Electoral system used to elect the main legislative body in European democracies

36 comments
  1. I counted “democracies” as countries which are in the category “Hybrid regime” or higher in the [Democracy Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index). Russia and Belarus are classified as “Authoritarian”, so I left them out. Lots of microstates and partially recognized countries are not indexed at all, so I left those out as well.

    FPTP means [First past the post](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting), PR means [Proportional representation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation), and STV means [single transferrable vote](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote). Sources:

    FPTP – [UK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_United_Kingdom)

    FPTP with runoff – [France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_France)

    PR – [Austria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Austria), [Cyprus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Cypriot_legislative_election), [Denmark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Denmark), [Estonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Estonian_parliamentary_election) (wrong in the map), [Iceland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Icelandic_parliamentary_election), [Kosovo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Kosovan_parliamentary_election), [Moldova](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Moldovan_parliamentary_election), [Montenegro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Montenegrin_parliamentary_election), [Netherlands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_Netherlands), [Norway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Norway), [Serbia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Serbian_parliamentary_election), [Slovakia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Slovakia), [Slovenia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Slovenian_parliamentary_election), [Sweden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Sweden), [Ukraine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Ukrainian_parliamentary_election) (wrong in the map)

    PR with districts – [Albania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Albania), [Belgium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Belgian_federal_election), [Bosnia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Bosnian_general_election), [Bulgaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Bulgarian_general_election), [Croatia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Croatia), [Czechia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_Czech_Republic), [Finland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Finnish_parliamentary_election), [Latvia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Latvian_parliamentary_election), [Luxembourg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Luxembourg_general_election), [North Macedonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_North_Macedonian_parliamentary_election), [Poland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Polish_parliamentary_election), [Portugal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_legislative_elections), [Romania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Romanian_legislative_election), [Spain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Spain), [Switzerland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Swiss_federal_election), [Turkey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Turkish_parliamentary_election)

    PR with STV – [Malta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Maltese_general_election) (forgot to include in the map), [Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland)

    PR with plurality bonus – [Greece](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Greece)

    Parallel FPTP/PR – [Italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_electoral_law_of_2017), [Lithuania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Lithuania)

    Mixed FPTP/PR – [Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Germany)

    Hungary – [Hungary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Hungary)

  2. Ireland really stands out. We also still vote with pencil and paper and have manual counting. It makes for very interesting counts as we watch each count and see candidates eliminated and battling for seats in our multi-seat constituencies. They all have either three, four or five seats. We have tally men watching the votes being counted and trying to predict outcomes. Final results can sometimes take a few days. Electronic voting and counting takes away all that. It is like arriving in a stadium for a match, taking your seat and then having the result announced over the public address system without seeing any of the action.

  3. The next Greek parliamentary elections will use regular proportional representation, the one after that will sort of revert back to the old bonus system, but with a sliding scale bonus instead.

  4. The German system seems very balanced, but it can lead to [negative vote weight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_vote_weight) (a vote for a party might result in the loss of seats in parliament)

    Here is an ‘explain like I am 5’-example:

    >This can arise if, in the distribution on the basis of a fixed number of seats per country, one party gains an additional seat through additional votes at the expense of another party and thus the number of equalization mandates is reduced, or, conversely, fewer votes for one party lead to additional equalization mandates. In 2009, if the current allocation procedure had been applied, 7,000 more votes for the Die Linke party in Hamburg would have resulted in the distribution at the state level that this party would have won an additional seat and the CDU would have lost one seat. This elimination of the seat for the CDU would have also led to four elimination of compensation mandates at the federal level. This would have reduced the Bundestag from 671 to 666 seats and Die Linke would only have 84 instead of 85 seats. In the 2013 Bundestag election, 100,000 more votes for the SPD in Bavaria would have resulted in the SPD having only 191 seats in the Bundestag instead of 193 and only 622 seats in the Bundestag instead of 631.

  5. If this was a gif showing changes over the last 30 years Italy would’ve been: light blue until 1993, purple until 2005, pink until 2013, light blue until 2015, pink until 2017 and purple since then. It’s been quite a mess, and there are plans for yet another electoral law before the next elections.

  6. Is it still FPTP if you need 50%+ to win? In Lithuania, when we vote for a particular candidate in parlamentary election, if no one gets 50% +1 vote, there is another round with the top 2 candidates.

  7. Denmark actually uses districts while still maintaining overall proportional representation. This is achieved by a system where 135 MP’s are elected by proportional representation in 10 multi-member districts. The remaining 30 seats are then distributed as so-called “additional seats” to achieve overall proportionality.

  8. Any chance of a explanation of the terms? I know PR is Proportional Representation and STV is Single Transferable Vote. But I haven’t a clue of the rest..

  9. Our “plurality” bonus exists because Greece doesn’t have a culture of cooperation.

    When it was abolished and the elections took place with simple PR (in 1989), the results were :

    **June 1989** :

    New Democracy 44%

    PASOK 39%

    Coalition of Left 13%

    *Seats :* 145-125-28 (151 for majority)

    Interim government to lead to new election.

    **November 1989** :

    New Democracy 46.2 %

    PASOK 40.7 %

    Coalition of Left 11%

    Seats : 148-128-21 (151 for majority)

    Interim government to lead to new election.

    **April 1990** :

    New Democracy 46.9 %

    PASOK 38.6 %

    Coalition of Left 10.3 %

    Democratic Renewal 0.7% (various other parties below 1% with 1 seat each)

    Seats : 150-123-19 (151 for majority)

    New Democracy-Democratic Renewal government, it lasted only 2.5 years.

    Muslim minority parties entering the parliament with below 1% (suspected to be sponsored by Turkey) led to the 3% limit to enter the parliament (and it hasn’t happened again since).

    In order to avoid this thing happening all the time, 40/50 seats are being given to the 1st party ever since. SYRIZA abolished this law, but New Democracy brought it again (but made the seat bonus proportional to the percentage and capped at 40 if I remember correctly), so next elections will be without bonus, there will be no majority, and there will be snap elections back with the bonus.

  10. We actually have new electoral law (again). This time next elections will be by nationwide PR with [partial] regional voter preference.

  11. Here in the UK we have a Tory government with 43% of the vote and an 80 odd seat majority how is that right? The problem is the two big parties won’t do anything to change it, even Labour just recently had a vote to make electoral reform a key platform (which their members for the most part I believe support) and the unions basically vetoed it!

    Even worse mayoral votes will be changed to FPTP as the tories didn’t like that because they had a run-off type system where you had to get over 50% it returned, for the most part, non-Tory mayors like for example for me in Cambridgeshire, the tory would have won with only 40 .5% but thanks to the runoff most of the lib dem votes went to Labour and therefore we have a Labour mayor….scandalous really as that just highlights the fact the tories do NOT represent the majority of the country but yet we get lumbered with them (and the unelected house of lords which is whole other issue).

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