List of electoral systems

An electoral system (or voting system) is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined.

Some electoral systems elect a single winner (single candidate or option), while others elect multiple winners, such as members of parliament or boards of directors.

The study of formally defined electoral methods is called social choice theory or voting theory, and this study can take place within the field of political science, economics, or mathematics, and specifically within the subfields of game theory and mechanism design.

List of electoral systems by types

edit
  • Name (abbr.) and other names of the system (other names that may sometimes refer to other systems)
  • Type of representation: the most common division of electoral systems
  • Mixed system (yes/no)
  • Single-winner/multiple winner system
  • List / candidate (personal election) based system
  • Decision rule
    • Plurality (candidates with most votes win)
    • Majority (candidates must receive support at least half of voters)
    • Quota (candidates must at least reach the quota)
  • Type of ballot
    • single choice
    • multiple choice
    • cumulative (more than one vote for one candidate possible)
    • ranked (ordinal voting)
    • score (cardinal voting)
  • Number of votes/voter
  • Number of tiers: number of levels e.g. local, regional, state, national

Systems

edit
Name(s)VariationsType of representationMixed?Single/multi-winnerList / candidate-based systemType of decision ruleType of ballotNumber of votes / voterNumber of tiers

(if mixed)

First-past-the-post (FPTP/FPP)[1]

Single-member plurality (SMP/SMDP)

two-round system with lower than 50% requirement in first roundmajoritarianNosingle-winnercandidatepluralitysingle choice1
General ticket

Party-block voting (PBV)

majoritarianNomulti-winnerlistpluralitysingle choice1
Plurality block voting (BV)

plurality-at-large voting

(multiple non-transferable vote, MTNV)

limited party block votingmajoritarianNomulti-winnercandidatepluralitymultiple choice=number of winners
Limited voting (LV)

limited block voting

partial block voting

(multiple non-transferable vote, MNTV)

limited party block votingsemi-proportionalNomulti-winnercandidatepluralitymultiple choice<number of winners
Single non-transferable vote (SNTV)semi-proportionalNomulti-winnercandidatepluralitysingle choice1
Single transferable vote (STV)

Hare–Clark electoral system[2]

(proportional ranked-choice voting)[3]

semi-proportional / proportionalNomulti-winnercandidatequotaranked choice (ordinal voting)1 (effectively)
Instant-runoff voting (IRV)[4]

(Alternative vote - AV)[5]

(Ranked-choice voting - RCV)[6]

(Single-transferable vote - STV)

(Hare's method)[7]

contingent vote,

supplementary vote,Coombs' method

majoritarianNosingle-winnercandidatemajorityranked choice (ordinal voting)1 (effectively)
Two-round system (TRS)[8]

Runoff voting

Non-partisan primary,

multi-round voting

majoritarianNosingle-winnercandidatemajoritysingle choice1 (each round)
Two-round block voting

(majority block voting)(multiple non-transferable vote, MNTV)

majoritarianNomulti-winnercandidatemajoritymultiple choice=number of winners (each round)
Multiple transferable vote (MTV)

(Preferential block voting)

majoritarianNomulti-winnercandidatemajorityranked choice (ordinal voting)=number of winners, effectively
Exhaustive ballotmajoritarianNosingle-winner /multi-winnercandidatemajoritysingle choice1
Cumulative votingpanachage (certain types)majoritarian / semi-proportionalNosingle-winner /multi-winnercandidatepluralitycumulative ballot>1
Approval voting (AV)[9]block approval votingmajoritarianNosingle-winner /multi-winnercandidatepluralitymultiple choiceany number

(max. one for one candidate)

Score voting
Range voting
Approval voting (score voting 0-1)majoritarian / semi-proportionalNosingle-winner /multi-winnercandidatepluralityscore ballot(cardinal voting)
Borda countmajoritarian / semi-proportionalNosingle-winner /multi-winnercandidatepluralityranked choice (ordinal voting)
Condorcet methodCopeland's method,

Dodgson's method,Kemeny–Young method,Minimax,Nanson's method,ranked pairs,Schulze method,Tideman's alternative methods

majoritarianNosingle-winnercandidatemajority against every candidateranked choice (ordinal voting)
Party-list proportional representation

list-PR

Largest remainderHighest averagesBinomial votingsemi-proportional / proportionalNomulti-winnerlist (+ candidate, if open list)quota or divisor methodsingle choice1 (effectively)
Superposition - non-compensatory combination of FPTP + List-PR

(Supplementary member system)

(Parallel voting)[10]

(Mixed-member majoritarian representation - MMM)

Two-round system + List-PR

mixed single vote version

semi-proportionalYesmulti-winner(+ single-winner in districts)candidate + listmixed non-compensatorysingle choice2 (each tier)2
Seat-linkage compensatory combination of FPTP + List-PR

(Additional member system - AMS)[11]

(Mixed-member proportional representation - MMP)

mixed single vote versionbest-loser mixed-member proportionalsemi-proportional / proportionalYesmulti-winner(+ single-winner in districts)candidate + listmixed compensatorysingle choice2 (each tier)2
Vote-linkage compensatory combination of FPTP + List-PR

Positive vote transfer system (PVT)[12]

(mixed single vote - MSV[13])

(Additional member system - AMS)

negative vote transfersemi-proportional / proportionalYesmulti-winner(+ single-winner in districts)candidate + listmixed compensatorysingle choice12
Dual member proportional (DMP)[14]semi-proportional / proportionalYesmulti-winnerlist or candidatepluralitysingle choice11

List of electoral systems used for national elections

edit
Electoral system for national legislatures

(lower house or unicameral)

  Majoritarian representation (winner-take-all)
  No election (e.g. Monarchy)

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "First past the post". nzhistory.govt.nz. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 13 January 2016. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  2. ^ George Howatt, Democratic Representation under the Hare-Clark System – The Need for Seven-Member Electorates
  3. ^ "How RCV Works". FairVote. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  4. ^ Cary, David (1 January 2011). "Estimating the Margin of Victory for Instant-runoff Voting". Proceedings of the 2011 Conference on Electronic Voting Technology/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections. EVT/WOTE'11: 3. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  5. ^ "Alternative Vote". www.electoral-reform.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  6. ^ FairVote.org. "Ranked Choice Voting / Instant Runoff". FairVote. Archived from the original on 7 January 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  7. ^ Pacuit, Eric (3 August 2011). "Voting Methods". Archived from the original on 21 November 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2022 – via plato.stanford.edu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ "Two-Round System". Electoral Reform Society. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 7 Nov 2019.
  9. ^ Brams, Steven; Fishburn, Peter (1978). "Approval Voting". American Political Science Review. 72 (3): 831–847. doi:10.2307/1955105. JSTOR 1955105. S2CID 251092061.
  10. ^ "Parallel —". aceproject.org. Archived from the original on 2022-04-27. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  11. ^ "Additional-member system: Politics". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  12. ^ Bochsler, D (2014). "Which mixed-member proportional electoral formula fits you best? Assessing the proportionality principle of positive vote transfer systems". Representation. 50: 113–127. doi:10.1080/00344893.2014.902222. S2CID 153691414.
  13. ^ Golosov, G. V. (2013). "The Case for Mixed Single Vote Electoral Systems". The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies.
  14. ^ Graham, Sean (April 4, 2016). "Dual-Member Mixed Proportional: A New Electoral System for Canada". doi:10.7939/r3-qppp-b676. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)