Majoritarian and Proportional Systems

Abstract

In the beginning is how a people is made to vote. Electoral systems determine how votes are translated into seats,¹ and thereby affect the behavior of the voter. They also bear on whether the elector votes party or persons. On the first account the criterion is whether the translation of votes into seats is ‘in proportion’ or not, and the major divide among electoral systems thus is between proportional and majoritarian representation. On the second account the criterion is who controls the selection of the candidates, and the major divide is between ‘person voting’ or not. Since both criteria admit degrees and mixes, the overall classification and typology of electoral systems turns out to be — unsurprisingly — an intricate matter.