Majoritarian system and proportional electoral system. Majoritarian electoral system

Those who received the most votes in their constituency.

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  There are three varieties of the majority system: absolute, relative and qualified majority.

  1. In elections under the absolute majority system, the candidate who has collected the absolute majority of votes - 50% + 1 vote of the elector is recognized as elected. In the event that none of the candidates receives an absolute majority, a second round is organized, in which the two candidates with the largest number of votes usually advance. The one who receives an absolute majority in the second round is considered the winner. Such a system, in particular, is used in the elections of deputies at all levels in France, as well as in presidential elections in most countries where these elections are popular (including France, Russia, Ukraine, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania).
  2. In elections under the majority system, relative majority, to win, it is enough for a candidate to get more votes than any of the competitors, and not necessarily more than half. Such a system is currently used in Great Britain, Japan, the USA in the elections of members of Congress, in Russia in the elections of deputies of the State Duma (half of the seats), etc. All people's deputies of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council of the RSFSR were elected by the majority principle in 1990. The majority electoral system of relative majority is most often used in single-member constituencies. In English-speaking countries, the name of this system is the "first who is considered elected" or "first past the post" system. Majoritarian elections in multi-member districts include the election of the President of the United States, when the Electoral College is elected. Voters vote for lists of electors represented by different parties, a multi-member district in this case is a separate state with a number of seats proportional to the population. A variation of the relative majority system is a block system, when a voter from an allotted "block" of votes passes one vote to each of the candidates. If a voter has the same number of votes as the number of mandates filled in a multi-member constituency, then this block system of unlimited vote. If the number of votes is less than the number of mandates - bloc limited vote system. In the extreme case, a citizen may be given the opportunity to vote for only one candidate - single (or single) non-transferable voice system .
  3. Under a qualified majority system, the future winner needs to gain a predetermined majority, which is more than half - 2/3, 3/4, etc. Usually used when resolving constitutional issues.

  Advantages

  • The majoritarian system is universal: with its use it is possible to hold elections of both individual representatives (president, governor, mayor), and collective bodies of state power or local self-government (country parliament, city municipality).
  • Since individual candidates are nominated and compete with each other in the majoritarian system, the voter makes a decision based on the personal qualities of the candidate, and not his party affiliation.
  • The majoritarian system allows small parties and non-partisan candidates to actually participate and win elections.
  • The mandate given by voters to a particular candidate makes him more independent of the party machine; the source of power is voters, not party structures.

  Flaws

  • The representation of the most powerful party in parliament is higher than the actual percentage of voters who support them.
    • In particular, minorities scattered throughout the country cannot achieve a majority in every single constituency. In order to “push” your deputy into parliament, compact living is required.
  • Voters, so that their vote "does not go to waste", vote not for the one they like, but for the most acceptable of the two leaders.
  • The majority electoral system eventually leads to

  Participation in elections is the duty of every citizen. Only how many of them understand what, in fact, is happening at this moment? So you can really explain to your friends what a majoritarian district is? How does it differ from others and why is it so tricky called? Let's try to figure it out. This will come in handy for many when it is time to go to the polling station again. Still, it is necessary to understand in what process you are participating in order not to join the ranks of those who are being used “in the dark”.

  Electoral system

  Without this concept, it is impossible to understand. After all, the majority district is part of it. is a legislatively fixed mechanism for the process of expressing the will of citizens. Everything is clearly marked and painted in it. Participants, processes, mechanisms are fixed by a special law (and sometimes several).

  The documents also define the electoral technology. It includes a system of means, a mechanism, methods of organizing, conducting an expression of will. There are three such technologies: proportional, mixed and majority. In our case, the latter is used. At the same time, the constituency is a kind of territorial unit of the electoral system. The territory on which, in accordance with the legislation, elections are held is divided into them. For example, if a country's parliament is formed, then districts are created throughout its territory, and so on.

  Majoritarian system

  

  Advantages and disadvantages

  

  It should be noted that when an electoral district is formed, many factors are taken into account. These, as a rule, are the geographical location of settlements, population, number of mandates, and some others. It is believed that the electoral majoritarian district is exactly the element that corresponds to democratic principles. Every citizen has the opportunity not only to take part in the expression of will, but also to “be heard”. His voice will definitely affect the outcome of the process. In addition, the legislator prescribes special conditions by a special act. These can be: turnout threshold or counting system. These nuances seem insignificant to the uninitiated. However, they significantly affect the results of the expression of will of citizens united in an electoral majoritarian district. Among the shortcomings indicate a decrease in the level of participation of people in the repeated voting. Let's consider in more detail.

  Re-vote

  The result of the majority system is not always final after the first round. The law under which the declaration of will is carried out determines the criteria for declaring the winners. If it turns out after the counting of votes that none of the candidates satisfies them, then repeated elections are held. Majority constituencies remain the same. The list of candidates may be subject to change. Let's take the same example of elections of rural heads in Ukraine. If none of the candidates collected half of the votes, then those who came out in the "two" leaders compete with each other. There is one more vote.

  Australian system

  

  Majority elections can be held in a variety of ways. In Australia, for example, the legislator found a way to get away from holding a repeat vote. There, the calculation is carried out on the principle of an absolute majority. But the voter has the right to indicate additional benefits for other candidates. It's comfortable. In the event that no one receives an absolute majority the first time, then the last one is thrown out of the list, then a re-count is carried out. This is how they act until they determine a candidate who fully meets the requirements prescribed by law. It turns out that even in a difficult situation there is no need to involve a voter again to resolve it. Everyone, so to speak, expresses in advance all his wishes about the winner (distributes priorities). Agree, this system is more democratic than the one where a simple absolute majority is counted.

  List of candidates by majoritarian constituency

  The voter, of course, is not interested in the counting system itself, but in who to vote for. But in this case, it is still necessary to have an idea about the legislation that determines the essence of the will. In a simple system, you need to cast your vote for one candidate (check the box). In more complex ones, specify additional priorities. In addition, there are multi-member constituencies.

  

  In them, the list is not made up of personalized candidates, but of collegiate ones. They are represented by party lists. All these nuances must be learned ahead of time, before going to the site. And in the most general version, candidates are registered by the relevant commission. She also generates ballots, which indicate all those who passed the selection, provided documents, and so on. The process is not simple. But the voter receives a ballot list in his hands, having confidence in its full compliance with the current legislation.

  Some nuances of counting

  It should be noted that the legislation is constantly being improved in order to increase the level of democracy. The vote of every citizen must be taken into account. Therefore, all sorts of nuances are determined. For example, the count may take into account both the number of voters and the total number of voters. Turnout thresholds are also set. Such a rule is present in many countries in the legislative acts governing the election of the president of the country. Thus, a plebiscite is considered valid when more than fifty percent of registered voters (50% plus one vote) took part in it.

  The majority system, which is called the majority system, is the most common in elections. Under this system, those candidates who receive the established majority of votes are considered elected. This system is the only one possible with the election of one official (president, governor, etc.). When it is used for elections of a collegial body of power, for example, the House of Parliament, single-member constituencies are usually created, that is, one deputy must be elected in each of them. The majority system has several varieties, due to different requirements for the size of the majority of votes necessary for election.

  The majority system of relative majority is the simplest system. “Under this system, it is enough for the winner to collect more votes than any other applicant, but not necessarily more than half” Constitutional law of foreign countries. It is effective: the only case where there can be no result is when two or more candidates receive the same maximum number of votes. Such cases are quite rare, and the legislative resolution of the situation usually happens by lot. Such a system is used, for example, in parliamentary elections in the United States, Great Britain, India, partly in Germany and partly, as you know, in Russia.

  In practice, the more candidates running for one seat, the fewer votes required to be elected. If there are more than two dozen candidates, candidates with 10 percent of the votes or even less may be elected. Under this system, there is usually no mandatory minimum participation of voters in voting: if at least one voted, the elections are valid. If one candidate is nominated for a seat, he is considered elected without a vote, because it is enough that at least one voter voted for him (even if he himself turns out to be such a single voter).

  However, the majoritarian system of the relative majority is extremely unfair in relation to political parties, especially medium and small ones in terms of their influence. The mandate goes to the candidate who receives a relative majority of the votes, while there could be more votes against him than for him. This means that he was elected by an absolute minority of voters, although by a relative majority. The bottom line is that the votes cast against the winning candidate have disappeared altogether. And on a national scale, this can lead to the fact that the party for which the majority of voters votes receives a minority of seats in parliament. With these defects, the system has its supporters because it usually provides the winning party with an absolute, and sometimes a significant majority in parliament, allowing the formation of a stable government under parliamentary and mixed forms of government. In multi-member constituencies in which lists of candidates compete, the significance of these defects in the system increases many times over.

  Majoritarian system of absolute majority - this system differs from the majoritarian system of relative majority in that a candidate is considered to have won the election if he received an absolute majority of votes, i.e. 50% of the total number of votes cast plus at least one other vote. At the same time, a lower threshold for the participation of voters in voting is set: if it is not reached, the elections are considered invalid or failed. He most often makes up half of the registered voters, but not rarely less. In the case when it is equal to half of the registered voters, the absolute majority of the total number of votes cast can theoretically amount to 25% + 1 of the legal electoral corps. If an absolute majority of valid votes is required for election, then the share of the total number of registered voters may be even smaller.

  Although this system looks more fair, nevertheless, it still has the same defect as the majority system of the relative majority, i.e. it is quite possible that under this system, the party whose candidates in the country collected the majority of votes will receive a minority of parliamentary mandates. This can happen if the voters voting for such a party are concentrated in a small number of constituencies, and the voters of the "minority party", on the contrary, will achieve even an insignificant advantage in the majority of constituencies. After all, after the bar of 50 percent + 1 vote is taken, the candidate who received the absolute majority does not need any additional votes.

  The majoritarian system of the absolute majority has its own specific defect - frequent inefficiency, and it is all the more likely, the more competition among candidates. This danger is increased if the required absolute majority is calculated from the total number of votes cast: even with two candidates in a single-member district, it may turn out that neither gets an absolute majority if some part of the voters voted against both candidates, or cast invalid votes. If the absolute majority is counted from the total number of valid votes, then only the voting of a part of voters against both candidates can lead to such a result. Of course, provided that the established minimum of voters took part in the voting; otherwise, the election is void regardless of all other circumstances.

  There are various ways to overcome this inefficiency.

  Re-election of candidates who have collected a certain share of the vote. This is the second round of elections or repeated elections. It is more common to see a re-election of the two candidates who received the largest number of votes in the first round. But at the same time, in the elections to the French National Assembly, all candidates who received at least 12.5 percent of the registered voters in the district in the first round pass to the second round.

  For election in the second round, only a relative majority of votes is sufficient, and therefore such a system is called a two-round system. If, however, an absolute majority of votes is also required in the second round, as, for example, in Germany during the election of the Federal President by a special collegium - the Federal Assembly, and a relative majority is sufficient only in the third round, then the system is called the three-round system.

  Alternative voting. It assumes that a voter in a single-mandate constituency votes not for one candidate, but for several, indicating with numbers against their names their preference for him. Against the name of the most desirable candidate, he puts the number 1, against the name of the next most preferred candidate (that is, whom he would like to see elected if the first one does not pass) - the number 2, and so on. When counting the votes, the ballots are sorted according to the first preferences. The candidate who receives more than half of the first preferences is considered elected. If none of the candidates is elected, the candidate with the fewest first preferences is excluded from the distribution, and his ballots are transferred to other candidates in accordance with the second preferences indicated in them. If after that no candidate has an absolute majority of ballots, the candidate with the fewest first and second preferences is eliminated, and the process continues until one of the candidates has an absolute majority of ballots. The advantage of this method is that you can get by with a single vote. It is used, for example, in the elections of the lower house of Parliament in Australia. Theorists, however, doubt how justified it is to equate the second and even more so the third preference with the first.

  A majoritarian electoral system is a general type of electoral system based on the principle of majority and one winner when determining voting results. The main goal of the majority system is to determine the winner and a cohesive majority capable of pursuing a succession policy. Votes cast for losing candidates simply don't count. The majority system is used in 83 countries of the world: USA, UK, Japan, Canada.

  There are 3 types of majority system:

  Majoritarian system of absolute majority;

  Majoritarian system of simple (relative) majority;

  Qualified Majority Majority System.

  Majoritarian system of absolute majority- a method of determining the results of voting, in which an absolute majority of votes (50% + 1) is required to obtain a mandate, i.e. a number exceeding by at least one vote half the number of voters in the given constituency (usually the number of those who voted). The advantage of this system lies in the simplicity of determining the results, and also in the fact that the winner really represents the absolute majority of voters. Disadvantage - there is the possibility of the absence of an absolute majority, and hence the winner, which leads to a second vote until an absolute majority is collected Majoritarian system of relative majority- a method of determining the results of voting, in which it is required to collect a simple or relative majority of votes, i.e. more than opponents. The advantage of this system is the obligatory presence of the result. The disadvantage is a significant degree of unaccounted for votes.

  Qualified Majority Majoritarian System- this is a method of determining the results of voting, in which a candidate must collect a clearly defined number of votes to win, always more than half of the voters living in the district (2/3, ¾, etc.). Due to the complexity of the implementation, this system is not used today.

  proportional electoral system

  A proportional electoral system is a method of determining the results of voting, which is based on the principle of distributing seats in elected bodies in proportion to the number of votes received by each party or list of candidates.

  Distinctive features of the proportional system:

  ü Strict correspondence between the number of votes in elections and representation in parliament.

  ü Emphasis on the representation of various groups of the population in government bodies.

  ü Presence of multi-member constituencies.

  ü Fair character, because there are no losers or lost votes.

  There are 2 main types of proportional system:

  Proportional party list system

  Proportional party list system. Its peculiarity lies in the presence of multi-member constituencies (the entire territory of the state can act as a constituency) and the formation of party lists as a way to nominate candidates. As a result, electoral competitors are not individual candidates, but political parties. Voters, on the other hand, vote for the party, i.e. for her party list and all at once, despite the fact that it was created without their participation. The mandates are distributed among the parties in accordance with the total number of votes received in the entire constituency. Technically, the mechanism for the distribution of mandates is as follows: the sum of votes cast for all parties is divided by the number of seats in parliament. The result obtained is a "selective meter", i.e. the number of votes required to win one seat in Parliament. How many times this meter will meet the number of votes received by the party, so many seats it will receive in parliament. In order to prevent extremist parties from entering parliament, as well as to avoid party fragmentation and inefficient parliamentary activity, a percentage threshold is set. The parties that overcome it are admitted to the distribution of seats, the rest are excluded. In Ukraine, the barrier is 4%, in Russia - 5%, in Turkey - 10%.

  Proportional voting system(Ireland, Australia). Unlike the party list system, where voting is carried out for parties, this system allows the voter to choose among the candidates from the party he supports. Candidates who receive a sufficient number of votes are declared elected; the extra votes cast for them are transferred to the candidates with the shortest votes. Such a system is fair to voters, taking into account the opinion of all.

  Mixed electoral system

  One of the options for the electoral system is a mixed electoral system, which is designed to neutralize the shortcomings and enhance the advantages of both systems. This system is characterized by the combination of elements of proportional and majority systems. As a rule, there are 2 types of mixed systems:

  A mixed system of a structural type - involves a bicameral parliament, where one chamber (consisting of representatives of administrative-territorial units) is elected by the majority system, and the second (lower) - by the proportional system.

  A mixed system of a linear type - a unicameral parliament is possible, where some of the deputies are elected by a majority system, and the rest by a proportional one.

  In democratic states, citizens have the right to influence political decisions, to show their will, thereby determining the further development of the country. One of the varieties of electoral systems developed over a long period of time is the majoritarian electoral system. Let us briefly consider the concept of the majority system, its features, and also highlight its advantages and disadvantages.

  Signs of a majoritarian electoral system

  • the country is divided into districts approximately equal in population, from each of which candidates are nominated;
  • the candidate with the most votes wins;
  • allocate absolute (more than one second votes), relative (more votes compared to another candidate), qualified majority;
  • those who collected a minority of votes in parliament do not receive seats;
  • It is considered a universal system, as it allows taking into account the interests of both voters and parties.

  The absolute majority system is most often used in presidential elections, when a candidate needs to get 50% of the votes plus one vote to win.

  

  Advantages and disadvantages

  Advantages:

  • creates a direct responsibility of the winning candidate to his voters;
  • the winning party is the majority in parliament.

  Thus, the majoritarian system creates strong ties between the candidate and his voters. As a result of its use, it is possible to form the most stable authorities that can work quite effectively, since the parties included in them have similar views.

  Flaws:

  • reduces the chances of small parties entering parliament;
  • Elections are often ineffective, and a repeated procedure has to be carried out.

  So, some candidates who won an insufficient number of votes are out of politics. At the same time, it is not possible to trace the real correlation of political forces.

  TOP 4 articleswho read along with this

  The majoritarian electoral system differs from the proportional one in that the merger of groups with common interests occurs before the elections are held, and also in the fact that it contributes to the creation of a two-party system. The majority system is historically an earlier type.

  Country examples

  In the Russian Federation, the majoritarian electoral system is used in organizing elections for the President of the Russian Federation and heads of subjects of the Russian Federation.
  In addition, it is also practiced in:

  • Canada;
  • Great Britain;
  • France;
  • Australia.

  What have we learned?

  A majoritarian electoral system is a system in which the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes. Like other types of electoral systems, majoritarian has its advantages and disadvantages. Its advantage is the establishment of a direct connection between deputies and their voters, which increases their responsibility, as well as the possibility of forming a stable government capable of adopting a unified program of action. But at the same time, the majority system has some drawbacks, which, in particular, include a significant decrease in the chances of small parties entering the government.