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Separate Electoral Rules for Good Governance
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ELECTORAL RULES AND GOVERNANCE
Josep M. Colomer
josep.## email not listed ##
Abstract
In order to evaluate the performance of different electoral rules in regimes of division of powers, I adopt the criterion that policy outcomes coinciding with the median voter's preference can produce highest satisfaction or social utility. The best results should be expected from median voter's Presidents whose party is also the median voter's and median legislator's party in Congress. From this perspective, proportional representation in Congress can be very appropriate since it tends to establish a close correspondence between the median party's and the median voter's preferences. For presidential elections, absolute majority or qualified-plurality rules with a second round tend to produce higher frequency of median voter's Presidents than simple plurality rule. However, since presidential rules are always majoritarian because they have to produce a single absolute winner, they tend to induce the formation of a lower number of candidacies than in congressional elections, thus making possible that the median voter's party in Congress does not coincide with the median voter's President, even in concurrent elections. This disparity makes cooperation between the President and the median party in Congress more difficult for both legislative decisions and Cabinet formation. An empirical survey of electoral rules and results in Latin America during the present democratic periods allows us to evaluate the performance of different electoral rules according to the criteria previously discussed.
Paper prepared for
the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting,
Philadelphia, 28-31 August 2003
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ELECTORAL RULES AND GOVERNANCE
Josep M. Colomer
josep.## email not listed ##
Abstract
In order to evaluate the performance of different electoral rules in regimes of division of
powers, I adopt the criterion that policy outcomes coinciding with the median voter's
preference can produce highest satisfaction or social utility. The best results should be
expected from median voter's Presidents whose party is also the median voter's and median
legislator's party in Congress. From this perspective, proportional representation in
Congress can be very appropriate since it tends to establish a close correspondence between
the median party's and the median voter's preferences. For presidential elections, absolute
majority or qualified-plurality rules with a second round tend to produce higher frequency
of median voter's Presidents than simple plurality rule. However, since presidential rules
are always majoritarian because they have to produce a single absolute winner, they tend to
induce the formation of a lower number of candidacies than in congressional elections, thus
making possible that the median voter's party in Congress does not coincide with the
median voter's President, even in concurrent elections. This disparity makes cooperation
between the President and the median party in Congress more difficult for both legislative
decisions and Cabinet formation. An empirical survey of electoral rules and results in Latin
America during the present democratic periods allows us to evaluate the performance of
different electoral rules according to the criteria previously discussed.
Paper prepared for
the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting,
Philadelphia, 28-31 August 2003
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