Multiple Vote System: Moving Parties to the Center in Multidimensional Spaces

• In Event: Institutions and Elections

Abstract

Populist candidates and parties have risen dramatically in many West European countries, including France, Austria, Greece, and Spain. Some of these parties have gained government control and have presented serious challenges in their respective countries. This paper presents a multiple vote electoral system which, under certain conditions, exhibits three important characteristics that could address the rise of such parties. First, the system gives voters a significant number of voting alternatives. Second, it has the mechanical effect of concentrating votes to centrist parties because of voters’ single peaked preferences. Third, the system can be grafted on any proportional electoral system. A series of simulations replicating data from recent elections in Germany, Belgium, Romania, and the Netherlands help us study the properties of this electoral system under different plausible assumptions, as well as to delineate the conditions under which these key characteristics obtain.

Authors

• George Tsebelis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Jesse M. Crosson, University of Michigan