The
Problem
-
Since 1974, more than 80 countries
have held multiparty elections as an essential event of their transitions
from authoritarian to democratic rule.
-
These elections
are best described as “founding” or “early” elections--the first series
of elections following a period of authoritarian rule.
- Despite
the importance of early elections, political leaders in countries holding
these elections have rarely considered the impact of alternative forms of
electoral systems--the method by which the votes of the electorate are translated
into seats in the national legislature and other legislative bodies.
- The
choice of electoral system has usually been a reversion to the type of system
the country used during a previous experience of democratic rule.
- Most Latin American countries
reverted to some form of proportional representation
or “PR”
- Most Anglophone countries in Africa and Asia reverted
to the single member district or "SMD" system of representation
inherited from the British at the end of colonial rule. Most SMD systems are
also referred to as "First Past the Post" (FPTP) or "plurality" systems, because
the winning candidate need only receive a plurality of the vote.
- Most Francophone African countries reverted to the two-round
runoff system of single member districts inherited from France
Defects
in the Inherited
System
The electoral system inherited from an earlier period may or
may not be appropriate to advance a transition to democratic rule. In former
British colonies such as Kenya, the choice of a single member district system
of representation often resulted in electoral districts (i.e. constituencies)
of unequal populations thus violating the democratic principle of one person
one vote.
SMD systems may also be defective to the extent that they distort
the results of an election by awarding some parties a greater proportion (i.e.
percentage) of the seats in the legislature than their proportion of the vote,
and by denying other parties the proportion of seats that equals or closely
approximates their proportion of the vote.
However in countries that use PR, the electorate
is unable to hold individual legislators accountable, because voters choose
between alternative lists of many candidates who represent different political
parties. Voters cannot identify and contact a legislator who is responsible
for serving their particular electoral district, because there are no districts
in a PR system and no legislator is assigned this task.
This is a significant problem
in agrarian societies where voters are bound to the land and seek representation
for the rural communities in which they reside. In this context, the lack of
accountability of the elected to the electorate can become a major source of
dissatisfaction that undermines the long-term prospects for democracy. Most
new democracies holding early elections are developing
countries with
large rural populations.
To
summarize the problem:
New democracies that use district systems of representation
often violate the principle of one person one vote, but countries that use PR
may violate the principle that elected officials should be accountable to the
electorate.
Designing a Better System?
It is possible to design various forms of district based electoral
systems that overcome the defects of inequality of representation (i.e. disproportionality)
while avoiding the lack of accountability inherent in systems of proportional
representation. It is also possible to model the political impact of alternative
electoral systems so that political leaders of all parties might reach agreement
on which type of system is most appropriate for their country.
In this demonstration, we model alternative forms of district
based electoral systems for Kenya and South
Africa in a manner that addresses the defects of the present electoral
system in each country. We model these alternative forms of electoral systems
by using a Spatial Decision Support System or SDSS
that systematically considers the political demography in each country.
To learn more about the SDSS or about the
likely impact of different electoral systems in Kenya
and South Africa,
click the desired icon to the left.
Copyright © 2001 by Joel D. Barkan,
Paul Densham and Gerard Rushton
