Erika Ralph: Duverger's Law in Finland

Erika Ralph

Blog 7:  Duverger’s Law and Finnish electoral rules

            Finland, a country of citizens represented proportionally in parliament, does indeed show evidences of agreement with Duverger’s Law; a law that states that “the effective number of parties in any electoral district is a function of the electoral rules.”[1] Meaning, Single-member district parties generally produce only two effective parties, while proportional representation rules generally produce more than two effective parties. 

            Pluralistic Proportional representation rules drive elections in Finland, which would presumably give way to a multi party system.  Therefore, for understanding and further clarification, we see that according to the recent 2011 parliamentary election, Finnish citizens elected “200 members of the parliament… using the proportional D’Hondt method.”[2]  The D’Hondt mathematical formula in Finland allocates seats in parliament by using the total number of votes a party received and dividing those votes by the number of seats available, beginning with 1 seat, the 2 seats, 3 seats… and again, up to the maximum number of seats available, which in Finland’s case is 200.  Those parties which have the highest number of votes are first allocated a seat, and then the next highest number is given the next seat, and so forth.  “Another, equivalent way to describe the same is that the distribution figure of each candidate is the votes for his party divided by his rank within his party; the candidates with highest distribution figures are elected.”[3] For further clarification, see the cited chart below:   

“If 8 seats are to be allocated, divide each party's total votes by 1, then by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. An example is given in the grid below. The 8 highest distribution figures are highlighted in bold, ranging from 100,000 down to 25,000. For each distribution figure in bold, the corresponding party gets a seat.” (Including chart)[4]

	/1	/2	/3	/4	/5	/6	/7	/8	Seats won (*)
Party A	100,000*	50,000*	33,333*	25,000*	20,000	16,666	14,286	12,500	4
Party B	80,000*	40,000*	26,666*	20,000	16,000	13,333	11,428	10,000	3
Party C	30,000*	15,000	10,000	7,500	6,000	5,000	4,286	3,750	1
Party D	20,000	10,000	6,666	5,000	4,000	3,333	2,857	2,500	0

            This leads us to discover that the D’Hondt proportional representation method also includes an open list for voters.  Meaning, voters have some sort of power on the order in which a party’s candidate are elected. [5] Finland is even classified as one of the “Most open list” systems, where “the absolute amount of votes every candidate receives fully determines the ‘order of election’ (the list ranking only possibly serving as a ‘tiebreaker’).”[6]  Because of this, Finland’s electoral system is not a hybrid, or does not combine with any other electoral rule or list type.

            Additionally, Finland is split into fifteen Districts where each is given a “MP” or a Member of Parliament.  In the chart below, District Magnitude is represented with Helsinki receiving 21 seats, Uusimaa 35, Finland Proper 17, Stakunta 9, Aland 1, Tavastia, 14, Pirkanma 18, Kymi 12, Southern Savonia 6, Northern Savonia 9, North Karelia 6, Vaasa 17, Central Finland 10, Oulu 18, and Lapland 7.[7]

Map	Electoral district	Code	Number of MPs
	Helsinki	01	21
	Uusimaa	02	35
	Finland Proper	03	17
	Satakunta	04	9
	Åland	05	1
	Tavastia	06	14
	Pirkanmaa	07	18
	Kymi	08	12
	Southern Savonia	09	6
	Northern Savonia	10	9
	North Karelia	11	6
	Vaasa	12	17
	Central Finland	13	10
	Oulu	14	18
	Lapland	15	7

Finally, Finland displays a type of threshold, which requires a collection of “signatures from at least 5,000 eligible voters in order to be accepted on the official party register, which is maintained by the Ministry of Justice.”[8]

As for agreement with Duverger’s Law, Finland does have an electoral method of proportional representation that corresponds a resultant multi-party system.  According to my calculations and evidence from the Inter Parliamentary Union Database, between 8 parties and the seats that were allocated in Finland’s 2011 parliamentary election, the number of effective parties in Finland came equaled 5.82.[9]  Meaning, Finland does show evidence of functioning as a multi-party system.

National Coalition Party (KOK)	44	.22	.0484
Social Democratic Party (SDP)	42	.21	.0441
True Finns (PS)	39	.195	.038
Center Party (KESK)	35	.175	.031
Left Alliance (Vas)	14	.07	.0049
Green League (Vihr)	10	.05	.0025
Swedish People’s Party  (RKP)	9	.045	.0020
Christian Democrats (KD)	6	.03	.0009

Total Seats:  200

Total Fractional Amount= .1718

1/.1718= 5.82

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[1] Hawkins, K. (2012). Syllabus. Blog 7: Duverger's law.

[2] Wikipedia. (2012, October 27). Finnish parliamentary election, 2011. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_parliamentary_election,_2011

[3] Wikipedia. (2012, October 29). D'hondt method. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Hondt_method

[4] Wikipedia. (2012, October 29). D'hondt method. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Hondt_method

[5] Wikipedia. (2012, November 1). Open list. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_list

[6] Wikipedia. (2012, November 1). Open list. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_list

[7] Wikipedia. (2012, October 27). Finnish parliamentary election, 2011. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_parliamentary_election,_2011

[8] Wikipedia. (2012, October 27). Finnish parliamentary election, 2011. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_parliamentary_election,_2011

[9] Inter Parliamentary Union. (2011). Finland eduskunta - riksdagen (parliament). Retrieved from http://www.ipu.org/english/parline/reports/2111_e.htm