Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds?Matthew Shugart, Martin P. Wattenberg Mixed-member electoral systems may well be the electoral reform of the 21st century, much as proportional representation (PR) was in the 20th century. In the view of many electoral reformers, mixed-member systems offer the best of both the traditional British single-seat district system and PR systems. This book seeks to evaluate: why mixed-member systems have recently appealed to many countries with diverse electoral histories; and how well expectations for these systems have been met. Each major country, which has adopted a mixed system thus, has two chapters in this book, one on origins and one on consequences. These countries are Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Israel, Japan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, Hungary, and Russia. In addition, there are also chapters on the prospects for a mixed-member system being adopted in Britain and Canada, respectively. The material presented suggests that mixed-member systems have been largely successful thus far. They appear to be more likely than most other electoral systems to generate two-bloc party systems, without in the process reducing minor parties to insignificance. In addition, they are more likely than any other class of electoral system to simultaneously generate local accountability as well as a nationally-oriented party system. Mixed-member electoral systems have now joined majoritarian and proportional systems as basic options which must be considered whenever electoral systems are designed or redesigned. Such a development represents a fundamental change in thinking about electoral systems around the world. |
Other editions - View all
Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds? Matthew Shugart,Martin P. Wattenberg Limited preview - 2001 |
Mixed-member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds? Matthew Soberg Shugart No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
1996 elections adopted allocation ballot bill campaign candidates Chamber of Deputies closed list closed party lists coalition committee competition constitutional COPEI democracy Democratic direct election district magnitude Duverger's Law effective number elec electoral law electoral reform electoral rules electoral system factions federal formula German Hare quota incentives interparty intraparty dimension Israel Israeli Jenkins Commission Knesset koenkai largest party LDPR legal threshold legislators Likud list seats list tier list vote majority Maori minor parties mixed-member system MMP system nominal tier nominal votes Northern League number of parties number of seats opposition parties Parliament parliamentary party lists party system party's plurality electoral plurality system political parties politicians presidential prime minister proportional representation proportionality proposed referendum regional result Roundtable ruling party Russia Senate single-seat districts small parties SNTV Socialist SSD seats Table tion toral Venezuela voters winning party Yeltsin Zealand