Coalitions
One negative of parliamentarism
What is by encouraging coalitions it also encourages the formation of small, radical, fringy parties who once have gotten into the process can potentially get into a ruling coalition, thus giving them a hand in governing, and even if they don't get into the cabinet, still being in parliament will give them a stage on which to spout their extremist nonsense?
Minimum size coalition (also called least minimal winning coalition)
What is a type of minimal winning coalition that is the smallest of all possible minimal winning coalitions?
Most and least common types coalition
What is respectively the MWC since you don't want to give away cabinet seats overall (as people usually don't value yet another party as insurance that much) that you could keep for ourself or give to your primary coalition partner, as the latter would strengthen their stake in the govt; and minority coalition is least common?
What matters
What is not the voting results but how one counts the votes?
Majority system/runoff system/2 rd system
What (think FRA pres.) provides a way around the spoiler effect, which is so common in 1st past the post systems, but has people still not being likely to vote for a candidate who is not likely to get into the top 2 (i.e. who is currently in 4th place), even if he is one's fav. candidate?
Consequence of one party leaving the coalition
What is there may have to be new election held?
Surplus majority coalition ("oversized coalition")
What is a coalition that has more parities in the covet than is necessary to form a majority, i.e. it has at least one extra party, a situation in which the surplus parties have an incentive to vote for govt because it they don't the other parties can kick them out of the govt and then they won't have anything?
What does the PM usually start with that is built-in?
Strategic voting
What is the practice of voting for a candidate one only somewhat likes (as opposed to one's favorite candidate) in order to prevent the candidate one likes least from winning?
Why the alternate vote is not used if it is so good
What is because the est. politicians don't like changing it because they won using the current system, esp. when only 2 dominant political parties?
What is the prime minister has to pay attention to the desires of his cabinet coalition partners and look out for their interests as well?
Why anyone would include extra parties in a coalition
What are (in ascending order of importance) in times of crisis, one party may bring extras into the govt as a show of unity to the rest of the world; as an insurance policy in case some members of the PM's party vote with the other side-definitely will see this; as a constitutional provision/representation requirement that you nave to add a certain # of X people to your cabinet?
The spoiler effect
What is when candidates w/ similar ideological positions split the vote so that someone else with a very different ideology either does win or has a very strong chance of winning?
Ways that the electoral systems can differ that have major effects on things
What are
1. constituencies (the geographic area from which representatives are elected),
2. district magnitude (M=#) (the # of reps elected per district) (SMDS vs Multi-member districts-MMDs) (with M=1, you'll have only 2 major parties because no one would waste their vote on a candidate that has zero chance of getting the top spot, even if they like him, but they might if he has a chance of getting into the top 2 spots and there will be two people in the winners' circle; thus the EFFECTIVE number of political parties will usually be M+1, where M is whatever number the district magnitude happens to be in each case),
3. ballot structure (the way your ballot looks when you go to express the vote, the tool w/ which you express your preferences), and
4. the electoral formula (the way votes are translated into seats/the way you count the votes
Coalition types
What are single party majority, minimal winning coalition, surplus majority coalition, single party minority (aka minority govt), minority coalition?
Minority coalition
What is very rare?
Pro of plurality voting systems
What is that these systems are very straightforward?
Side advantages of alternative vote
What both allows for sincere voting (the opposite of strategic voting, ie no wasted votes) and makes the voters only have to go to the polls once?
Minimal winning coalition (MWC)
What doesn't necessarily have to be 2 parties but is the minimum number of parties necessary to form a winning coalition/to form a majority, involving NO EXTRA PARTIES (i.e. a situation where if just one party leaves the coalition they it won't be a majority coalition), and there can be various minimal winning coalitions in any given election?
Why anyone would form a minority govt or minority coalition instead of replacing it with a govt where they can be in it
What is parties outside govt may want to influence w/out association and parties may want support w/out association or the party may be viewed as too small to be worthy of an actual cabinet seat, and is called confidence and supply?
Alternate vote/transferrable vote/instant runoff/majority runoff?/single transferrable vote/sequential runoff??
What would you probably not want to use in a developing republic, most importantly both tends to eliminate the spoiler effect, and tends to moderate or eliminate divisive candidates and lead to the election of moderate candidates and force candidates to be conciliatory?