9
be written down or would hold up to the rigours of the publishing process. Nevertheless,
one of the advantages of a survey of this kind is that it allows us to see some of the
difference between what we think and what we write. Of course, gaining some very
general and manageable picture of what we write is hard to do. One, admittedly crude,
but nevertheless revealing guide is to search for relevant terms using Google and JSTOR
and use the results of that search as an indication of how much is written on key topics.
Table 5 reports the results of these searches and provide some evidence consistent with
the claim that, despite the flourishing of detailed scholarly work in New Zealand (e.g.
Vowles et al. 2004, 2002, 1998), there is probably not as much written – and hence
known – about MMP compared to other systems. There is, also, a very considerable body
of work on proportionality.
Table 5 about here
What is it that makes MMP so popular? We examine some evidence using
regression models to establish more clearly what kinds of values lead people to prefer one
system over another. We use a set of survey instruments that tap into values of political
outcomes and processes. We then use these measures to predict both absolute and relative
rankings of electoral systems.
Table 6 about here
Tables 6 and 7 present results (in two different ways) from OLS models of
rankings of systems based on some evidence on preferences. In Table 6 we present fairly
straightforward models that take as their dependent variable the preference ranking (1, 2,
3, etc.) given to the (named) system and predicts this using responses to a set of questions
about democratic values and processes. To keep with the intuition of ranking the most
preferred systems ‘1’ (for 1
st
), the dependent variable is one where low numbers mean
something is more highly rated. Table 6 provides evidence that some normative values
are tied to evaluations of electoral systems. There is a straightforward component to the
preferences for electoral systems: for example people who prefer one party government
prefer SMP (column 1 Table 6) and dislike list PR (column 5 Table 6). In terms of
support for MMP in particular, then, we should note that among the values that generate
support for MMP are attitudes towards political parties. Column 3 of Table 6 shows that
Convention