Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T01:35:54.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Setting the Rules of the Game: The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Carles Boix
Carles Boix*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Looking at the history of democracies in the developed world, I show that electoral systems derive from the decisions the ruling parties make to maximize their representation according to the following conditions. As long as the electoral arena does not change and the current electoral regime benefits the ruling parties, the electoral system is not altered. As the electoral arena changes (due to the entry of new voters or a change in voters' preferences), the ruling parties modify the electoral system, depending on the emergence of new parties and the coordinating capacities of the old parties. When the new parties are strong, the old parties shift from plurality/majority to proportional representation if no old party enjoys a dominant position, but they do not do this if there is a dominant old party. When new entrants are weak, a system of nonproportional representation is maintained, regardless of the structure of the old party system.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 93 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 609 - 624
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Almond, Gabriel A. 1956. “Comparative Political Systems.” Journal of Politics 18 (August): 391–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amorim Neto, Octavio, and Cox, Gary W. 1997. “Electoral Institutions, Cleavage Structures, and the Number of Parties.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (January): 149–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartolini, Stefano, and Mair, Peter. 1990. Identity, Competition, and Electoral Availability. The Stabilisation of European Electorates 1885–1985. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blais, André, and Massicotte, Louis. 1997. “Electoral Formulas: A Macroscopic Perspective.” European Journal of Political Research 32 (August): 107–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles. 1992. “Trade, Politics and Proportional Representation. A Reinvestigation of Rogowski's ‘Trade and the Variety of Democratic Institutions.’” Department of Government, Harvard University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Butler, D. E. 1963. The Electoral System in Britain since 1918. 2d ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Carstairs, Andrew McLaren. 1980. A Short History of Electoral Systems in Western Europe. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W. 1997. Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral Systems. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A., and Tufte, Edward R. 1973. Size and Democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Duverger, Maurice. 1954. Political Parties. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Judith, and Keohane, Robert O., eds. 1993. Ideas and Foreign Policy. Beliefs, Institutions and Political Change. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Peter A., ed. 1989. The Political Power of Economic Ideas: Keynesianism across Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermens, Ferdinand A. 1941. Democracy or Anarchy? A Study of Proportional Representation. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1977. Democracy in Plural Societies. New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1985. “The Field of Electoral Systems Research: A Critical Survey.” Electoral Studies 4 (March): 3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1992. “Democratization and Constitutional Choices in Czecho-slovakia, Hungary and Poland, 1989–1991.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 4 (April): 207–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1994. Electoral Systems and Party Systems. A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies, 1945–1990. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackie, Thomas T., and Rose, Richard. 1991. The International Almanac of Electoral History. 3d ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Brian R. 1975. European Historical Statistics, 1750–1970. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Brian R. 1982. International Historical Statistics: Africa and Asia. New York: New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Brian R. 1983. International Historical Statistics: The Americas and Australasia. London: MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nohlen, Dieter. 1981. Sistemas electorates del mundo. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales.Google Scholar
Ordeshook, Peter, and Shvetsova, Olga. 1994. “Ethnic Heterogeneity, District Magnitude, and the Number of Parties.” American Journal of Political Science 38 (February): 100–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1975. “Institutionalization of Voting Patterns, or Is Mobilization the Source of Decay.” American Political Science Review 69 (March): 49–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rae, Douglas W. 1971. The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rogowski, Ronald. 1987. “Trade and the Variety of Democratic Institutions.” International Organization 41 (Spring): 203–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rokkan, Stein. 1970. Citizens, Elections, Parties: Approaches to the Comparative Study of the Process of Development. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard, and Urwin, Derek. 1970. “Persistence and Change in Western Party Systems since 1945.” Political Studies 18 (September): 287–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shugart, Matthew S., and Carey, John. 1992. Presidents and Assemblies. Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taagapera, Rein, and Shugart, Matthew S. 1989. Seats and Votes: The Effects and Determinants of Electoral Systems. New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles L., and Hudson, Michael C. 1972. World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators. 2d ed. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.