Winners Rule: Electoral Accountability under Proportional Representation

• In Event: Governments, Electoral Systems and Voter Perceptions

Abstract

In a two-party majoritarian system, it is mechanically trivial to expect the winner of an election to form the next government. In countries with multi-party proportional electoral systems -- the majority of democracies -- the mapping from electoral gains to government inclusion is less clear. For this reason, scholars have often held that election results matter more for who governs in majoritarian systems. We show here that this distinction is not as large as previously thought, namely that parties that lose vote share in multi-party systems are less likely to be included in coalition governments. Although the mechanical determinant is missing in proportional multi-party systems, accountability for election results is still very much reflected in government composition.

Authors

• Mark A. Kayser, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin

• Jochen Rehmert, University of Zurich