ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS

AND PARTY SYSTEMS &

TECHNOLOGY
PRESENTOR: KAYE ANN A. MANALO
BPA 3103
 INTRODUCTION
Elections are one of the most central features of democracies, as they
legitimize policy-makers and determine who is going to have the greatest
political influence for a certain period of time.
They include provisions about who can be
elected (e.g. age, residency
requirements), specifications of election
types (e.g. general elections, regional
elections, presidential elections), the time
that may elapse between elections, and
issues of suffrage and compulsory voting.
Another important aspect is how votes are
transformed into parliamentary seats, which is
understood as the electoral system. There are
numerous ways in which electoral systems can
be categorized.
 TWO MOST BASIC TYPES OF
ELECTORAL SYSTEM
MAJORITARIAN SYSTEMS
are usually based on single-member constituencies, in
which the strongest party in each constituency wins
the seat. This is a very straightforward way of voting:
only one candidate can be chosen, and the one who
receives the highest number of votes is awarded the
seat.
 TWO MOST BASIC TYPES OF
ELECTORAL SYSTEM
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SYSTEMS
are characterized by multimember constituencies, in
which the seats are shared amongst parties in
proportion to the share of votes they have received.
The basic idea is to give each party the same share of
seats as it won votes, which can be achieved in various
ways.
Electoral institutions are considered to be an important explanatory
variable for a wide range of political phenomena. Typically, they have been
used to explain party systems.

The party system has important repercussions on policy-making. Party

systems are a concept developed by scholars of comparative political
science for categorizing enduring institutional characteristics of the
party landscape.
FOUR TYPES OF PARTY SYSTEM:

DOMINANT-PARTY SYSTEM
characterizes a situation in which one very large party
(with an absolute majority of well above 50% of
parliamentary seats) dominates all others over long
periods.
FOUR TYPES OF PARTY SYSTEM:

TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
are characterized by two equally strong parties (with
vote shares of 35–45% each) which dominate the party
system and alternate in holding power. In these
systems even a small number of votes changing from
one party to the other can lead to a change of majority,
which makes alternations in power fairly frequent.
FOUR TYPES OF PARTY SYSTEM:

MULTIPARTY SYSTEM
are the most frequent type of party system, although
there is remarkable variation in the number and size of
the parties. Relatively small multiparty systems (up to
five parties) can be found in Canada, Ireland, Japan
(especially in recent times) and Norway. Party systems
with more than five parties in parliament exist in
Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
FOUR TYPES OF PARTY SYSTEM:

BIPOLAR SYSTEM
which combines elements of multi- and two-party
systems. As in multiparty systems there are many
parties, of which none is majoritarian, making coalition
governments the rule. The major difference, however, is
that parties form relatively stable electoral alliances. In
most systems, there are two large electoral coalitions
running in elections and alternating in power, making
electoral competition look like a two-party system.
Policy-making can be expected to vary across different party
systems. Dominant-party systems should be able to respond
immediately to emerging policy problems, whereas the policy-
making process can be expected to take longer in multiparty
systems due to the need to receive the consent of the other
parties for a policy proposal.
As in two-party and bipolar systems, policy-making might
occur relatively swiftly, but a change in the majority
situation could entail drastic changes in existing policy
arrangements.