Cameron Warr
PlSc 150
Blog 7: Duverger’s
Law
Duverger’s law
states that the effective number of parties in any electoral district depends
highly the electoral rules. The law states that SMDP rules should produce only
two effective parties, while proportional representation rules allow for two or
more effective parties. (Hawkins, Kirk) This Blog will show if there is any
correlation between Duverger’s law and the effective number of parties of
Sweden.
The electoral
rules of Sweden consist of a hybrid system derived from the “Sainte-Laguë”
method. There are 349 seats in Riksdag (Swedish Legislature) that are up for
election every four years. Sweden is divided into 29 multi-member constituencies
and 310 of the 349 seats are awarded based on proportional representation. (Wikipedia.org)
The other 39 seats are called “adjustment seats” and are distributed among parties that received over four percent of
the national vote. These seats are distributed according to each party’s share
of the national vote. (Election Guide) District magnitude in Sweden ranges from
two to 39 with an average of 11, but depends on the population of a said
constituency. They also use a closed-list structure which allows voters to only
vote for a specific party and not individuals within said party. (Election
Guide) In attempt to limit the number of parties that have a seat in Riksdag,
Sweden has implemented a threshold where the new party must win at least four
percent of a national vote and/or 12 percent of the vote in any electoral constituency
to be awarded a seat in the legislature.
According
to the formula Neff = 1/∑(p²) that was given in class, 4.83
parties would be optimal in this electoral system for it to be most efficient. In
the 2010 elections, Sweden had eight party’s each receiving more than four
percent of the national vote. That being said, Duverger’s law does in
fact hold true in Sweden, where proportional representation is practiced and eight
parties are represented in the legislature.
Nice and concise!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I think it might be good to state right out from the start in your intro/thesis what the position was. I also think that though you got all of the facts down, this felt like I was just reading facts with no analysis until the very end. I would have liked a little more analysis in the middle of this oreo of info
ReplyDeleteNice blog post. Concise and to the point. I studied Finland and found the same results: that Duverger's law holds true in PR electoral systems
ReplyDeletegreat post, all the facts were just what you needed. I agree with Mr. Miller, maybe a bit more analysis could have helped you throughout the paper.
ReplyDeletegreat blog post
ReplyDelete