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In more recent years it has become clear that Duverger claimed too much
influence for the role of electoral system and sociological analisys on the
other hand understated the influence of electoral systems. Both factors
influence.
ELECTORAL FORMULAS:
1.PROPORTIONAL REPREZENTATION(PR)
-Most widely used today. It was invented by the end of the 19th
century by a Belgian mathematician D’HONDT.
-Used in Romania until last year. Ro now uses a combination.
-Two varieties of calculating, allocationg seats.
-It attempts to transform as proportionally as possible votes into
seats
-Parties present lists of candidates and voters vote lists. Distribute
votes according to the proportion of votes on list, a certain number
of those on the list get seats.
-Two variaties to DISTRIBUTE votes:
a. THE LARGEST REMAINDER METHOD(remainder=catul)(used
in RO)
SIMULATION:
We have list A,B,C within a constituency. Total nr of votes 400 000. 8
seats.
A: 220 000 : 50 000=4 Remainders 20 000
B: 93 000 : 50 000=1 Remainders 43 000 1
C: 66 000 : 50 000=1 R: 16 000
D: 21 000 : 50 000=0 R: 21 000 1
Advantages to PR:
-to get all votes.
-isolates extremist parties.
-encourages an ideological debate.
Critiques:
-encourages coalitions and fragmanted governments.
-difficulty in how the proportion of votes are rounded to match nr of
seats=> always lost votes.
In order to avoid a high nr of parties there is a treshold(prag
electoral)=minimum nr of votes for a party to have access to parliament
etc.
LIJPHART: Lijphart