CPO-2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Coordination Game, Party System, Tactical Voting
21 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
The mechanical effect of electoral laws refers to the way votes are translated into seats: when electoral systems are disproportional, the mechanical effect punishes small parties and rewards large parties. Single member districts hurts smaller political parties and forces a two party system. Pr proportional votes to seats coalitions need to form for the majority. Voting for someone you know will probably win, versus voting for who you actually want to win because they fall more in line with your beliefs, simply because they have a smaller following/chance of winning. The strategic voting essentially means voting for your most preferred candidate who has a realistic chance of winning. Disproportional electoral systems mean that small parties are less likely to attract high-quality candidates and other resources. They also mean that small parties are less likely to form in the first. The coordination game is asymmetric and therefore has distributional consequences.
