4.1 Unit 4 - Electoral Systems and Rules

3 min read•december 30, 2022

Isabela Padilha Vilela

AP Comparative Government 🗳️

90 resources

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Unit 4 - Electoral Systems and Rules

We learned in other units that politics is all about who holds authority and power 💪, and there is a cyclical process that grants power to the population, which are the elections! This is the political process in which people can exercise their power to choose those to represent their wishes and interests. If you think about it, people 👥 are the mechanism that gives politicians the authority to be part of the government. In this topic we will analyze, in each of our core countries, the electoral system and the rules used to carry out the process of elections.

Why is it important to study electoral system and rules?

The election rules applied in a country have significant implications on their regimes and political processes. It is important to understand them to analyze if each country allows for competitive and fair elections or if they are attempting to fulfill a political interest through the electoral system.

Let's use a table to analyze each of our core countries (🇬🇧🇳🇬🇲🇽🇷🇺🇨🇳🇮🇷)

Country	Type of Regime	How often is there an election?	Electoral Rules
UK 🇬🇧	Consolidated Democracy	Every five years (unless the government calls for another election) for MPs (Members of parliament)	The voting system in the UK is labeled as the "first-past-the-post" system, in which the candidate that receives the most number of votes in a given constituency is declared the winner. That also implies that they use "single member disctricts" which signifies that one MP represents a certain district.
Nigeria 🇳🇬	Illiberal Democracy	Elections for the President and the National Assembly occur every 4 years	Nigeria also adopts the "first-past-the-post" system. The number of candidates elected for each Nigerian state depends on the size of that states' population for the lower house. For the Senate, there are three winning candidates for each one of the 36 states. The voting system used in local elections in Nigeria varies, and some places may even use proportional representation.
Mexico 🇲🇽	Illiberal Democracy	Elections for the President and the National Legislature occurs every six years. Their term is popularly known as the sexenio.	Mexico's lower house - Chamber of Deputies - has 300 seats and candidates are voted as a single-district members through plurality, and the other 200 are elected through proportional representation. This is also known as the "first past the post with parallels." The Senate has 96 seats in three-district constituency and 32 are voted by proportional representation. The President is also voted through plurality. 💡Imposed gender quotes also helped to increase female representation in the Legislative branch.
Russia 🇷🇺	Hybrid Regime	Elections for both the President and the National Assembly occur every six years	Half of the legislative branch is chosen by a proportional representation basis, and the other half is directly chosen from single-member districts. The President of Russia is chosen by popular vote every six-years. But, Putin's permanence in the government puts in question the legitimacy and the competitiveness of the electoral system.
China 🇨🇳	Authoritarian regime	Elections for local people's offices are held every five years	Members of the National People's Congress, the country's highest legislative body, occur indirectly. Basically, the people select the officials to occupy the Local People's offices, and these people are responsible for selecting the NPC officials. The CPC holds a monopoly over the election process. The Premier is chosen through the CPC's Central Committee - a group of top party officials - usually appoint a candidate and the NPC (National People's Congress) approves it.
Iran 🇮🇷	Authoritarian Regime	Elections of President and the Parliament are held every four years	Majles members are selected in single-member and multi-member districts. The process is overseen by the Guardian Council - which is a body of Islamic scholars responsible for vetting the candidates. They lack a formal political party structure. The whole legislative body counts with 290 members, and a very small proportion of that is assigned to minority groups (including Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians). The President of Iran is elected directly by the people.