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In the face of a threat to democratic rule, a Brazilian electoral court barred its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, from holding office for eight years. Unfortunately, the United States lacks a similar electoral court to protect the integrity of the electoral process—in fact, our electoral system is organized in such a way that it invites attacks on its integrity. These problems in design can be traced back to the US Constitution, which, notwithstanding its durability and historical greatness, suffers from certain defects that leave the United States vulnerable to democratic back-sliding. Principal defects include the method of presidential elections via the Electoral College, the two-senator-per-state rule in the upper chamber of Congress, and, perhaps most damaging of all, the method for amending the Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In electoral systems with districts that vary in magnitude, the number of seats to be filled in each district will be even or odd. We argue that such a variation has crucial political consequences, called the 'odd–even effect'. In low‐magnitude districts, elections are more competitive when the district magnitude is odd than even; the incentives for coordination are thus stronger in the former scenario than in the latter. Employing quasi‐experimental data from 780 districts in Spain's lower house elections, we show that the number of parties is smaller in low‐magnitude districts with an odd number of seats than in low‐magnitude districts with an even number of seats. The elite‐ and voter‐level mechanisms driving the odd–even effect are examined using data on mobilisation efforts and wasted votes at the district level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK's 2024 general election was the least proportional of modern times. Labour's substantial parliamentary majority rested on the smallest ever winning party vote share. The Conservatives, meanwhile, suffered one of their worst ever results. While political and economic events during the 2019–2024 Parliament were key to the outcome, the operation of the first past the post electoral system was also important. In 2024, it was strongly biased in Labour's favour and against the Conservatives, contributing substantially to the scale of their defeat and of Labour's victory, allowing Labour to parlay modest support into a large majority. This pro‐Labour bias was to a large extent a result of the much greater efficiency of Labour's geography of support. We place the relative Conservative‐Labour bias at the 2024 contest into a longer historical perspective, demonstrating that it marked the abrupt end of a ten‐year period in which electoral bias had favoured the Conservatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Elections are devices, through which the abstract concept of representation gains its specified institutional form, therefore they are highly relevant for populists. The paper examines the illiberal-populist project of redesigning the legal framework of elections in Hungary after 2010, focusing on the role of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (HCC) in reviewing electoral law as well as interacting with the ordinary courts through electoral adjudication. It is argued that although a distinct 'populist imagination' (Müller) of elections is discernible, there is no special populist electoral politics, rather the 'inherent authoritarianism of democracy' (Pildes) is exacerbated. In Hungary the electoral legislation was shrewdly tailored to the governmental parties' needs, and electoral politics is constantly subjected to instrumental changes. It is argued that although apex courts could be key players in checking electoral manipulation, the HCC did not protect effectively the integrity of electoral law, and at a later stage it even intervened in an arbitrary and arguably politically biased manner. The paper argues that the Hungarian example underscores the need for enhanced court activism in terms of electoral law, especially when populists already came to power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Redistricting is constantly accompanied by political conflicts as well as academic arguments in countries with majoritarian or mixed electoral system, as a result of the process could potentially influence the outcome of elections. In the international scientific discourse and legal processes, this conflict is managed by different approaches. So far, Hungary didn't implement such methodologies by the executive branches, therefore such anomalies as malapportionment, are not taken care of, as the electoral reform of 2011 has not been advanced by any kind of social or scientific disputes. Having reviewed existing processes of redistricting in the US, UK, and Canada, a procedure was created in this paper for revising district boundaries, that would fulfill the requirement of proportionality in respect of Hungary as well. To achieve that, at the first place, proportionality among counties must be assured. Secondly, if a given county will have modified number of constituencies, district borders must be redrawn to gain proportional representation of voters. The results show, that the proposed subdivision would provide proportional allocation for the forthcoming 10 years at least. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Venezolana de Gerencia (RVG) is the property of Revista de Filosofia-Universidad del Zulia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite the growing interest in the economic backgrounds of mps in Western Europe, the evolution of working-class numerical representation before 1945 has not been systematically studied. Using data from England and Wales (1832–1944), Germany (1871–1930), and Norway (1906–1936), the authors show both that working-class mps were elected when barriers were lowered and that almost all working-class parliamentarians were affiliated with socialist parties. The authors further probe the conditions that determined the electoral success of workers using data about all candidates, constituencies' occupational profile, and unionization in Norway between 1906 and 1936. They find that socialist parties nominated workers either in relatively uncompetitive elections in which unionization was high or in competitive races in which the party's victory was possible but not guaranteed. Using information about mps in Germany and England and Wales, the authors find similar patterns. The article discusses the implications for research about democratization, the rise of social democracy, and the numerical representation of workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Economics & Administrative Sciences / Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi Iktisadi ve Idari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Business Administration and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aims to determine the characteristics of party systems within the context of electoral systems, forms of government, and continents. There is no study in the literature that quantitatively reveals the relationship between the party system and forms of government. Furthermore, this study differs from other studies in that it deals with the relationship between the electoral system and the party system on a global scale. In the study, the effective number of parties (ENEP and ENPP) was calculated for the last three legislative elections of the countries governed by presidential, president–parliamentary, premier–presidential and parliamentary forms of government, using the Laakso–Taagepera Index. The dataset was then analyzed with ANOVA and post-hoc tests. The study revealed that party systems do not differ significantly from forms of government, that is, forms of government do not determine party systems. Similarly, party systems do not significantly differ in terms of the continents, that is, there are no continental party system characteristics of the forms of government. Also, the study confirmed that it is the electoral system that determines the party systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Çankırı Karatekin University Journal of the Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences is the property of Cankiri Karatekin University, Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Vote18 in Malaysia aims to extend voting rights to individuals aged 18 and older from the former voting age threshold of 21 years and older. This article discusses the challenges associated with implementing Vote18 in Malaysia, aiming to fill the gaps in the scholarly debates on Vote18 and the obstacles to implementing it in Malaysia. Even though the federal constitutional amendment to implement Vote18 was ratified in 2019, its implementation was delayed by two years, raising the essential question: What is the rationale for its delay? The primary data were collected from interviews with four respondents, comprising current and past ministers who had a pivotal role in revising the federal constitution and implementing Vote18, whereas secondary data were gathered from books, journals, and online newspapers. The findings revealed four obstacles to implementing Vote18 in Malaysia. First, the state constitution or state body laws, including the Election Offenses Act 1954, the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981, and the Registration of Electors Regulations 2002, must be amended before allowing people aged 18 and over to vote or run for office. Second, merging data and information stored by numerous government departments and agencies, such as the National Registration Department (NRD), is labour-intensive and time-consuming. Third, the development of a new voting system and the necessary infrastructure are still ongoing. Finally, the most critical hindrance is the government's lack of political will to ensure the initiative's success. Therefore, it can be concluded that lowering the age restriction is among the key components in reforming the Malaysian electoral system.

Copyright of Route Educational & Social Science Journal (Ress Journal) is the property of Ress Academy Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article seeks to understand the circumstances under which minoritized women are descriptively represented. Drawing from a unique dataset of 7,978 legislators in 37 countries, we conduct the first cross-national examination of minoritized women's representation at the level of individual legislators. We find that gender quotas, ethnic parties, and ethnic seats are effective at enhancing minoritized women's political representation across different electoral systems, especially when clustered together. And, although ethnic parties and ethnic seats promote the representation of both minoritized women and men, ethnic seats provide a more level playing field between minoritized women and men than ethnic parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a vast literature in political science concerning the strengths and weaknesses of single member plurality (SMP) electoral systems. Some argue that PR systems are superior because they ensure better representativeness by reducing the distortion between votes received by a party and its seat share. Others say that the benefits of SMP in terms of accountability make the price of electoral distortion bearable. But what if there would be incremental institutional changes that could maintain the benefits derived from SMP elections and still reduce the distortion it causes? In this paper, we make use of an innovative research design to measure the impact of assembly size on seat disproportionality as measured by the Gallagher Index. We make use of Canada as an ideal case. In this country, federal and provincial elections occur at regular intervals, and the numbers of seats at play vary substantially between levels of government within a province. We find that increasing assembly size is associated with reduced disproportionality in a negative logarithmic fashion, making it an especially useful institutional tool to reduce distortion in smaller assemblies. We argue this research brings a new light on an ongoing debate about SMP systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocates of the instant-runoff voting system (IRV) often argue that it is less susceptible to strategic voting than plurality. Is this true? More generally, how should we define and measure a voting system's susceptibility to strategic voting? Previous research in this area is unsatisfying, partly because it ignores the uncertainty voters face when they vote; we introduce a better approach. We find that, when beliefs are precise and other voters are expected to vote sincerely, more voters would benefit from voting strategically in IRV than in plurality (contrary to what advocates suggest). The anticipated benefit for these voters is small, however, and for the average voter the benefit of taking strategy into account is many times larger in plurality than IRV—especially when beliefs are imprecise or voters expect other voters to behave strategically. The methods we introduce can be used to study other properties of voting systems when voters are strategic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primaries are becoming the preferred mechanism to select parliamentary elites in an increasing number of parties across Europe. Recent literature has shown that certain party-level characteristics favour the implementation of this inclusive method of selection. However, despite its great relevance in party life, the impact of the electoral system has not attracted enough attention. In this article we wonder if the type of electoral list (blocked or not blocked) has an effect on how participative the method of candidate selection is. We expect primaries to be more popular where electoral lists are blocked, as an intermediate mechanism for the electorate to influence an otherwise leadership-driven process of candidate selection. However, the results of a survey of 2,561 candidates from 37 parties show that this expectation is not met, as primaries seem to be more common precisely in non-blocked lists systems, with this effect being especially visible among right-wing parties. These findings suggest that the type of list might play a key role in this important aspect of internal party life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the change in the electoral system used in elections to the Chamber of Deputies has attracted the attention of lawyers, political scientists, and sociologists, we still lack a comprehensive comparative analysis of the new system with the original one or other alternatives. The main reason for this is the lack of empirical data. This article overcomes this problem using a simulation of electoral results that correspond to the real Czech election environment. On the basis of this simulated dataset it is possible to generate generalisable conclusions about the proportionality, integration effect, and legitimacy of three electoral formulas: the original D'Hondt divisor, the newly adopted Imperiali quota, and the Hare quota. Our results show that the Hare quota is clearly the best choice. Its advantages in proportionality significantly outweigh its disadvantages in integrative effect. Moreover, this formula sees the least disruption to the logical sequence of results, i.e. where a party with fewer votes gets more seats, a phenomenon that is undesirable and undermines the legitimacy of elections. We are convinced that among the three formulas compared the Hare quota is the one that best fits the constitutional requirements of the electoral system as interpreted by the Constitutional Court, and that - unless the legislature is planning to change other parameters of the electoral system - it is the one that should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the decline of Islamic parties in post-Suharto Indonesia and its correlation with changes in the electoral system. Using a mixed method, data on the post-Suharto election was analyzed quantitatively using the Pedersen formula, supplemented with a qualitative review of scholarly sources, such as journals, books, and proceedings. The results showed that the changing electoral system triggered dynamics in the party system, leading to a decline in the number of votes for incumbent parties, particularly Islamic parties. This decline led to electoral volatility, where voters were more willing to switch their support from one party to another. Moreover, the decline of Islamic partiess’ electoral performance prevailed, as they could not reclaim their positions. This study offers insight into the workings of political party systems in developing democracies, showing how modifications to the electoral process can influence the political environment. These results add to the growing body of knowledge on party systems and electoral politics, not only in Indonesia but also in comparable contexts around the globe.

This research paper discusses the reality of electoral governance in Algeria, after the issuance of law No. 21-01 regulating elections, which was issued on March 10, 2021, and the subsequent legislative and local elections in the same year. The paper questions the extent to which governance indicators are applied in the electoral affairs in Algeria through the aforementioned past election entitlements, and the extent to which they are free from aspects of corruption or fraud. The integrity and credibility of elections is considered essential in the democratic process of any country, given that it produces future elites capable of managing people's concerns and hopes, and formulate development strategies that are in the interest of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this research is the open proportional election system after the Constitutional Court Decision Number 114/PUU-XX/2022. This study aimed to analyze the legal implications of Constitutional Court Decision Number 114/PUU-XX/2022 from the perspective of people’s sovereignty. Research methods with a normative approach were analyzed in a qualitative descriptive manner. The results showed that the basis for consideration of the decision of the Constitutional Court Number 114/PUU-XX/2022, as the Petitioners’ application is not grounded in law in its entirety. The Constitutional Court rejected the arguments presented considering its ruling, the Constitutional Court used textual interpretation or original intent and systematic interpretation. The Constitutional Court considered the open proportional election system closer to the concept of elections in the 1945 NRI Constitution. The constitution mandates consideration of the Constitutional Court is still very relevant, especially in terms of continuing to apply the open proportional system. The legal implications of the Constitutional Court decisions are legal certainties of election implementation, strengthening the open proportional election system, and increasing. Suggestions to ensure legal certainty, vote laws are not often changed, and changes to an electoral system are adjusted to the dynamics and needs of conducting elections, as well as the real needs of the community as holders of popular sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the electoral administration in Nigeria, focusing on conflicts and problems in the Fourth Republic. Nigeria's transition to democracy in 1999 involved the crucial role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The study aims to highlight that both international and local electoral observers have reported deficiencies in the initial elections conducted by INEC, which have had negative impacts on democracy in Nigeria. Additionally, the article discusses how an incumbent political party may collaborate with INEC to manipulate election results in their favor. Consequently, INEC has faced accusations from opposition parties after announcing electoral outcomes. The article argues that INEC has not maintained political independence in managing elections in Nigeria and suggests that INEC should be more powerful than the incumbent government. The study utilized qualitative and primary documents as its research methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1991 Constitution of Colombia, many elements of the electoral dynamics have been changing in this country. One of them, perhaps the most important one, is the significance that electoral alliances have taken for local and regional elections. With an analysis of the 2015 and 2019 elections, this article describes how inter-party alliances are formed in these two cases. For this purpose, a network analysis is used to establish which alliances have taken place, the number of them, the stakeholders involved, among other elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metropolitan cities were established by Italian Law no. 56/2014 (commonly known as the "Delrio Law") as a new level of government, replacing and redefining functions previously performed by provinces in selected major urban areas. One of their three key governing bodies is the metropolitan council, a representative assembly the members of which are elected via an indirect, second-level, proportional, list-based system in which the electorate comprises all sitting mayors and councillors from metropolitan city municipalities. The election mechanism applies a differential weighting scheme that reflects the population size of the municipalities in which voters serve as mayors or councillors. Using the outcomes of the metropolitan council elections held in the years 2021 and 2022 in eight metropolitan cities, this study highlights the variety of ways (many of which appear to be largely unintended) in which demographic weighting bestows significantly greater (and, arguably, unwarranted) power to larger cities' representatives, essentially disrupting the principles of territorial representation that the weighting scheme intended to embody. The study also focuses on how the legal framework for metropolitan council elections generates institutional instability via mandatory forfeitures and ensuing substitutions of seat vacancies. Finally, the author identifies potential adjustments to the electoral system - especially a proposal for the attenuation of disproportionate territorial representation via demographic weighting based on the so-called "square-root method". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Management Academy is the property of Uluslararasi Yonetim Akademisi Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Election Commission (EC), Malaysia's electoral body, is frequently chastised by the public for its lack of neutrality, manipulation of the electoral roll, gerrymandering practices in constituency delineation, and unfair media access to contesting parties. As a result of these weaknesses, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) manifesto for the 14th General Election (GE-14) promised to reform the country's electoral system if they won the election. The PH Manifesto won 121 of the 222 contested parliamentary seats, capturing the people's hearts. Hence, this article examined the electoral system reforms enacted by the PH administration from its election victory in May 2018 until the end of its term in February 2020. The article asserts that PH had successfully instituted four major reforms in the country's electoral system, including placing the EC under the parliament, cleaning up the electoral roll, enhancing electoral transparency, and amending the federal constitution to allow Undi18 (Vote18) and automatic voter registration, despite its brief tenure in power. However, the electoral system reforms stalled following the collapse of the PH government due to the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government's lack of commitment to continue this reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigeria is socio-culturally multi-ethnic and religiously pluralistic. Religion has been a very singular but very strong factor that is affecting negatively the electoral system in Nigeria. The following key terms were used in this study: religion, election, politics, political party, electoral system, and franchise/suffrage. Political aspirants would always make use of their religious affiliations to achieve cheap political popularity. The electorates tend to vote for a given political aspirants based on religious sentiments and not on verifiable objective good human attributes. The aim of this paper among others is to attempt to find out whether religious affiliations of the political spirants enhance or hinder their successes during general election in Nigeria. The study is qualitative in character. It interviewed a cross-section of Nigerians and also made use of secondary sources of information such as library books, journal articles, newspapers, magazines, etc. The study is very significant in a good number of ways including that it makes the electorates to cast their votes based on good quality political aspirants rather than on sentiments. The findings of the paper, among others, include the fact that the electorates in Nigeria generally cast their votes in line with their religious affiliations. It is recommended, among others, that the electorates should not cast their votes during general election on the basis of religious affiliations but rather on verifiable and objective good quality human behaviour.

The Angolan electoral processes, in all their institutional structuring and electoral practice, are designed to sustain the hegemony of the party in power. In this sense, in addition to the mechanisms and practices commonly referred to, I present here some of the characteristics of the Angolan electoral system that objectively reduce the political capacity of the citizens of the large electoral constituencies by means of the double constituency, which in practice has been meant, since the 1992 elections, an electoral bonus for the MPLA and a deficit for the opposition. This effectively undermines citizens’ electoral political capacity to change the status quo.

As women's participation in the workforce expands, many countries seek to reform child care support by changing the gender division of labor. Japan also attempted universalistic child care support reforms, though these were not always successful. The electoral reforms of the 1990s prompted the major political parties to make universalistic reforms, and the major party leaders advocated similar ideas. Still, they failed to extend benefits to all children. Agreement on the expansion of funding was particularly challenging. By analyzing coalition formation within and among political parties, I show that the electoral reform led to stiff competition, which made it difficult for parties to agree. The change to a majoritarian electoral system not only intensified inter-party rivalry but also made it difficult to persuade intra-party groups that perceived a threat to their electoral success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary John Kane examines the lead-up to the 2024 US election and argues that the whole system is at a crucial junction with the country enveloped in 'uncertainty and fear'. He argues that this crisis has long been in the making due to crucial weaknesses and contradictions in American society and its political system. He finds there is 'a deeply reactionary tendency' at odds with its 'liberal and progressive ideals'. The weaknesses in the system are scrutinised along with the transformation of the Republican Party from a traditional conservative party to a party dominated by Trump and then considers what next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Humana - Human Rights Publication is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The development of the modern Russian state along the path of building a democratic legal society necessitates the analysis and use of the positive experience of previous decades. Considering this and relying on factual material, a significant part of which is being introduced for the first time into scientific circulation and studies affecting this scientific research problem, we have attempted for the first time ever in the Russian historiography to analyze political processes and changes in Dagestan in 1980-s in dynamics and in comparison with similar processes in the whole country. At the same time, the article pays special attention to showing the regional characteristics of political development, primarily its religious and national component on the basis of the principles of science, historicism, consistency and objectivity. The author characterized these processes and concluded that stagnation was clearly manifested in the multinational republic in the first half of the 1980-s, as well as in the country as a whole. In the second half of the decade regional authorities made significant efforts to move from administrative-command methods to democratic methods of managing sectors of the national economy and strengthen democratic trends in political development.

The aim of this paper is the study of the political representation of the Albanian minority in the valley of Presheva, Serbia. In the early 1990s, in Europe of great political change has started to occur. The disintegration of the communist system presents on the daily agenda the need to organize peoples and ethnic communities into associations and political parties. In those circumstances, the Albanians in Serbia began to organize politically and coordinate political actions in order to realize individual and collective rights, as well as to resolve their political-legal status within Serbia. Historical research method was used in the analysis of this topic as well as in the collection of appropriate historical data. In general, this paper will address the topic of the historical and current nature of the Albanian minority in Serbia. Through the theoretical examination and historical research methods, results have been achieved which prove that despite the fact that the Albanians of the Presheva valley have managed to have representation, this representation is still not dignified because they have been guaranteed some rights related to self-government and the use of ethnic symbols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates determinants of candidate turnover in 10 European established democracies with list-PR electoral systems. We identify party and election variables that affect the supply and demand of new candidates on the parties' lists. In addition, we apply a weighted candidate turnover measure to investigate the dynamic of renewal on high-ranked list positions. We built an original dataset that contains 3344 electoral lists of represented political parties. Hypotheses are tested by means of a multilevel analysis of political party list renewal rates. At the party level, leadership change and larger party size in terms of members are found to coincide with higher general turnover. At the system level, general turnover is higher in elections with closed lists and high electoral volatility. At higher positions on the list, candidate turnover appears not to be affected by the party- and system-level variables identified in the broader literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognised that politicians are self-interested and desire election rules beneficial to their re-election. Although partisanship in electoral system reform is well-understood, the factors that affect partisan manipulation of other democratic 'rules of the game' – including election administration, franchise laws, and campaign finance – has received little attention to date. New Zealand is so far the only established democracy to shift from a non-proportional to a proportional electoral system and thus presents an ideal case to test the effects of electoral system change on the politics of election reform. This article examines partisan and demobilising election reforms passed between 1970 and 1993 under first-past-the-post and between 1997 and 2020 under mixed-member proportional representation. Moving to a proportional system has failed to diminish the amount of partisan election lawmaking, though voting restrictions have become less common. These results should caution against claims that reforming a country's electoral system will necessarily curtail the passage of normatively undesirable election reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proportional representation (PR) electoral systems have become widespread because they are expected to ensure the representation of interests with small or geographically inefficiently distributed voter bases. Yet in reality, most PR systems consist of a large number of districts that vary substantially in size, and some have surprisingly low magnitude. Existing research shows that such differences matter greatly for political outcomes but offers no explanation for their origins. We argue that the design of electoral districts in newly adopted PR systems is systematically linked to electoral geography and partisan politics. If parties with concentrated voter bases can influence the design of the new electoral system, they will create a significant number of low-magnitude districts. In general, parties involved in designing districts benefit from electoral disproportionalities under the new PR rules. Empirically, we use newly collected district-level data for several Western European countries in the early twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of History Pages is the property of National Technical University of Ukraine KPI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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Copyright of Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política is the property of Instituto de Ciencia Politica (Universidad de la Republica de Uruguay) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)