8.1 Election Results
When do we know if an election was good? How can we be sure an electoral system is effective? What factors help us determine whether voters are satisfied with their country’s electoral system? By definition, those are subjective assessments and could be influenced or biased by the perspective of the observer. In this section, we will explore different approaches to thinking about election results. Several questions will be considered:
- What type of governments does an election tend to produce?
- Do elections produce governments that are representative?
- Are citizens satisfied with the electoral process?
Elections aren’t just venues for political competition, but they are also political issues themselves. They represent value judgments about who can vote, how often, who wins and loses, and who gets represented in the government. Gallagher & Mitchell (2005) are worth quoting at length from their work comparing electoral systems:
They may make a big difference to the shape of the party system, to the nature of government (coalition or single‐party), to the kind of choices facing voters at elections, to the ability of voters to hold their representative(s) personally accountable, to the behaviour of parliamentarians, to the degree to which a parliament contains people from all walks of life and backgrounds, to the extent of democracy and cohesion within political parties, and, of course, to the quality of government, and hence to the quality of life of the citizens ruled by that government (pg 5).
As examined in previous chapters, the parts and processes of elections take multiple forms. Those structural differences can lead to drastic differences in electoral outcomes and government performance. We will begin this chapter by examining how different electoral rules can produce different types of governments
