Election Systems
This type of election system is used to elect legislatures in the U.S., the UK, India, and Nigeria.
What is first-past-the-post?
This country currently has a multiparty system with weak parties in which legislators don't have to vote party line in the legislature.
What is Brazil?
According to Duverger's Law, first-past-the-post election systems tend to create this type of party system.
What is a two-party system?
In Germany, the decline in manufacturing, lowered rates of union membership, and increased globalization have weakened this system in recent decades.
What is the neo-corporatist interest group system?
Two course countries with democratic regimes (excluding the U.S.) that have two-party systems.
What are the UK and India?
Used in Germany, Japan, and Mexico, this type of PR variation allows parties to produce their ranked list of candidates, and voters select their preferred party.
What is closed-list PR?
This country currently has a dominant party system led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
What is Japan?
Anti-immigrant attitudes and disenchantment with the CDU/CSU-led government's immigration policies in Germany facilitated the formation of this party.
What is the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party?
In recent years, this country had mass protests against rate hikes to urban public transportation and protests in favor and against the president's impeachment.
What is Brazil?
India and Japan have had this democratic type of party system in which one party wins successive free and fair elections.
What is a dominant-party system?
This situation results when many legislative districts are won by candidates with less than a majority of the popular vote and have been relatively common in recent years in the UK.
What is a manufactured majority?
This country has a two-party system at the national level plus a multiparty system as a result of its many state-level parties.
What is India?
The Scottish National Party (SNP) was founded in the the UK in the 1920s but didn't make much headway in winning legislative seats until after this reform in the late 1990s.
What is devolution?
In the 1960s and 1970s, the UK's quasi-corporatist interest group system declined along with membership in these.
What are trade unions?
In Brazil, political parties often engage in this type of mobilization, although economic difficulties since 2011 have made that more difficult.
What is patronage-based mobilization?
This kind of PR variation allows voters to select candidates in conjunction with parties and is used in Brazil.
What is open-list PR?
In Germany, this party won the most seats in the February 2025 election.
Who are the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU)?
This societal factor in India makes the creation of nationwide parties difficult and facilitates the creation of local, state-based parties.
What is clientelism or patronage?
In Japan's pluralist interest group system, interest groups representing this type of interest have the most influence.
What are groups representing business interests?
Because there are few incentives for candidates in the same party to cooperate with one another during elections, open-list PR tends to encourage these.
What are weak parties?
After World War II, Germany adopted this election system to avoid the instability that had facilitated the rise of the Nazis.
What is compensatory mixed-PR?
Even though the UK has a two-party system, it still has several smaller parties that in recent years have received almost 1/3 of the popular vote. Name two of those smaller parties.
What are (a) the Scottish National Party (SNP); (b) the Liberal Democrats; (c) UKIP (UK Independence Party), now the Reform Party?
After 1994, Japan's election reform ended up producing majoritarian outcomes due to this particular way in which its mixed-PR system works.
What is having more legislative seats elected in single-member districts relative to the legislative seats elected by proportional representation?
Although India has some trade unions, the most important groups are those representing these types of interests.
What are ethnic, religious, and caste interests?
After Japan's October 2024 election, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had to form this kind of cabinet/government.
What is a minority government or a minority coalition government?