Electoral Systems

Bullet Notes on Electoral Systems by Country

Germany

• 299 constituencies with 598 mandates in the Bundestag (lower house of the legislature)
• two parallel votes with distinct functions: vote for person and vote for list, i.e. candidate vs party
• vote for person personalises election; allows vote for candidate
• one mandate “removed” from second vote for each candidate elected to Bundestag from first vote
• vote for party: allow citizens to elect party of choice
• distribute 598 mandates in the Bundestag according to the distribution of the second vote
• 5% minimum threshold required to enter the Bundestag
• 2002: reduced the number of constituencies
• 2009: changed the specific method of proportional election used from largest remainder method to the Sainte-Laguë method

Italy

• “perfect” bicameral legislature: two chambers which perform that same function independently
  • Camera dei deputati and Senato della Repubblica
• 630 deputies in the lower house of which 232 are in single-member constituencies by plurality (FPTP) and 386 in multi-member constituencies by national PR, and 12 is multi-member abroad constituencies also via PR
• Number of seats in the Camera dei deputati to reduce to 400 from 630 and to 200 from 315 in the Senate according to the reform passed in 2019
• Italian Electoral Law of 2017
• Minimum voting age reduced on Thursday 8th July to 18 from 25 on basis that different majorities sometimes arose from contemporaneous votes amongst other reasons

Camera dei Deputati

• 37% of seats elected via first-past-the-post and 63% via proportional representation with largest remainder method with one round of voting
• Single ballots (candidate and party confounded)
• Parties require 1% of national vote to ensure consideration in single-member constituencies
• Candidates may be linked to multiple “lists”, i.e. linked to multiple parties and then voting for the candidate splits the vote proportionally between the lists

Senato della Repubblica

• Currently 315 seats due to reduce to 200 by the next election (due by 2023)
• 116 seats directly elected in single-member districts 119 elected by PR on regional basis, and 6 elected in overseas constituencies

Sketch / Essay Outline

• compare different implemented electoral systems - start empirically focussing on those that exist in countries
  • core principles - values
  • mechanistic aspects / theoretical qualities
  • political rationale, historical reasons (and theoretical principles) for choosing those systems over possible alternatives (were others proposed e.g. UK’s 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote)
• Important individual points:
  • ballot structure
  • how votes are translated into parliamentary mandates
  • what are you voting for (literally)? candidate, party, both, something else? e.g. UK conflates candidate and party

References

• Electoral Systems in Europe: An Overview