Electoral Laws

and the party systems they make

UK Paper Ballot

FL – Butterfly Ballot

Michigan Optical Ballot

Welsh Constituency Ballot

Indian Ballot

Welsh List Ballot

NZ Ballot

German Dual Ballot

Duverger’s Law operates at the district level

SMDP 2 party

SMDM Multiparty, few effective parties

PR multiparty

UK 1945-97

Charter 88

Spanish Elections (PR)

Effective No. Parties

France V Results

German Results

Regional (Sectional) Parties

• USA: Dixiecrats• India: Telegu Desam, AIADMK, DMK, Shiv Sena• UK: SNP, Plaid Cymru, Democratic Unionist,

Sinn Fein• France: Alsace d’abord, Union démocratique

bretonne, Ligue savoisienne, Unione naziunale• Canada: Bloc québécois

Canada – 2004

Canada - 2000

Goals

• Stability• Choice• Equal weighting of votes• Legislature should represent actual distribution of

opinion• Government should represent actual distribution

of opinion• Elected officials ought to have a connection to a

constituency

Electoral Disproportionality

Cabinet Durability

Instability

Allocating Seats

• SMDP & SMDM are easy!

• Borda count (example of use in Baseball)

• Single Transferable Vote (STV)

• Single Non-Transferable Vote (SNTV)

• Instant Runoff (IRV)

• D’Hondt method

• Sainte-Laguë method

Australian Ballot