ELECTORAL SYSTEMS
A country’s electoral system is the method used to calculate the number of elected positions in government that individuals and parties are awarded after elections. They differ with countries, different regions, and different levels of government. The three main electoral includes; the plurality system also called the first past the post where the individual with the most votes is declared a winner. This system depends on single-member constituencies with two major parties dominating where the voters indicate only one vote on the ballot. Elections for the house and senate in the United States use this system. The advantages of this system include; Only one candidate is elected for each state providing a strong MP-constituency link. Having one candidate also helps avoid confusion. It however is disadvantageous in that it does not represent the interests of all voters. Also, parties without much influence on different parts of a country become disadvantaged
Secondly is the majoritarian system which provides that the party with the majority representation is the winner. The majority is often defined as 50%-plus-one-vote. If no candidate gets a majority, then the second round of voting is held with only a select number of candidates from the first round participating. This system is used in presidential elections in Austria, Russia, the United States among others. It is advantageous as it delivers fairer results compared to the plurality system. It provides a ground for reelection in case of a small margin difference. It is however disadvantageous in that the majority may not be the most efficient representatives and may have only be arrived at from love of a particular party
The last general electoral system is the proportional system. It attempts to make the percentages of offices awarded to candidates reflect as closely as possible the percentage of votes that they received in the elections. Here, if n% of the electorate support a particular party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The PR electoral system can be divided into party list PR, the single transferable vote, and mixed-member proportional representation. With party list PR, political parties define candidate lists and voters vote for a list. In Importers have two votes, one for their single-member district and one for the party list. The proportional system is the most used since it delivers fairer treatment of minority parties by ensuring that parties appeal to their core supporters rather than a small number in marginal seats.PR systems encourage turn out and reduce apathy. Some people however argue that PR produces weak coalition governments which can cause legislative paralysis. Also, the complexity of the system can put voters off voting since it requires them to know individuals and party positions.
Reference
Blais, A., & Massicotte, L. (2002). Electoral systems. Comparing democracies, 2, 40-69.
Norris, P. (1997). Choosing electoral systems: proportional, majoritarian, and mixed systems. International political science review, 18(3), 297-312.