Public Support for Electoral Reform: The Role of Electoral System Experience

• In Event: Demands and Impact of Electoral Reforms

Abstract

What affects public support for electoral reform? How does experience with different electoral systems affect people’s willingness to support electoral reform? Given the salience (and increasing partisanship) of changes to election rules even when they are passed via the legislature and the use of referenda as an alternative mechanism for change, these questions are critical to understanding when electoral reform will occur. I argue that experience affects public opinion by reducing uncertainty and affecting risk aversion. While both mechanisms affect opinions about reform, I argue that support is conditional on positive outcomes experienced under different systems. I further explore if opinions about and support for electoral reform are conditional on experience with a similar system to that under consideration. I test this theory using a quasi-natural experiment in the United Kingdom. The results have implications for the possibility of electoral reform in other industrialized democracies.

Author

• Abigail L Heller, Emory University