Merit or Partisanship: An Experiment on Voters’ Perceptions of Electoral Reform

• In Event: Partisanship in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

While political parties often argue that they want to reform electoral systems to improve democratic qualities, it is usually done to maximize their own advantage in legislative or executive elections. So, how do voters respond to claims about electoral systems? Do they prioritize the merits of electoral rules and democratic qualities, or do they vote solely on partisan tendencies? This is an experimental study looking to answer these questions. I designed an experiment in order to evaluate the effect of actual knowledge of electoral rules on electoral reform support. The study presents participants with a hypothetical electoral reform while also giving them background partisan information, along with differing information concerning the proposed reform’s democratic qualities. I find that partisanship remains as the most important determinant for support for electoral policy reform. While this subject explores an important topic concerning voter behavior, it also raises larger issues regarding trust in the government and the legitimacy of democratic regimes.

Author

• Ugurcan Evci, University of California, Irvine