Parliaments

Notes for studying:
 * For the midterm and final exams you will need to be able to define and use the "Key Terms" listed at the back of each chapter.
 * Also, pay careful attention to the Discussion Questions at the back of each chapter. These are a useful guide to the kinds of questions that will appear on the exams.

=Parliaments and how they're elected= Note: rules matter--and in political science we call the rules 'institutions'

Key ways legislatures differ

 * Parliaments are the source of executive power--contrast presidential system legislatures
 * Bicameral vs. unicameral
 * Electoral rules

Bicameral and unicameral parliaments

 * Most have two chambers--an upper and lower house. Why?
 * Generally the 'lower house' has more power than the 'upper house'
 * Sweden has only a unicameral parliament

Election systems--broad categories

 * Winner take all/plurality/first past the post
 * Party list proportional representation (PR)
 * Personalized proportional representation

Winner Take All: Great Britain

 * Country divided geographically into electoral districts, each sending one member to the House of Commons
 * Voters choose one candidate
 * Members are elected by formula of plurality
 * Disproportionality is a major resulting problem: See Figures 3.1 and 3.2 for examples--the two major parties win more seats than their proportion of the votes would indicate; the third party does extremely badly in terms of seats despite doing well in terms of votes
 * Another significant aspect of disproportionality is the tendency to magnify majorities (see Figure 3.3)
 * Note that disproportionality effects limit the scope for small, extremist parties to do well AND tends to have a moderating effect on the main parties
 * Note that the latter is an institutional effect--but works only because of the 'unimodal distribution' of voter preferences (this is an behavioral or cultural effect)

Party List proportional representation: Netherlands

 * Dutch parliament has 150 members, is not divided into geographic districts
 * Parties submit lists with candidates; party determines rank order of candidates
 * Nationwide vote converted to a percentage of total votes cast
 * Seats are assigned in proportion to the vote received
 * Result is a diverse, multiparty system with as few as 1.6% of votes producing a seat

Germany's personalized PR/mixed-member system (Bundestag elections)

 * All have 2 votes: one for a constituency seat (one of 328) and one vote for a party list presented by parties in the Land in which the voter lives
 * The party list vote is tabulated and this determines the total allocation of seats it gets in the BS—a number determined by PR. The party gets all of the constituency seats it has won, plus additional list seats up to its total allocation.

For example, see the 2005 [|election results at Wikipedia].

Electoral system is set by law, not by the ‘Basic Law’ (constitution); the Basic Law merely mandates that elections should be “general, direct, free, equal, and secret” Article 38

System is proportional, moderated by 2 features
 * Party must receive at least 5% of second votes or 3 constit seats
 * Surplus seats can be assigned

Other features:
 * No ‘by-elections’ if a member dies or resigns: rather, the seat is filled by the next person on the party’s list.
 * No provision for ‘snap elections’ as in Britain and other parliamentary systems: only on 2 occasions have elections come early—in 1972 and in 1982.
 * In 1972, Willy Brandt, leader of the SPD/FDP coalition lost his majority because FDP members joined the opposition; after winning a vote of no confidence he nonetheless requested an early election (he won dramatically).
 * In 1982, after the FDP switched out of the SPD/FDP coalition and joined with the CDU in a constructive vote of no confidence, Kohl called an election.

Effects of the system:
 * Not fragmentation: the most parties there have been in the BS is 5 (in the 1990s)
 * Invariably a coalition government (tho’ the CDU/CSU won a majority in 1957—and had a coalition anyway with the DP to make the government more secure.

Note that there have been 5 changes of government; but these have generally not occurred because of elections (except in 1998):
 * 1) In 1966 Erhard (CDU) was replaced by Kiesinger (CDU) when the ‘grand coalition’ (CDU/SPD) was formed.
 * 2) In 1969 the grand coalition was replaced by SPD/FDP coalition after an election, but the FDP could have allied with the CDU instead.
 * 3) In 1982 the SPD/FDP coalition government fell in a vote of no confidence and was replaced by a CDU/FDP government—followed by an election.
 * 4) Finally, in 1998 the election resulted in the CDU/FDP government falling to a coalition of the SPD/Greens
 * 5) And in 2005 the election was extremely close; the CDU and SPD formed a Grand Coalition with Angela Merkl leading it for the CDU/CSU

For more on the German Electoral system and its effects on parties, see Giovanni Capoccia, “The electoral consequences of electoral laws: The German system at Fifty” West European Politics, Volume 25, Issue 3, July 2002.