This page is currently a work in progress. We have analysed countries in terms of how democratic is the electoral system for their main legislative body.
We have published an article sharing the analysis here.
The main electoral systems, ordered from most to least democratic are as follows:
- PR - Proportional Representation - Each party composes a list of potential candidates for each multi-member district and the number of those elected from each list is representative of the vote. There are many different forms of PR including the STV (Single Transferable Vote) system.
- AV - Alternative Vote - Voters rank candidates in order of their preference. If a candidate wins over 50% they automatically win the seat. If there is no victory by majority, the candidate with the fewest 1st preference votes is knocked out and you then look towards the 2nd preferences and so on.
- Mixed - MMP/AMS - Mixed Member Proportional/Additional Members System - MMP is a form of proportional representation and First Past the Post. There are two ballot papers. One is to vote for a local representative. The other is a list of candidates who represent a party.
- Two round system - Voters mark their preferred candidate. If they win over 50%, then they win the election. If not a second vote is conducted. The candidate who wins the second ballot is then elected.
- Parallel System - This is a hybrid of systems which, in our analysis consists, of a form of a hybrid of FPTP and PR.
- FPTP - First Past the Post - Voters pick a local representative (who usually belongs to a party). The candidate with the most votes will then go into government to form a state legislature.
- Party Block Voting - Voters have 1 vote where they vote for a block list of candidates. The party with the most votes wins the entire list of candidates.
If you have comments or want to make suggestions to improve this map please contact us by email.
