Electoral System And Its Pros And Cons In Major Democracies

The existence of electoral systems is one of the key features of democracies. The translation of the votes cast into seats of legislature is of great importance as it directly affects the governance dynamics and dimensions. Choosing the ‘right’ type of electoral system positively determines the political environment of a country and the understanding of electoral motives is therefore important, in order to, keep up with the interaction of the institutional rules with the individual candidates, (political) parties and voters. Electoral Systems come in a wide variety of choices- while some systems support the participation of individual candidates; some others demand the formation of political parties. According to the arguments by many Political Science scholars, many electoral systems are expected to infuriate the flames of political conflicts. One may find political factionalism in many electoral systems, where it is very common for a political party to have differences in points of view between its various wings; while on the other hand, some systems try to suppress arguments and opinions. Some systems lead to a coalition government or minority government whereas some have the formation of majority rule by a single party, although the vote cast by each voter has the same value and same number of votes is cast for each political party. So, what exactly is the ‘right’ type of electoral system? - To understand that, an insight into the types of electoral systems is needed.

To categorize simply, the political parties are divided into three broad types – Majority/Plurality Systems, Proportional Representation Systems, and Mixed Systems. These three types have nine subtypes-

1. First Past the Post (FPTP), Block Vote (BV), Party Block Vote (PBV), Alternative Vote (AV), Two-Round System (TRS) – all under the Majority/Plurality Systems.

2. List Proportional Representation (List PR), Single Transferable Vote (STV) - both under the Proportional Representation Systems.

3. Mixed Proportional System, Parallel System – under the type of Mixed Systems.

Besides, there are some additional subtypes, namely- Single Non-Transferable Vote (SNTV), Limited Vote (LV) and Borda Count (BC), which cannot be labeled under any particular type.

So, what are the main differences between the types of political parties?

While there is a single seat per electoral district and only one candidate can be elected from a given district in Majority/ Plurality Systems, the Proportional Representation Systems observe proportionality between the share of national votes and parliamentary seats for a particular party. E.g. for Majority systems, candidates win a seat if they receive an absolute majority of votes, i.e. more votes than all other candidates combined; whereas, for Plurality, candidates can win a seat when they poll more than any other counterpart. Taking an example of Proportionality System, it is observed that if a major party wins 40 per cent of the votes, it should win an approximate 40 per cent of the legislative seats too, and simultaneously, a minor party with 10 percent of votes should have 10 percent of the seats.

In a Mixed Proportional System, a combination of different features of the Plurality and Proportionality Systems is followed to elect the candidates.

Now, let’s take a look at the electoral systems followed in some of the major democracies of the world.

1. India - The electoral system practiced in India is the First Past the Post System under the type of Majority systems. The various elections held in India include :

· Election for Members of the Parliament in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha

· Election for Members of State Legislative Assemblies and additional Assembly elections in case of Union Territories (e.g. Delhi)

· Election for Members of State Legislative Councils

· Election for Members of City Corporation Councils and Village Panchayats

· By-elections on incidents such as death, resignation or disqualification of any candidate in a particular constituent.

The Members of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) / lower house of the Parliament and the Vidhan Sabha (State Legislative Assembly)/lower house of State Legislature are elected directly by votes of adult Indian citizens. The Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) continue to be in their positions for five years or until the bodies are dissolved by the President and the Governor respectively. The Prime Minister and the Chief Minister are appointed by the President and Governor respectively from the elected MPs and MLAs. Similar to the Lok Sabha elections, the leader of the major party/alliance takes oath as the Chief Minister. However, in the case of Rajya Sabha/ the Council of States elections/ upper house of India’s parliament, the candidates are elected by the Members of Legislative Assemblies instead of the citizens. Members of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) remain in their position for six years while one third of the body faces re-election every two years.

In the electoral system followed in India, there remains a flexibility of choice between parties as well as individual candidates; hence a voter gets a chance to choose a candidate of his own choice instead of choosing from a list of representatives of the respective party. The First-Post-the-Past system leads to formation of a stable, inclusive way of politics- the system gives the opportunity to come up with a quick determining majority government which in turn assures quick enactment of policies and also, stability of power. Besides, the system influences the Parliament of geographic representatives in a way since elected people from respective constituencies have a duty of working towards the people’s policies for the re-election. The FPTP system also results in strong oppositions since both the winning and opposition parties receive more votes compared to their share of seats. On the other hand, the FPTP system has many demerits such as disproportionality, use of muscle power, etc. Involvement in vote-bank politics and use of muscle power are common sights to catch during the election season in India. There is a surprising rise in the number of political murders and internal arguments of political parties, preceding the elections. Rather than talking about the issues of actual importance, infuriating issues are brought up by the candidates to provoke the voters. Religion and Caste are two of the most backing up issues during elections. Lunches at minority people’s residences and announcing a development board just before the elections without ever enacting it are the acts which serve as the false faces of our ministers for election purposes. There is also an underlying hypocrisy in the system- though the majority governments are formed from many minority votes, the government never recognizes the minor parties and always tends to exclude women and minorities from fair elections.

2. The United States- Generally the First-Past-the-Post System is followed in the United States. The levels of election in the United States include :

i. Federal elections

ii. Presidential elections

iii. Congressional elections- a. Senate elections; b. House of Representatives elections

iv. State elections

v. Local elections

The presidential system of government in the US witnesses separate elections for the executive and the legislature. The Congressional and Presidential elections are held every four years along with the intervening Congressional elections, known as midterm elections held every two years. The president and vice president are elected through an indirect system where votes from the Electoral College are the deciding factors for the winner. The Senate Chamber and House of Representatives under the Congress have the members elected for a six-year term and two-year term respectively. The State Level and Local Level elections are controlled by the State Legislatures.

So what effects does the use of the Electoral College exactly have, even to this day?

While using the Electoral College to cast votes by electors has kept uneducated or uninformed voters away from the final decision; at the same time, the advancement in technology has led to the influence of sinister bias in the election system. Another disadvantage of the Electoral College is handing over excess power to “swing states” and thus leading to the attentive activity of presidential candidates only in a few selected states. As a result, a huge fraction of people are not given the exact right and will to decide. Again, to take a look at the brighter side, it is found that the system assures a certain outcome of the presidential election, i.e. if the election were based on popular vote, there would be a possibility of the candidate receiving the highest number of popular votes without actually gaining a majority. To recall one such example, the incidents of President Nixton (1968) and President Clinton (1992) can be considered. In both of these cases, the candidates won most of the electoral votes whereas they just received 43% of the popular vote.

3. United Kingdom- The United Kingdom holds five different type of elections:

i. General Elections or Elections to the House of Commons of the UK

ii. Elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies

iii. Local Elections

iv. Mayoral Elections

v. Police and Crime Commissioner Elections

In case of a general election, the U.K. is divided into 650 local areas, known as parliamentary constituencies, and each of those constituencies is represented by a candidate called Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons.

The main election, i.e. the General Elections follows the First-Past-the-Post System. Each constituency has either independent candidates or candidates chosen by political parties. The FPTP system followed in the UK has advantages such as- it is simple to understand, has a strong Member of Parliament and constituency relationship and also, it provides the winning government five years to implement its actions. The negative effects of the FPTP include- election of MP on even 35% of the vote only, encouragement of tactical voting as the voters have a misconception that their votes will have very less to do with the election of the candidate.

Observing the electoral system followed in these three major democracies, it can be noticed that every system has its fair share of merits and demerits. The negative and positive parts are always complementary, but who decides what will be the major effect?- THE ANSWER LIES WITHIN YOU.