8.6 Chapter Summary

In this chapter,

• Elections aim to balance responsiveness, representativeness, and citizen satisfaction, but different systems produce different outcomes in these areas.
• Plurality and majority systems often lead to single-party governments that pass laws efficiently, while proportional systems create coalition governments that may be slower but more inclusive.
• Responsiveness is measured by how closely government policies align with public opinion; both proportional and plurality systems can be responsive, but in different ways.
• Representativeness includes proportionality (vote share vs. seat share) and descriptive representation (e.g. gender or demographic diversity); proportional systems usually perform better.
• Disproportional election results, such as those in Ontario’s 2025 provincial election, show how plurality systems can distort voter preferences and reduce satisfaction.
• Proportional representation tends to increase the number of women elected, especially when combined with tools like gender quotas and zipper-style party lists.
• Voter turnout is influenced by both personal factors (like age and education) and systemic factors (like electoral design and compulsory voting laws); proportional systems often see higher turnout.
• Citizen satisfaction is higher when elections are perceived as fair and inclusive; proportional systems help narrow the satisfaction gap between winners and losers.

OpenAI. (2025, June 24th). ChatGPT. [Large language model]. https://www.chatgpt.com Prompt: Can you please summarize the passage into 8 key points with no additional bullets. Edited & Reviewed by author.

• Descriptive Representation – A form of representation where elected officials physically or demographically resemble the constituents they represent, such as in gender, race, age, or socioeconomic background.
• District Magnitude – The number of representatives elected from a single electoral district. Higher district magnitudes can allow for greater diversity among elected officials and often benefit smaller or underrepresented parties.
• Effective Number of Parties in Parliament (ENPP) – A statistical measure that reflects how many political parties effectively hold power in a legislature, accounting for both the number of parties and their relative sizes. A higher ENPP indicates a more fragmented or pluralistic parliament.
• Proportionality – A measure of how closely the percentage of votes a party receives aligns with the percentage of seats it gains in the legislature. A system is proportionate if vote share and seat share are nearly equal.
• Representativeness – The extent to which the elected government mirrors the makeup and preferences of the population. This includes political (partisan) alignment and demographic or social representation (e.g., gender, ethnicity).
• Responsiveness – The degree to which a government enacts laws and implements policies that align with the preferences of its citizens. A responsive government reflects public opinion in its decisions.
• Voter Turnout Rate- The proportion of eligible or registered voters who actually cast a vote in an election. It is commonly used as an indicator of public engagement, trust in the system, or satisfaction with the democratic process.
• Winner-Loser Gap – The difference in satisfaction with the electoral process between voters whose preferred party or candidate won versus those whose preferred option lost. A smaller gap is associated with higher perceived electoral fairness.
• Zipper System – A gender-balancing technique used in party lists under proportional representation systems, where male and female candidates are alternated (e.g., woman-man-woman-man) to ensure more equitable representation.