Electoral System Design
How constitutions structure elections — winner-take-all vs. proportional representation, district design, and why electoral rules shape party systems.
The Major Electoral Families
Electoral systems fall into three broad families. Plurality/majoritarian systems award seats to whoever gets the most votes in a district. The UK's first-past-the-post (FPTP) system is the simplest version: whoever gets the most votes wins, even if that is only 30% in a multi-candidate race. France uses a two-round system: if no candidate wins a majority in the first round, the top two face a runoff.
Proportional representation (PR) systems allocate seats in proportion to vote share. If a party wins 30% of the vote, it gets roughly 30% of the seats. The Netherlands, Sweden, and South Africa use full PR. Mixed systems combine both: Germany's Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) system gives each voter two votes — one for a district candidate (FPTP) and one for a party list (PR). Japan and New Zealand use similar mixed systems.