Electoral Laws Research Paper

Modern democracies can be defined by there representativeness. This is why the electoral system is at the centre of democratic regimes. Since the first representative democracies, electoral systems have evolved and shaped the political system of countries. Thus, the question of the effect of electoral laws on the political system can be raised. The electoral laws form the legal framework that determines the transfer of votes into seats in political institutions. To what extent can electoral laws have an impact on the functioning of the political system? Electoral laws have an impact on the functioning of the political system by influencing the behaviour of the voters and political party. As a matter of fact, the number of political parties

Initially this idea touches the notion of government and policy making by having an impact on their effectiveness and responsiveness. The effectiveness of a government is a measurement of its strength in term of policy making. Hence, a strong government is a government that is stable and follows one party-line. Therefore, the plurality model is to be favoured in this cases since its single-party government will be stronger. The case of the United States illustrate well this idea, since the democratic and republican party cannot share a coalition, the government will be less likely to collapse. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of the government is only true when the legislative body colour corresponds to the government’s. Otherwise, the political system can go through a political gridlock, when for instance the Republican party won the majority in the Congress while B. Obama, a Democrat president were still in office. In addition, the responsiveness of a government varies according to the electoral system in use. The responsiveness is its ability to transfer public opinion into policy making. In fact, the members of the government are accountable to their voters and sometimes even to the parliament in the case of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who can face a vote of non-confidence from the House of Commons. Therefore, in

As a matter of fact, according to the party structure in a political system, government and legislation will be more or less effective or responsive. Thus, beyond parties, proportional representation systems are more prone to fairness among voters and proportionality in their representation in the political system. Whereas, majoritarian systems tend to be more effective in terms of policy-making. On a final note, mixed electoral systems can be envisaged as a middle-ground solution for electoral laws to be chosen. Although, this still recent model will requires more time for us to assess