Electoral Systems: Majoritarian, Proportional & Mixed

Coalition government formation requires thinking about constitutional arrangements and how to put together a majority when no single party has enough seats. Proportional representation systems make coalition government more likely but also more complex. When parties have smaller majorities, they must negotiate with other parties to form governments. This requires parties to think about coalition politics from the beginning, including what policies they can achieve through negotiation rather than through their own majority.

Proportional representation systems tend to produce coalition governments rather than single-party majorities. Since absolute majorities are rare (no Dutch party has ever received 76+ seats out of 150), larger parties must cooperate with smaller parties to form governing coalitions. This cooperation creates political stability within parties because splinter groups can still achieve power through new party formation. Unlike first-past-the-post systems where breakaway factions have minimal influence, PR allows new parties to emerge and prevents the fragmented party landscape seen in countries like the UK.

Coalition formation requires extensive pre-vote negotiations on ministerial positions and power-sharing. No party achieves all demands, requiring compromise. Coalition stability depends on parties' ability to find acceptable compromises, with coalition mathematics (seat counts) influencing success. Uncertain support from non-elected bodies like senators can destabilize coalitions. When negotiations fail, the process may cascade through multiple candidates, creating political instability.

Coalition governments in parliamentary democracies form through four methods: single-party majority, ideological alliances, pre-election electoral alliances, and post-election coalition formation when no party achieves majority. The last two methods are classified as coalition governments by analysts. Coalition governments involve at least two parties, focus on power-sharing through compromise rather than rigid ideology, and are dynamic and diverse. They can adopt new techniques and approaches. Parties in coalition must understand and tolerate each other's differences. Western democracies like France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Africa adopted proportional representation systems where parties receiving 5%+ votes enter government proportionally.

Coalition formation involves negotiating agreements between multiple parties to form governing majorities. Coalition governments can be stable or unstable depending on agreement strength and partner willingness to support each other. Minority governments relying on outside party support are particularly vulnerable to instability. The Dutch proportional representation system often results in coalition governments requiring careful negotiation and compromise.

Two advanced voting methods address the limitations of traditional voting. Ranked choice voting requires voters to rank candidates in order of preference, eliminating the candidate with fewest first-place votes and transferring their votes to next choices. However, this method can still produce unhappy voters whose first choice loses and whose vote doesn't transfer. STAR voting (Scored Approval Voting) allows voters to score each candidate on a 0-5 star scale, then selects the two highest-scoring candidates for a runoff. STAR voting captures both preference order and intensity, counts all ballot data simultaneously, and ensures the winner is preferred by the most voters. In the example, purple space fabric won with 56% support because all voters who loved it gave it 4-5 stars.

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is an electoral reform that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than selecting just one, addressing two critical flaws in traditional plurality voting: it prevents voters from feeling forced to 'waste' their vote on a candidate who cannot win, and it ensures elected officials gain broader support by requiring a majority (over 50%) of votes to win, rather than simply having the most votes among multiple competitors.

Ranked-choice voting (also called instant-runoff voting) requires voters to rank candidates by preference on their ballots, typically from 1 (favorite) to 5 (least favorite). If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed to voters' next-ranked choices. This process repeats until one candidate achieves a majority. This system better determines which candidate has the strongest overall support by forcing voters to compare candidates. It is more secure than approval voting and less affected by low turnout than score voting. However, it is more complicated than approval or score voting, could theoretically allow the candidate with the most votes to lose, and would be more expensive and take longer to implement.

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) eliminates the spoiler effect by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority in the first round, the last-place candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to voters' second choices. This system was successfully implemented in Maine and passed in about 20 cities. RCV also enables proportional representation through multi-member districts using the Single Transferable Vote system, where each party receives representation proportional to its support level, unlike the current plurality winner-take-all system.

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), also known as preferential voting, is an electoral system where voters rank candidates in order of preference rather than selecting only one candidate. In this system, if no candidate receives over 50% of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to voters' next preferred candidates. This process continues until a candidate achieves a majority. RCV addresses key problems in traditional electoral systems: it reduces negative campaigning by incentivizing candidates to build broad appeal rather than attack opponents, decreases 'dead ballots' (wasted votes) by allowing votes to transfer to subsequent preferences, and enables voters to vote more authentically for their preferred candidates without strategic concerns. However, implementing RCV requires significant operational changes, making electronic or internet voting infrastructure a necessary first step before adoption.

Gerrymandering is a political practice where electoral district boundaries are manipulated to favor one political party over another, distorting election results so that a party can win a disproportionate number of seats with a minority of votes; this practice, which originated in 1812 Massachusetts and is used by both major parties, exploits the winner-take-all system in congressional districts and the decennial census-based redistricting process to maintain political power without necessarily winning popular vote majorities.

Gerrymandering is the practice of state legislatures drawing congressional district maps to give their party unfair advantages. Named after Elbridge Gerry, it involves rigging electoral systems so one party wins more seats than their popular vote share suggests. North Carolina, despite being 50/50, has 10 Republican and 4 Democratic districts due to Republican-controlled legislature. California voters approved a referendum to counter Republican gerrymandering. The battle for the House is now less about party platforms and more about which party can rig the most maps, making elections less about the will of the people.

Gerrymandering is the practice of manipulating electoral district boundaries to favor one political party. The term originated from a district shaped like a salamander. When districts are drawn to favor one party, it can distort the relationship between votes and representation. This practice can undermine democratic representation and is considered a form of electoral manipulation. The rejection of gerrymandered maps by legislative bodies represents an attempt to restore fair representation, though such efforts often face significant political opposition.

Gerrymandering is the strategic manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor one political party. In Virginia, Democrats created a congressional map dividing 11 districts into 10 Democrat and 1 Republican seats, despite Trump receiving 47.3% and Youngkin 50.6%. This 'revenge' gerrymander packs rural GOP voters into urban Democratic districts, drowning out their votes. The process requires legislative approval, executive signature, referendum, and potential Supreme Court review, demonstrating how electoral maps can be weaponized to suppress minority voting power.

The speaker explains gerrymandering as the practice of manipulating electoral district boundaries to favor a particular political party. The speaker uses the example of Texas, where the state senate approved a new map giving Republicans five additional seats in Congress before the 2026 elections. The speaker explains the mathematical mechanics of gerrymandering, noting that if a state has 60% Republican voters, the way boundaries are drawn determines the outcome - districts could be drawn to give Republicans all five seats or only two. The speaker argues that the U.S. electoral system is fundamentally absurd because each representative represents approximately 760,000 people, making it impossible for them to know their constituents.

New Zealand's transition from first-past-the-post to mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system in 1993 represents a landmark case of grassroots-driven democratic reform, driven by public dissatisfaction with 'stolen elections' where parties won majorities with fewer votes, and catalyzed by a comprehensive Royal Commission report recommending MMP as the fairest system; this reform has significantly increased women's and Maori representation in Parliament, transformed coalition government formation, and fundamentally altered parliamentary operations through enhanced select committee powers and modified collective responsibility arrangements.

New Zealand operates under a mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) electoral system that combines single-member electorates using first-past-the-post voting with a national party vote that allocates additional seats proportionally to ensure overall parliamentary representation reflects the share of votes each party receives; this system, along with seven exclusive Māori electorates designed to ensure indigenous representation, creates a six-party political landscape where no single party typically achieves a majority, necessitating coalition governments and making Winston Peters' New Zealand First party a pivotal kingmaker in government formation.

Following Labour's electoral defeat in 1990, National Party leader Jim Bolger reinforced rather than repealed Labour's economic reforms. In 1991, Finance Minister Ruth Richardson delivered 'the mother of all budgets,' slashing social welfare and abolishing universal family benefits, with the proportion of children living below the poverty line doubling between 1990-1995. The 1991 Employment Contracts Act delivered the knockout punch to union power, reducing membership to under 20%. Public trust in politicians reached an all-time low, ranking alongside second-hand car dealers. In response, voters embraced the 1993 referendum replacing first-past-the-post with Mixed-Member Proportional voting, achieving 54% approval. This electoral reform dramatically increased political diversity, with seven parties plus one independent MP in the 1996 election, and significantly boosted Maori and women's representation in Parliament.

This segment traces the historical development of MMP in New Zealand. It begins with the 1986 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform, established by Jeffrey Palmer, which found the existing system inequitable and recommended adopting Germany's mixed member proportional system. The Commission specifically recommended a 4% threshold, 100 MPs, and elimination of Māori seats. However, both National and Labour parties modified these recommendations when implementing MMP in 1990: they raised the threshold to 5%, increased MPs to 120, and retained Māori seats for 30 more years. The segment explains that these changes were made despite the Commission's reasoning that Māori would be represented through all parties under MMP.

New Zealand successfully transitioned from a first-past-the-post voting system to Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation through a combination of public disillusionment with the existing system, a Royal Commission's comprehensive recommendations, and a unified public campaign. The process involved two referendums (1992 and 1993) where over 80% of voters supported change and 54% voted for MMP, leading to the adoption of a system that has produced multi-party governments, increased political diversity, and greater representation of women, Maori, and LGBTQ+ communities in parliament.