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Voting Systems
Party Lists
What are Party Lists?
Party list systems can be crudely split into two distinct forms: open and closed. The crucial difference is that in a closed party-list system, votes are cast for parties rather than people, whereas in an open party list system, votes are cast, at least theoretically, for individual candidates.
Across the globe, party list systems exhibit a lot of variation, chiefly determined by the size of districts, thresholds for securing seats and the manner in which the seats are allocated.
Under List PR, voters elect candidates in multi-member districts, or sometimes an entire country. The more members per area increases the proportionality of the system, and, in an open-list system, the size of the ballot paper.
Most countries that use a List PR system do so with a threshold – a proportion of the vote that a party must gain in order to be allocated seats in the legislature. These can be set high, so as to exclude minor parties (as in Turkey, which has a 10 per cent threshold*), or low, so as to encourage and promote minor parties (as in Israel, which has a 1.5 per cent threshold). South Africa doesn't have a threshold at all, and in 2004 the African Christian Democratic Party won six seats out of 400 with only 1.6 per cent of the national vote.
Translating votes into seats within List PR can happen one of many ways. The most common are the D'Hondt method, the Sainte-Laguë method, the Huntington-Hill method and the largest-remainder method.
*In Turkey's 2002 general election, only two parties got more than the 10 per cent threshold, meaning that all the seats went to parties with a combined total of just over 50 per cent of the votes.
Real-world application of Party Lists
Party lists are the most common method of election in the world. Some of the most commonly cited are:
- British elections to the European Parliament (excluding Northern Ireland, which uses STV).
- Israel's Parliament, the Knesset.
- The Netherlands' Second Chamber.
Arguments used in support of Party Lists
- Party-list systems guarantee a high degree of party proportionality.
- Every vote has equal value.
- It couldn't be simpler: voters have to make one choice out of a small selection.
- Lists can, and do, ensure that women and ethnic-minority groups are represented.
Arguments used against Party Lists
- Closed party lists are completely impersonal, weakening any link between the representative and a regional area.
- Closed party lists offer very little in the way of voter choice: all the power save that of choosing a party for government resides with the party leaders.
- As candidates are selected by the party leaders, they are likely to opt disproportionately for 'safe' candidates, at the expense of traditionally under-represented groups.
- Parties can stifle independent and minority opinion within their ranks. As all the power over who gets seats lies with the party machine, so too does the power to voice opinions.
- They discriminate against those not willing to be part of the party structure.
ERS Policy on Party Lists
The Society is opposed to closed list systems in that, although they provide party proportionality, they do allow voters to choose their representatives.