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Voter satisfaction and electoral systems: Does preferential voting in candidate‐centred systems make a difference?
Author(s) -
FARRELL DAVID M.,
MCALLISTER IAN
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00633.x
Subject(s) - proportional representation , voting , representation (politics) , democracy , dimension (graph theory) , ballot , voter model , electoral system , positive economics , political science , economics , mathematics , statistics , law , politics , pure mathematics
Abstract. Over the years, many scholars have examined the relationship between electoral systems and measures of voter satisfaction with democracy. The tendency in these studies has been to explore the traditional Proportional Representation/non‐Proportional‐Representation dichotomy, assessing whether more proportional systems produce higher levels of satisfaction. This article examines another dimension of electoral system variation – namely the degree to which the ballot structure incorporates ordinal, or preferential features. Given that proponents of such systems extol their virtues as offering voters ‘greater choice’, it is interesting to explore how this actually plays with the voters. The article makes use of cross‐national data from the comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) project to examine the relationship between preferential voting and levels of satisfaction with democracy.