The Australian Ballot // Party Systems

Duverger's Theorem (1959)

studied democracies outside US in other countries to see if you get a similar trend in Black's Median Voter Theorem - Found: not as extreme as US, but there is consistently two ideologically moderate/broad parties that are dominant in democratic systems (liberal v conservative)

Down's Spatial Model of Party Behavior

studied proportional representation systems (various parties get various shares pf seats in gov. proportional to amount of votes they get in elections) - Found: behavior of party changes when you go from a SMP electoral system to a proportional representation system - SMP electoral party system makes it extremely difficult for small parties to get seats in gov., unlike proportional representation when they can get at least a small amount of seats in gov. - ****minor parties can win modest amounts of seats and can leverage themselves as coalition partners who may receive some say in certain policy areas (may gain control over certain policy areas as a way to attract them to join coalition (necessary for smooth running gov.)

Single-member plurality system

"first past the post" (voting for one individual) and office positions geographically defined (city, state, federal) - person who wins is the person who gets more votes than any other candidate (plurality votes) - elector system used in US and Great Britain

single ballot

(Features of Australian Ballot system) all candidates for all offices on one ballot

secret ballot

(Features of Australian Ballot system) confidentially so people do not know which way you voted to prevent coercion/pressure/corruption

administrative handling of ballots

(Features of Australian Ballot system) instead of political party officials, all done by bureaucrats who are non-partison, so they do not have motive to rig ballots (stopped members of parties from handling ballots)

Effects of Australian Ballot system

Reduced voter turnout, election fraud, and political corruption (since 1890s) - decline in voter turnout due to declining interest in politics. Unethical/illegal/and corrupt aspects of elections were wiped out with new features of ballot system ****decline in political corruption means decline in voter turnout

Hybrid electoral system (both)

ex1: Germany- 298 seats to legislate that are single-member plurality,, 300-400 seats that are given through proportional representation - ex2: Mexico- chamber of debuties (500 seats- 300 determined by single-member plurality, 200 determined by proportional representation) Chamber of commerce (3/4 seats go to single member plurality, 1/4 seats go to proportional representation)

Strategic standpoint

the best idealogical position for candidate/party to assume is a moderate position to give the party/candidate the best possible chance of winning - when party/candidate are right at the middle (ideologically broad and moderate) this will maximize votes. - in most elections, when you get close to general election day, candidates give very similar rhetoric to assume the moderate (middle) position to maximize vote share and create a broad ideology because you get nothing if you finish second

Proportional Representation system

voting for parties instead of individual candidates - percentage of votes that the party receives determines how many seats the party receives in national gov. - party has to get minimum percentage of votes to win any seats (minimum threshold) weeds out the small parties (usually 3-5%) - used by Sweden and Isreal - pro: gives representation to a variety of parties and reflects population of country, gives rep. to small parties - coalitions form between parties in fed. gov. to form a working gov.

Black's Median Voter Hypothesis (1948)

when it coms to how voters vote, voters vote for the party closest to their ideologies (only studied US democracy) - ex: an extremist voter is going to vote for the moderate party that is closest to them (extreme liberal votes democratic party, extreme conservative votes republican party)

Downside of proportional representation

Isreal- has 13 parties that have at least 1 seat in legislature... 8 parties are in one coalition. Coalitions are required to form gov.. If one party tries to leave coalition, causes major instability in gov. - - ***therefore two party system is more stabile

Tendency of SMP electoral systems

Tend to create two dominant, idealogical moderate, and ideologically broad political parties (ex: Democratic Party and Republican Party in US)