Electoral System Case Study

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Firstly this essay will define what electoral systems are, as it was defined by Norris. An electoral systems would be how “votes are translated into votes” or it determines the amount of votes and the kind of vote’s candidates and parties would need in a particular election. There are two main of an electoral system and this would be the district magnitude and the ballot structure. The district magnitude is the number of representatives that is elected from the district and the ballot structure is the number of voting preferences.
There are many/several types of electoral systems and theses would include PR and majoritarian electoral systems. In most PR systems party list will be used. Part list is used in multi-member districts as well as …show more content…

Finland uses PR systems and they have a unicameral Parliament. Unicameral parliament is when there is only one parliamentary chamber. Finland’s unicameral parliament has 200 seats and again members will be elected according to popular vote and they will serve a six-year term. A good example of how policies was influenced by small radical parties is the 2011 elections. The Centre Party won the elections as the managed to win 49 of the 200 seats. This case study is very similar to The Netherlands as many small parties were able to receive a seat in parliament. For example, the Christian Democrats and the Left Alliances was able to receive 16 seats in …show more content…

As shown above the Centre Party has much more seats than the Christian Democrats and Left Alliances. Even though both of these parties are the minority they are still able influence government policies as they have been allowed to have seats in parliament. Therefore, once parties acquire a seat they have a direct share of power and this will result in them influencing government policies. Furthermore, bot Christian Democrats and Left Alliance are radical parties as they are publicly supporting a particular cause within parliament. For example, Left alliances wants to ensure equality and freedom, as well as sustainable development and democracy. There this illustrates that smaller and radical parties are able to influence government as they have seat in parliament and therefore they will have a say in government

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