POL 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Party System

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL 2101
• Professor: Andre Lecours

Document Summary

2- current and past debates on the electoral system. Favours big parties at the expense of small parties. Favours regional parties at the expense of national parties. Tends to produce two-party or two-party-plus systems and, therefore, favours majority governments. Every vote counts which can possibly encourage participation. Favours national parties at the expense of regional parties. Usually leads to multiparty systems and, therefore, minority or coalition governments. Electoral system translates number of votes to number of seats. We will examine canadian electoral system and in addition a simple alternative. How electoral systems affect representation and other variables will be examined. The liberals have made promise in last election that they are going to change electoral system. In our electoral system there is problem that percentage of vote and percentage of seat won by a party can be disproportionate. Right now liberals have formed committee to look at this, might act upon it and might not.