiz, Jeffrey. "The Influence of Voting Systems on Voter Utility: Who Would Benefit." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1699.

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The voting system a government chooses has influence upon the way people vote, as it has some bearing on the average person’s utility received from voting. In the United States the Electoral College system is used to determine who becomes president-elect, but theoretical arguments have been made to support a change in voting structure to Proportional Representation. I developed my model to understand more about how a change in the voting structure would affect voter utility. My contribution to the research question focuses upon relative benefits of one voter in a specific party to another voter in another party. I used an empirical approach, using data pulled from past elections and survey data. My model suggests that Republican voters would receive a higher utility from a change in the voting system from the Electoral College to Proportional Representation. It is unclear whether Democrats would receive a higher benefit, but at least would receive a lesser utility change than that of the Republican voters.

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Warioba, Isabela Moses. "The first-past-the-post electoral system versus proportional representation in Africa : a comparative analysis." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/18651.

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Most African states emerged from shadows and made a transition from mono-party, one-person and military rule towards political pluralism and multi-party democratic governance in 1990s. One of the key ingredients of this transformation is the holding of regular elections and electoral systems that undergird the electoral process itself. However still, most African states practice what is referred to as shallow democracy as opposed to deeper democracy that requires full participation of citizens and accountability. Shallow democracy is the democracy that has not made any positive impacts to the ordinary people despite the radical changes to the constitution and expansion of part activity.
Prepared under the supervision of Mr Paulo Comoane at the Faculty of Law, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique
Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011.
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
nf2012
Centre for Human Rights
LLM

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Liu, Tsung-Wei. "The effects of electoral laws on party competition in Taiwan 1989-1998, with particular reference to the single non-transferable vote (SNTV)." Thesis, University of Essex, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.369370.

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Smith, Alison F. "The effect of electoral institutions on party membership in central and east Europe." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2c9c60b1-5fd8-435e-a485-a5322de60246.

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Party membership levels in the new democracies of central and east European were predicted to remain universally low, stymied by post-communist legacies, the availability of state funding and the prevalence of mass media communications (van Biezen, 2003; Kopecký, 2007). However, more than two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, membership levels vary considerably between countries, and also between individual parties within party systems. Using freshly gathered party membership data, elite surveys and interviews, this thesis explores a number of institutional hypotheses to test whether, as in western democracies, electoral institutions influence how parties organise and campaign. This thesis finds that national electoral systems, municipal electoral rules and business funding regulations have an observable impact on how parties use their members. In particular, 'decentralised' electoral systems encourage greater involvement of members in voter contacting and other small campaign tasks. This thesis concludes that, contrary to the dominant literature, the availability of state funding has little impact on party membership recruitment. Instead, central and east European parties' attitudes to members are shaped by a complex interaction of institutional, cultural, ideological and strategic factors.

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Raabe, Johannes [Verfasser]. "Electoral Systems and the Proportionality-Concentration Trade-off : Promises and Pitfalls of Mixed Designs [[Elektronische Ressource]] / Johannes Raabe." Kiel : Universitätsbibliothek Kiel, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1079524010/34.

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Kuchařová, Milena. "Volební inženýrství na lokální úrovni v České republice: případová studie statutárních měst Praha, Olomouc, Ústí nad Labem, Most." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2015. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-205011.

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The master's thesis deals with local elections in the Czech Republic from the point of view of electoral engineering. Theoretical part of the thesis is focused on the elections, electoral systems and variables of electoral systems. The main variables are electoral district magnitude, electoral formula, legal threshold and the number and character of tier districting. The thesis then describes issue of gerrymandering and malapportionment from the theoretical perspective. The next part of the thesis deals with legislative framework of the local government elections from 1989 including rules and problematic characteristics of current electoral law for electing members of municipality. Empirical part of the thesis analyses local elections in the Czech Republic and results of the elections between 1994 and 2014. In the last chapter, division of the territory into electoral districts is assessed with an emphasis on principle of equal weight of votes and degree of proportionality. Comparison was carried out by using two indices of proportionality, Loosemore and Hanby index and D'Hondt index.

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Korkmaz, Sabina. "Vem behöver spärren? : En kvalitativ flerfallsstudie av proportionella valsystem och uppkomsten av procentspärren." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-30640.

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Countries with proportional representation are increasingly introducing an electoral threshold to stop smaller parties from entering their parliaments. In this paper, I’m focusing on the proportional electoral system and mainly why some countries choose to impose a barrier to their parliaments and others do not. First I did a survey to see which countries that are using it and after that I decided to do three case studies including: Sweden, The Netherlands and Turkey. I used Carles Boix theory on proportional electoral systems. The main variable in his theory is that the “threat” from the social democratic parties has an affect on the enforcement of a PRsystem. I wanted to examine whether it was possible to apply this theory on the implementation of thresholds. Finally, it is possible to conclude that Boix theory can be used even when studying the emergence of electoral barriers. Boix theory suggests that any "threat" from new parties makes the old, larger and established parties or other government organizations want to impose a threshold to secure their positions. This was the case in Sweden and in Turkey. In countries where this situation does not exist, it seems to be no need for an electoral barrier, as shown in the Netherlands.

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Kang, Won-Taek. "Support for third parties under plurality rule electoral systems : a public choice analysis of Britain, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1997. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1465/.

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Why do parties other than major parties survive or even flourish under plurality rule electoral systems, when according to Duverger's law we should expect them to disappear. Why should rational voters support third parties, even though their chances of being successful are often low . Using an institutional public choice approach, this study analyses third party voting as one amongst a continuum of choices faced by electors who pay attention both to the ideological proximity of parties, and to their perceived efficacy measured against a community-wide level of minimum efficacy. The approach is applied in detailed case study chapters examining four different third parties. Two of the cases cover long-established and relatively successful third parties - the British Liberal Democrats; the Canadian NDP. The other two cases cover shorter-lived third parties - the New Zealand Social Credit; and the UNP in South Korea. In each case the study examines the party's specific history and dynamics, looks at the social base of its support and its ideological positioning, explores the party's perceived efficacy, and analyses the articulation of the third party's strategy. Two key themes emerge. First, plurality rule electoral systems impose severe constraints on third parties, but also create niches (such as one-party safe seats or regions, or unoccupied ideological space) within which a long-term third party can become established, flourish and develop strategies to partially overcome its lower perceived efficacy. Second, third party voting under plurality rule is not an isolated behaviour, but part of an integrated spectrum of choices (encompassing abstention, protest voting, tactical voting, and positive party support) which citizens make. People respond both to the ideological positioning and to the perceived efficacy of the competing political parties, within a specific voting context and using a collectively defined sense of what constitutes efficacious political behaviour.

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Івершень, А. "Аналіз виборчих систем в Україні в період її незалежності." Thesis, Сумський державний університет, 2017. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/65166.

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На сьогодні одним з основних інститутів демократії є вибори. Вони являють собою певний механізм, який забезпечує її існування та функціонування, а також з ними пов’язана реалізація політичних прав громадян та їх участь у формуванні різних органів держави. Вибори стимулюють позитивні зміни і загальний розвиток суспільства, оскільки ведеться пошук оптимальних шляхів для подолання недоліків існуючого політичного курсу та утвердження нового напрямку діяльності держави.

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Frazier, Merav. "Gender, Quota Laws, and the Struggles of Women’s Social Movements in Latin America." Scholar Commons, 2008. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/252.

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Assuming gender neutrality in comparative analysis, i.e. not including either explicit or implicit references to a particular gender or sex, runs the risk of camouflaging the unequal distribution of political power, economic influence, and political access for men and women. Unfortunately, in assuming such neutrality, one is blinded to the inherent flaws of political systems, the inequalities they create, and their lack of consideration of gender and women's rights. To counteract this inequality between the sexes, women's social movements are fighting to create gender awareness and establish formal policies that place them at the same level as their male counterparts, and feminist ideals are slowly becoming more prominent. As in other regions, in Latin America, quota laws have been established as affirmative action-type mechanisms that are meant to create a balance in view of the inequalities women face in ascending to political office. My study focuses on whether or not quota laws have increased women's presence in Latin American political legislatures and if they have met the intended objectives by the women's social movements that advocated for them. My results indicate that quota laws have not worked in every Latin American country to dramatically increase women's presence in politics. The literature also suggests that quota laws have not entirely been able to produce the desired outcomes as proposed by women's social movements in the region. I also address the question of what has made quota laws successful in some countries, yet not in others. My research indicates that the effectiveness of quota laws depends on how they are drafted and implemented, that is if institutions have effectively been altered and if the government is taking specific measures to ensure that the law is being enforced. Since women have not been able to rely on the good faith of the political parties to determine their entry to positions of public authority, traditional procedures for candidate selection have been in need of alteration. I conclude that if quota laws are not customized to a country's electoral system and applied meticulously by political parties, they will hardly produce any results for women.

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Esmaeilpour, Fadakar Shahin. "Majority-Preferential Two-Round Electoral Formula: A Balanced Value-Driven Model for Canada." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/31025.

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This research is an enquiry to find an electoral formula that conforms to Canadian constitutional values. Three core values that are pertinent to the issue of electoral systems are identified: democracy, diversity, and efficiency. Each of these core values is divided into different aspects. These aspects will form the backbone of the evaluation of different electoral systems in this work. I will begin with an evaluation of the plurality model of elections, which is currently used in Canada. I will demonstrate that many of the attributes of the current system are not in tune with Canadian constitutional values, in particular with the progressive interpretation that the Supreme Court of Canada has given to the right to vote as enshrined in Section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Although the interpretation of the right to vote will be the main thrust of the constitutional scrutiny in this work, attention will also be given to other pertinent rights such as equality rights, minority rights, and the freedom of expression. Next, I will examine provincial electoral reform initiatives that were initiated in five Canadian provinces. All of these initiatives - three of which were put to referenda and eventually defeated - proposed adopting a variant of proportional representation. Accordingly, I will evaluate proportional systems according to the intended values. I will conclude that these systems have problems of their own and they also cannot strike a fine balance between competing values. In the final stage, I will make a new proposal for elections to the Canadian Parliament. First, I will demonstrate that majority systems are better candidates to attain the envisioned values. Then I will introduce a new variant of the majority model, which I call a majority-preferential two-round variant. I will demonstrate that this new variant will outperform the other variants in the attainment of values if adopted for elections to the House of Commons. Finally, I will argue that the combination of a House of Commons elected through the majority-preferential formula and a proportionally elected Senate will result in a more balanced approach to the relevant constitutional values.

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Pinheiro, Flavio Leão. "Representação pública e protecionismo: uma avaliação dos incentivos eleitorais sobre os níveis de proteção comercial em países democráticos." Universidade de São Paulo, 2014. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/101/101131/tde-30042014-102059/.

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As regras eleitorais podem afetar o nível de proteção comercial em países democráticos? Estudos recentes indicam que, no que diz respeito ao protecionismo comercial, as instituições eleitorais importam. No entanto, diante de uma análise mais detalhada da literatura, é possível perceber que não há uma teoria prevalecente e que os resultados apresentados são ainda contraditórios. Nesta tese, objetiva-se resolver esse problema teórico e empírico que envolve representação política e protecionismo comercial testando pressupostos da literatura e apresentando explicações alternativas. A primeira parte do estudo aborda problema específico que, indiretamente, serviu de incentivo para a segunda etapa. A questão que se busca responder pode ser resumida na seguinte indagação: o tamanho do distrito eleitoral é um bom preditor para as preferências em matéria de política comercial do legislador? A pergunta trata, diretamente, da Constituency Size Assumption, um pressuposto que é amplamente aceito pela literatura de Economia Política Internacional (EPI). De acordo com essa abordagem, quanto maior o distrito, maior a probabilidade de o legislador se mostrar favorável ao livre-comércio, uma vez que ele estaria insulado em relação a grupos de interesses. Em distritos menores, no entanto, legisladores poderiam ser tornar, mais facilmente, reféns de interesses particularistas, fato que resultaria em posições protecionistas. Nesta parte, foi proposto o estudo dos casos brasileiros e chileno, levando em consideração as votações nominais de deputados e senadores. Corroborando os achados da literatura, também não foram encontradas evidências para validar a teoria diante da análise de votos nominais entre os anos de 1995 e 2010, para o Brasil, e entre 1996 e 2006, para o Chile. Na segunda parte, apresenta-se o modelo Stigler-Peltzman (S-P) de regulação, tal qual formalizado por Chang et al. em Electoral Systems and the Balance of Consumer-Producer Power, como uma possível solução para se entender a relação entre os incentivos gerados pelos sistemas eleitorais e os níveis de proteção comercial em democracias. Após adaptar o modelo para a área de política comercial, este foi testado empiricamente em 37 democracias entre os anos de 1995 e 2008, quando se estimou o efeito do nível de responsividade dos sistemas eleitorais - desproporcionalidade eleitoral - sobre o nível de proteção tarifária. Os achados indicam que quanto maior a taxa de proporcionalidade entre cadeiras e votos obtidos gerada pelos sistemas eleitorais, maior o nível de proteção que os governantes eleitos irão oferecer aos grupos de interesses, especialmente em democracias não-presidencialistas.
Do electoral rules affect the level of trade protection in democratic countries? Recent studies indicate that, when it comes to trade protection, electoral systems do matter; however, a thorough analysis of the literature unveils the fact that competing theories and mixed findings still prevail. In this dissertation, I intend to solve the empirical and theoretical puzzle involving political representation and trade policy by offering and testing an alternative explanation. In the first part, I investigate a more specific problem, which, indirectly, was an incentive to develop the second part. The question I attempt to answer is: Does the electoral district size affect legislator\'s preference in trade policy? The question is related to the Constituency Size Assumption, which is widely accepted in the International Political Economy (IPE) literature. Accordingly, the larger the constituency, the more prone the legislator will be to free trade, given that he will be insulated from special interests. Smaller constituencies, however, would lead to concern for particularistic interests, which would result in a protectionist position. Until recently, few studies have proposed empirical analyses of this relationship, and those who have accomplished the feat of presenting findings that cast doubt on the validity of this assumption, have been restricted to the US Congress. In this section, I test the constituency size theory in Brazil and Chile, contrasting vote preference with the trade policy of Representatives and Senators. I found no evidence of the theory\'s validity. The empirical analysis is based on rollcall votes from 1995 to 2010 (Brazil) and from 1996 to 2006 (Chile), in which we compared trade-related bills voted in both Houses. In the second part of this work, I present as an answer to the puzzle the Stigler-Peltzman (S-P) analysis of regulation, formalized by Chang et al. in Electoral Systems and the Balance of Consumer-Producer Power. Adapting their model, I evaluate the effect of electoral institutions on the level of trade protection. More specifically, I analyze 37 democracies from 1995 to 2008 and estimate the effect of electoral systems\' level of responsiveness - electoral disproportionality - on trade protection. The findings indicate that the higher the rate of proportionality created by electoral institutions, the greater the level of protection that politicians will provide for special interest groups, especially in non-presidential democracies.

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Dručkus, Tadas. "Rinkimų sistemų poveikis balsavimo rezultatams: 2004 m. ir 2008 m. Lietuvos Respublikos Seimo rinkimų atvejų analizė." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2010. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2010~D_20100616_131335-92363.

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Magistro baigiamajame darbe „Rinkimų sistemų poveikis balsavimo rezultatams: 2004 m. ir 2008 m. Lietuvos Respublikos Seimo rinkimų atvejų analizė“ nagrinėjama kaip būtų susiklostę abiejų paskutinių LR Seimo rinkimų rezultatai, jei rinkimai vyktų ne pagal dabar taikomą paralelinę mišrią rinkimų sistemą. Šio darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti ir eksperimentiškai patikrinti kaip skirtingos rinkimų sistemos įtakoja LR Seimo rinkimų rezultatus ir kaip nuo to keičiasi parlamentinių partijų svoris bei įtaka. Uždaviniai: 1. Apžvelgti šiuo metu pasaulyje naudojamas rinkimų sistemas; 2. Pateikti pagrindinių rinkimų sistemų detalią analizę išskiriant jų privalumus bei trūkumus; 3. Atlikti 2004 m. ir 2008 m. LR Seimo rinkimų atvejų analizę pritaikant skirtingas rinkimų sistemas; 4. Palyginti galimus 2004 m. ir 2008 m. LR Seimo rinkimų rezultatus taikant skirtingas rinkimų sistemas bei apibendrinti gautus rezultatus. Hipotezės: 1. Sąrašinė proporcinė rinkimų sistema parankesnė naujai susikūrusioms partijoms ir savo ruožtu neparanki tradicinėms; 2. Mažoritarinės rinkimų sistemos neparankios naujai susikūrusioms partijoms; 3. Tautinių mažumų partijoms ir nepartiniams kandidatams parankiausia “pirmas-prie-finišo” rinkimų sistema; Atliktoje analizėje su 5 skirtingomis rinkimų sistemomis, patvirtinamos keltos hipotezės, kad proporcinio atstovavimo rinkimų sistemos palankios naujai besikuriančioms partijoms ir leistų joms turėti iki 80% daugiau atstovų įstatymų leidžiamojoje institucijoje, kai tuo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
Master‘s Degree final paper work „Electoral systems impact on voting results: 2004 and 2008 Lithuanian parliament elections‘ case study“ pays main attention to what the results would be of the two last elections to Lithuanian parliament if other than parallel electoral system was used. Main goal is to analize and experimentaly check how do different electoral systems impact Lithuanian parliament results and how depending on results do the party position, weight and influence change. Object: 1. To review electoral systems currently used in the world; 2. To make detailed analysis of main electoral systems stressing their advantages and disadvantages; 3. To analyse 2004 and 2008 Lithuanian parliament elections using five different electoral systems (party list, two round, first-past-the-post, MMP and limited voting); 4. To compare possible results of 20004 and 2008 Lithuanian parliament elections using different electoral systems and conclude the results Hypothesis: 1. Party list system provides new parties with additional seats in the parliament; 2. Plurality / majority systems provides new parties with less seats comparing to parallel system; 3. First-past-the-post provides additional seats (comparing to parallel system) to minority parties and non-partisan candidates. Detailed analysis results confirm, that party list system provides new parties with additional seasts in the parliament. At the same time, two biggest traditional parties would lose up to 28,89% seats comparing... [to full text]

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Vitiello, Thomas. "Peeking on the campaign : online Voting Advice Applications : challenges and prospects for electoral studies in the digital era." Thesis, Paris, Institut d'études politiques, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018IEPP0001/document.

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Les Systèmes d’Aide au Vote (SAV) comparent, sur des enjeux variés, les positions des utilisateurs avec celles des partis ou des candidats qui sont établies à partir d’une analyse de contenu de leur programme électoral. Les SAV sont un outil d’analyse novateur à usage des politistes puisqu’ils leur permettent de récolter des données empiriques à grande échelle tout au long d’une campagne électorale. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'utiliser les données collectées par les SAV afin d’analyser la diffusion d’un site Web à caractère informatif et politique, i.e. les SAV, auprès des internautes dans des systèmes médiatiques différents. Cette thèse teste l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'utilisation des SAV par différents groupes d'électeurs (électeurs partisans, hésitants et indécis) varie selon les systèmes médiatiques. Les analyses des données collectées par des SAV dans sept démocraties électorales représentant trois différents types de systèmes médiatiques (Democratic Corporatist, Liberal et Pluralist Polarized) montrent que les systèmes médiatiques structurent les comportements et influent sur le degré d’exposition à des informations politiques en ligne. Le second apport de cette thèse est l’utilisation des données collectées par un SAV pour l'analyse électorale, notamment pour l’étude du vote sur enjeux et des dynamiques de campagne. Plusieurs analyses sont réalisées dans cette thèse à partir des données recueillies par le SAV français de La Boussole présidentielle. Cette thèse montre que, bien qu’étant non-probabilistes, les échantillons SAV sont très informatifs à condition d’être intégrés dans un cadre de recherche approprié et d’ajuster les biais statistiques
Online Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are websites or online applications that show voters which party or candidate is closest to their own political ideas based on how they mark their positions on an ample range of policy issues. In addition to providing voters with reliable information in a structured manner, VAAs are an innovative data-collection tool on issue positions and on a wide set of other indicators. The main scope of this dissertation is to use VAA-collected data to learn about online information exposure during campaigns across media systems. Building on the realistic view of the Web’s political potential and its impact on the public, this dissertation test the hypothesis that VAA use by different voter groups (partisan, doubting and undecided voters) varies across media systems. The analyses of VAA-collected data in seven electoral democracies across three different types of media systems (Democratic Corporatist, Liberal, and Polarized Pluralist) show that media systems are key mediators to explain online information exposure. The second scope of this dissertation is to use VAA-collected data for the sake of electoral analysis, in particular to study issue-voting and campaign dynamics analyses. Several analyses are carried out using data collected by the French VAA of La Boussole présidentielle. This dissertation shows that, despite being non-probabilistic, VAA samples can serve as a very informative tool for the study of political and communication processes during electoral campaigns if integrated within an appropriate research framework and with the use of proper statistical adjustment

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Nunez, Lopez Lidia. "Electoral system stability and change: an analysis of the barriers and incentives to reform in European democracies since 1945." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209101.

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Electoral systems have an enormous importance on how political power is distributed, on governability and the dynamics of representation of any given democratic society. Political science has traditionally considered electoral systems to be stable institutions and has paid more attention to understand how political parties adapt to the electoral rules than to how “electoral institutions themselves are adapted by political parties” (Benoit 2004). However, given their importance, unveiling the factors that influence the change and the choice of electoral rules is crucial and an increasing number of studies has addressed the issue since the 1990s.

This dissertation lies at the crossroads between traditional explanations of the stability of electoral systems and the more recent interpretations of electoral system change. Through three empirical parts, this thesis shows how these literatures are reconcilable and complementary. This study encompasses a comprehensive set of explicative factors at the micro, meso and macro levels that shed light on the incentives and barriers to reform electoral systems. Methodologically, the large-N approach of this thesis goes beyond the usual case studies and small-N analyses that characterize the field of electoral system change. Besides, the consideration of cases of reforms and cases of stability contributes to a better understanding of the determinants of electoral system change. While traditional accounts of electoral system change are predominantly based on political parties’ self-interest, this study demonstrates that the context matters. In this regard, this dissertation has three main findings.

Firstly, this study calls into question the body of literature addressing the change of electoral institutions by analyzing the impact of different barriers in the success of reform debates. At the party level, it shows how intraparty division can constitute an important factor to explain institutional inertia. The analysis is based on the responses of Irish Members of Parliament (Teachtaí Dala, or TDs) to a number of survey items designed to measure their evaluations of the current electoral system. The study discusses how the heterogeneity of preferences within parties over this issue may act as a barrier for reform. Besides, at the micro level, it sheds light on the determinants of individuals’ incentives to support reform. Beyond the classical power-seeking motivations, individual legislators also appear to be driven by values and attitudes about the quality of democracy.

Secondly, this thesis focuses on institutional contexts. This study analyzes the capacity of institutions to deter reforms using empirical evidence of the occurrence of reforms and the duration of electoral systems in 17 European countries. Drawing on Lijphart’s framework of the patterns of democracy, this research analyzes the extent to which the elements that differentiate between majoritarian and consensus democracies can hinder electoral reforms. On the one hand, it shows the impact of individual institutions on the occurrence of reform and the duration of electoral systems. It demonstrates that higher numbers of veto players, more proportional electoral systems, limited vested interests of the incumbent parties, constitutional rigidity and the existence of judicial review can reduce the likelihood of reform. On the other hand, this study demonstrates that the different combinations of institutional elements provide important explanatory leverage on the duration of electoral systems. In this regard, contrary to what is often assumed, it is shown that the occurrence of electoral reforms is linked to the incumbents’ capacity to develop their preferred policies. Those systems in which power is more concentrated, that is majoritarian systems, appear to be those in which electoral systems reforms are more frequent.

Finally, the thesis explores the impact of external shocks on the likelihood of reform. On the basis of an analysis of a dataset of electoral reforms that have been enacted in Europe since 1945, this study demonstrates that economic crises and citizens’ dissatisfaction with democracy are related to the introduction of electoral reforms. However, the mechanism is mediated by the existence of new parties that capitalize on this dissatisfaction and that can threaten the established parties. In these circumstances, restrictive reforms – those that aim at hindering the entry of new parties - are more likely to be introduced, though too late to prevent the entry of these newcomers.

Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Gyimah, Nana Afua Boamah, and Bertrand Asongwe Tita. "Electronic Voting; A Possible Solution for Sub-Saharan Africa? : A focus on the Ghanaian Electoral System." Thesis, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Informatik, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-12573.

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One of the major reasons for political instability in Sub-Saharan Africa originates from the way elections are conducted. Most African countries have quite a handful of electoral malpractices which lead to political instability, civil wars and low economic growth. Electronic voting might be a solution to the election problems and thus bring in a stable political atmosphere which attracts investors. This thesis looks at the prospects and challenges of implementing e-voting in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa as a solution to the current manual paper-based system and proposes a framework and requirements which can be used as guidelines for its adoption and implementation. The thesis has been conducted by studying literature on electronic voting and Diffusion of Innovations Theory. Furthermore, a case study has been conducted on the Ghanaian electoral process, by conducting interviews with the Danquah Institute of Ghana and through questionnaires to some Ghanaian citizens in both the rural and urban areas of Ghana. The main results from the thesis show that the adoption and subsequent implementation of e-voting in SSA countries, can only be possible if the governments show strong committment and support by securing funds through donor organizations, and providing the necessary IT infrastructure and other resources needed to support the project. Voter education too is an absolute necessity. The adoption of e-voting is mainly based on how the innovation will be diffused and the perceived benefits that will be derived from the investment. Hence, particular attention should be paid to the various communication channels, especially the media, through which messages are passed across to the citizens.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Electoral Systems'

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