Introduction to Electoral Systems. The Principles of Majority.
PMCb1012 Elections and campaigning


Are Elections Necessary?
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Working for electoral services | St Albans City and District Council Just How Easy Is It to Get
People to Vote? - Pacific Standard

Elections
•A necessary but not a sufficient condition for democracies
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•Various benefits:
•Accountability
•Representation
•Legitimacy
•A peaceful transfer of power (unlike a military coup)
•Civic mobilization
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•Only free and fair elections fulfil this role

Freedom House - Wikipedia



What to Do with the Votes?
•Electoral
•Systems

Electoral Systems
•Set of rules and procedures based on which elections are held
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•Main role – transformation of votes to seats
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•Various types and consequences
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•Fairness and ‘fairness’

Main Electoral Systems (not all included)
•1) Systems based on plurality and majority:
•First past the post (FPTP)
•Majoritarian systems
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•2) Proportional representation
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•3) Mixed systems

FPTP and Majoritarian Systems
•‘Winner takes all’
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•Usable for election of:
•Individual representatives (presidents, mayors)
•Collective bodies (parliaments, assemblies)
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•Based on single-member constituencies
•Each party nominates only one candidate to a constituency
•Independent candidates are typically allowed
•One winner in each constituency
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•They differ in victory conditions
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First Past the Post
•Voters cast single vote for a candidate in a constituency
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•Victory condition – plurality
•The candidate who obtains the most votes wins
•Plurality does not require majority of votes
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•Examples – UK, USA, Canada

UK General Elections – Ashfield (2019)



UK General Elections – Amber Valley (2019)



Majoritarian Systems
•Voters cast single vote for a candidate in a constituency
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•Victory condition – majority
•The candidate who obtains 50+ percent of votes wins
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•Examples – France, Australia, many presidential elections around the world

What if no candidate obtains majority?



Runoff
•Second round of elections
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•Typically only a limited number of candidates
•Two best from the first round
•France – two best + all with 12.5+ percent of votes of all registered voters
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•The candidate who receives plurality wins
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•If only two candidates are allowed plurality always equals majority

Czech Presidential Election 2023
Candidate
Party affiliation
First round votes
First round %
Second round votes
Second round %
Pavel Fischer
Independent
376,707
6.8
Jaroslav Bašta
SPD
248,375
4.5
Petr Pavel
Independent
1,975,156
35.4
3,359,301
58.3
Tomáš Zima
Independent
30,769
0.6
Danuše Nerudová
Independent
777,080
13.9
Andrej Babiš
ANO
1,952,214
35.0
2,399,898
41.7
Karel Diviš
Independent
75,476
1.4
Marek Hilšer
MHS
142,912
2.6

Alternative Vote (Instant Runoff)
•Ensures a winner with majority of votes in a single round
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•Voters do not cast only a single vote but they rank candidates according to their preferences (1,
2, 3 etc.)
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•Initially, first preferences are counted – victory requires majority
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•If nobody has majority, the last candidate is eliminated and their second preferences are given to
the others
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•This process is repeated until one of candidates has majority

Alternative Vote - Example
•Food selection
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•Five options – orange, apple, ice cream, cake, chocolate
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•Elections decide what to eat
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•Each voter ranks all choices with 1-5 (1 to the most preferred food, 5 to the least preferred
food)

First Preferences Counted



Ice Cream is Eliminated



Still no Majority



Chocolate is Eliminated



Still no Majority



Orange is Eliminated



Majority Obtained – Apple is the Winner



Consequences
•Similar impact of FPTP and majoritarian systems
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•Advantage for large parties (disadvantage for small parties)
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•Clear selection of winners
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•Wasted votes
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•Penalty for extreme parties and candidates
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•Winner does not necessarily needs to obtain most votes among all

Advantage for Large Parties
•Plurality/majority hardly achievable for small parties
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•Mechanical and psychological effects
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•Strategic behaviour of voters (why to support small parties?)
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•à reduction of number of parties in the system

Example with plurality
District
Party A
Party B
Party C
Party D
1
45
28
21
6
2
32
51
8
9
3
44
33
19
4
4
29
61
3
7
5
64
33
2
1
6
39
43
10
8
7
55
39
2
4
8
51
42
4
3
Seats
5
3
0
0

Advantage for Large Parties
•Exemption from this rule
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•Small parties with concentrated territorial support
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•Small nationally v. large locally
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•Scottish National Party

UK election 2019



Penalty for Radical and Extreme Parties
•Partly based on penalty for small parties
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•Stronger penalty in majoritarian system
•Runoff – extreme candidates do not attract support of others
•Alternative vote – extreme candidates either obtain first preference (from their supporters) or
the last one
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•Works only if radicals do not grow into large parties

French general elections (FN/RN)
Election
Votes %
Seats (out of 577)
1997
14.9
1
2002
11.3
0
2007
4.3
0
2012
13.6
2
2017
13.2
8
2022
18.7
89

Winner Does not Need to be First
•Plurality/majority is about winning the most seats
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•Highest national gain of votes is secondary (although helpful)
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•Opens questions leading to mechanisms affecting fairness of elections – see the lecture on
(un)fairness

District
Party A
Party B
1
51
49
2
51
49
3
51
49
4
51
49
5
51
49
6
10
90
7
10
90
8
10
90
9
10
90
Votes nationally
295
605
Seats
5
4