1 / 8

Electoral systems and elections Paolo R. Graziano Political Science AY 2011-2012 Lecture 18

Electoral systems and elections Paolo R. Graziano Political Science AY 2011-2012 Lecture 18. The first electoral regime (1948-1992). proportional representation system (PR) minor differentiations between the ‘lower chamber’ and the senate

kirk-may
Download Presentation

Electoral systems and elections Paolo R. Graziano Political Science AY 2011-2012 Lecture 18

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Electoral systems and electionsPaolo R. Graziano Political Science AY 2011-2012Lecture 18

  2. The first electoral regime (1948-1992) • proportional representation system (PR) • minor differentiations between the ‘lower chamber’ and the senate • multi-preferential votes allowed: particularly important for intra-party political competition • strong ‘party structuration’ of the votes • 1953 majoritarian reform approved, but turned out to be ineffective • overall effect of the PR system: enduring vote fragmentation and (growing) coalition governments

  3. The reforms of the ‘90s • adoption of a mixed-plurality system (1993) as a result of: • party system crisis (i.e. legitimacy crisis of the ruling political elite) • growing voters’ dissatisfaction • ‘referendum’ movement (two referenda in 1991 and 1993) • main features of the mixed system: • 75% plurality system (single-member districts) • 25% PR

  4. The effects of electoral reforms on political competition • professionalization: from a volunteer-based system to an increasing use of paid work during electoral campaigns • personalization: candidates started to be recruited beyond party organizations • bipolarization and increasing pre-electoral coalition-building • increasing ‘bottom-up’ mobilization • lower predictability of the vote distribution (i.e. higher electoral volatility) • decline in (national) party structuration of the votes

  5. Patterns of voting behaviour • 1948-1992 - all three types of vote (identity, opinion, exchange) were represented in Italy: • identity vote: north-east and centre part of Italy (where political ‘subcultures’ were particularly important) • opinion vote: relevant in highly urbanized areas • exchange vote: especially relevant in the south • After 1992 – increasing use of ‘rationality’ in both political recruitment and voting behaviour, i.e. decline in identity vote

  6. The consolidation of bipolar political competitions • total volatility remains high… • …but bloc volatility is very low… • …and the parliamentary turnover is higher than during the 1948-1992 period • from clear and stable voting territorial differentiation (two leading ‘subcultures’)… • … to complexification of territorial distribution of votes, although a bipolar trend clearly emerges

  7. Back to (a different) PR? • 2005 electoral reform: • PR with thresholds (2% if the party is linked to a coalition, 4% otherwise – except for regional parties representing ethno-linguistic minorities) • majority bonus • blocked list vote • Result: further consolidation of bipolar nature of political competitions and reduced party fragmentation within political institutions

  8. Conclusion • consolidation of bipolarization, which does not mean that internal ‘pole’ divisions are not relevant. • electoral volatility is high, but bloc volatility is low • from bipolarization to bipartism?

More Related