TY - JOUR
T1 - Classifying electoral systems by input rules
T2 - Building on Blais and Rae through Australian experience
AU - Sanders, Will
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Australian Political Studies Association.
PY - 2015/7/3
Y1 - 2015/7/3
N2 - By revisiting the work of Blais and Rae, this article develops a new classification of electoral systems focused on input rules. An Unknown Winning Number family is distinguished from a Quota family with known winning numbers for most of the counting process. Branching family trees are developed and used to help explain some Australian experience with accentuated disproportionality in two electoral systems which have been omitted from otherwise path-breaking recent analysis (Taagepera, R. and Shugart, M.S. 1989. Seats and votes: The effects and determinants of electoral systems. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). These omitted systems are identified as effectively giving electors as many votes as seats available in a district. The input-rule family trees remind us that number of votes is an important component of electoral systems, although elusive and somewhat forgotten in much recent analysis. More conventional groupings of electoral systems are identified as output peer groups.
AB - By revisiting the work of Blais and Rae, this article develops a new classification of electoral systems focused on input rules. An Unknown Winning Number family is distinguished from a Quota family with known winning numbers for most of the counting process. Branching family trees are developed and used to help explain some Australian experience with accentuated disproportionality in two electoral systems which have been omitted from otherwise path-breaking recent analysis (Taagepera, R. and Shugart, M.S. 1989. Seats and votes: The effects and determinants of electoral systems. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). These omitted systems are identified as effectively giving electors as many votes as seats available in a district. The input-rule family trees remind us that number of votes is an important component of electoral systems, although elusive and somewhat forgotten in much recent analysis. More conventional groupings of electoral systems are identified as output peer groups.
KW - electoral formulae
KW - quota
KW - unknown winning number
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943456066&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10361146.2015.1064092
DO - 10.1080/10361146.2015.1064092
M3 - Article
SN - 1036-1146
VL - 50
SP - 462
EP - 479
JO - Australian Journal of Political Science
JF - Australian Journal of Political Science
IS - 3
ER -