'electoral reform' Category
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Jul282009
More electoral reform in Italy
I imagine everyone in Italy is tired of electoral reform efforts at the national level, at least for the moment. Here, however, in an interesting example of cross-level diffusion, the Tuscan electoral law is being changed again.
The electoral law of 2004 had a majority bonus, and differing electoral thresholds for electoral lists depending on the [...] -
Jun212009
How the 2001 result would have been with the current electoral law
After our article on Italian electoral reform was published, I was asked how the results of the Italian election of 2001 would have turned out if the current electoral system had been used. Here’s my very rough answer, which ignores the complexities (too many to be counted) of the ‘porcata’.
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May262009
Article on Italian electoral reform out
My article with Alan Renwick and David Hine is out now in Electoral Studies’ “in press” section. Abstract:
In December 2005, Italy’s mixed-member electoral system was replaced with a system of bonus-adjusted proportional representation. The reform conformed with rational-choice models in that it was imposed by the ruling coalition, which sought to bolster its own power [...] -
Aug132008
Electoral reform for the EP
Interesting suggestions for reform of the electoral system used for the European Parliament elections found here at RENA:
twenty-one electoral districts, with
at least one seat per district, with
remaining (57?) seats distributed in proportion to population, thus
increasing the effective threshold, if not the legal threshold;
and introducing a quota for female representation -
Jul202008
Italian electoral reform and preference votes
Repubblica gives some excellent reportage/hearsay which shows three things:
generally, preference voting is supported by parties with better grassroots organisation;
generally, preference voting is supported by non-leadership groups within parties;
specifically, in the Italian case, preference voting is supported by the non-Veltroni factions in the PD, and the AN within the PdL. -
Jun162008
Veltroni on the threshold for European Parliament elections
More electoral reform in the air – this time not for national elections, but for next year’s European Parliament elections. Veltroni has come out in favour of a watered-down threshold of 3%, compared to the 5% originally proposed.
Why is Veltroni doing this? Presumably he wants to preserve those other opposition parties – the radical left, [...] -
Sep242007
Partito Democratico and Electoral Reform
Repubblica has an interesting series with Ilvo Diamanti asking candidates for the leadership of the Partito Democratico for their stance on a number of issues. Today’s is electoral reform. The three serious contenders – Bindi, Letta, Veltroni – each have a different stance. Bindi opts for the system before 2006, Letta for the German system, [...]
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Sep062007
Agreement on the left of them, agreement on the right of them
Repubblica reports that the centre-right coalition has reached agreement on future electoral system reform based around three key principles:
protection of bipolarism (as long as it’s not “forced”)
indication of each pre-electoral coalition’s prime ministerial candidate
“reasonable” threshold for representationVannino Chiti, the man Prodi has charged with finding a solution to the parties’ competing preferences on this issues, [...]
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Jul312007
The other electoral initiative
The campaign to repeal the electoral law passed in 2005 has been hugely successful. But it’s not the only popular initiative aimed at changing the electoral law. Beppe Grillo’s got in on the act.
Grillo is collecting signatures for three related petitions (which have purely moral force): one to bar convicts from standing for parliament, one [...] -
Jul202007
Wahlsystem all’italiano
Politicians get elected through electoral systems. That ought to mean that they know something about the subject, no?
Not according to today’s wonderful Bonsai column in Repubblica:
“Mastella… has announced that the German [electoral] system would be acceptable to him. Just one condition: “as long as we never speak again of single member districts”. Now, in [...]