Brazil – October 7, 2018 (Lower House); October 7, 2018 (Round 1 President); October 28, 2018 (Round 2 President)
1. The lower house of legislature in Brazil is referred to as the chamber of deputies. Each deputy holds a 4 year term (there are no term limits) and is elected through open-list proportional representation (type of party list electoral system) (“Elections in Brazil: 2018 General Elections”, 2018). Proportional representation is when the vote share that a candidate gets is translated proportionally into the number of received seats (i.e. if a party gets 25% of the votes in a multi member district, then this party gets a fourth of the available seats in that district). Brazil does not use quotas in its PR system; instead, it uses a divisor system (specifically d’Hondt) (“Elections: Brazil Chamber of Deputies 2018”, 2018). In the divisor system, the number of votes gathered by each party is divided by a series of divisors to yield quotients. Parties with the highest quotients are then allocated more seats than those with lower quotients (Clark, Golder, & Golder 553).
Voters are given ballots with a list of parties and with the parties’ candidates that they can vote for. Voters may mark their preferred party as well as their preferred candidate within that party. Most parties compete in elections as coalitions with other parties as most individual parties do not have enough voter support to win alone (Clark, Golder, & Golder 556).
2. The president of Brazil is selected through a absolute majority system with two round runoff (“Brazil President 2018 (Round 1)”, n.d). That is, all candidates compete in an election. If an individual candidate has gathered more than 50% of the vote (an absolute majority), that candidate is selected. If an absolute majority has not been reached, then the there is another election with just the top two candidates (during this election, an absolute majority is guaranteed). The Brazilian president serves for a term of 4 years. An individual may only serve two consecutive terms. It is allowed for this individual to step down for a term and become elected during a later term (The Brazilian Report, 2018). The president appoints and dismisses his or her cabinet.
3. A total of 13 candidates ran in the presidential elections. In the initial election, the top three candidates were Jair Bolsonaro (PSL or Social Liberal Party, 46.03%), Fernando Haddad (PT or Workers’ Party, 29.28%), and Ciro Gomes (PDT or Democratic Labor Party, 12.47%). The run off results for president in Brazil are as follows. Jair Bolsonaro won with 55.1% of the votes. Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party (PT) had 44.9% of the vote in the runoff and lost (“Brazil President 2018 (Round 1)”, 2018).
4. The former president of Brazil was Dilma Rousseff from PT, the Workers' Party. Rousseff was impeached and removed from office in 2016. Vice president Michel Temer took over as acting president until the elections in 2018. She (the incumbent) has been replaced by Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is a far right extremist, whereas Rousseff was a leftist, so this is a pretty dramatic shift for Brazil (Romero, 2016).
In the 2018 legislature elections for the lower house, Social Liberal Party (PSL) and Workers' Party (PT) won most number of seats (52 and 56 respectively). In the former legislature, Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), Workers' Party (PT), Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) won the most number of seats (66, 69, and 54, respectively) (“BRAZIL Chamber of Deputies”, 2018). Before and after the election, the following parties dominate the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies: Workers’ Party, Social Liberal Party, and the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (“Elections: Brazil Chamber of Deputies 2018”, 2018).
After the 2018 legislature elections for the upper house (Brazilian Senate), the following parties won the most seats: Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) won 7 seats, the Sustainability Network won 5 seats, and the Progressive Party won 5 seats. Currently the MDB, Brazilian Social Democratic Party, and Workers’ Party have the most number of seats: 18, 12, and 9 seats, respectively. Before, after the 2014 elections, MDB had 8 seats, Workers’ Party had 12 seats, and Brazilian Social Democratic party had 10 seats. So, the Social Democratic Party gained 2 seats, and the Workers’ Party lost 3 seats (“BRAZIL Federal Senate”, 2018).
5. Powell’s two visions of democracy are majoritarianism and proportionalism. Both aspects of these systems are found in the structure, electoral rules, and party system of Brazil.
Brazil is a presidential democracy, which is inherently proportional in nature. This is because the legislature is completely independent of the executive branch (the president and his cabinet). This allows for dispersion of power, while simultaneously increasing chances for gridlock. Brazil is also federal (decentralized), meaning it is composed of states which are allowed to make to make political decisions regarding the people living inside of them (“Countries Archive”, n.d). This again disperses power (proportionalism) to a number of subnational governments. However, this is not as effective as unitarism, since state policies may contradict government policies or there could be redundancies in state and government officials. Finally, Brazil is bicameral, since it has two houses. This allows for two different parties to take control of each house, allowing for representation of more people than majoritarianism.
Electoral rules in Brazil vary based on which official is being elected. The president in Brazil is elected through a majority two round runoff system. The senate is elected through plurality rules, and the chamber of deputies is elected through open-list PR. The SMDP and plurality systems are majoritarian in nature because anyone with the majority may be elected. The majoritarian rules increase accountability; however, this is not the case for the chamber of deputies. Due to complex bargaining that is part of PR electoral systems, the Brazilians do not always know who is responsible for policy outcomes in the lower house. Brazil has three major parties with a lot of minor parties. In this manner, it is intermediate on a scale of proportional to majoritarian. Both major and minor parties have a say in policy making.
Italy – March 4, 2018 (Lower House)
1. A parallel electoral system (specifically MMM or mixed member majoritarian) is used to elect the Italian Chamber of Deputies. This system combines FPTP with PR systems. Essentially, a certain number of constituencies are designated as single member districts. Candidates for these constituencies are elected through a plurality system (candidate with the most vote share when compared to all other candidates wins the seats). The rest of the districts are multimember and use closed list proportional representation system (vote share that a candidate gets is translated proportionally into the number of received seats, i.e. if a party gets 25% of the vote share, they get approximately 25% of the seats). In Italy, 232 seats are distributed through SMDP and 398 seats are distributed through PR system. Term of office for a member of the chamber of deputies is 5 years. There are no term limits (Italy Chamber of Deputies, 2018).
Closed list means that voters vote for coalitions and parties (that is, voters have no control over the candidates that parties choose to be elected). These political groups win a certain number seats, which they can distribute as they wish to candidates who ran. In the single member districts, voters may choose just a specific list or party (their vote goes to the candidate that is running from that party), or a candidate in a specific party (Clark, Golder, & Golder 556).
2. The executive branch in Italy consists of the President, President of the Council (Prime Minister), and the Council of Ministers. The President is not elected directly (her or she is chosen by the parliament and some other representatives) and has a term of seven years (no explicit term limits). In Italian government, the presidential candidate is an informateur and usually comes from the larger party. He or she rallies the support of a coalition (sometimes MWC or a super majority) by offering cabinet positions or other executive positions. Once this candidate has won the support of the parliament, he is chosen officially as the president. The president then chooses a PM, who acts as a formateur in that the PM candidate must again build a winning coalition in order to be appointed. Further, the PM may stay in power until he or she is ousted by a vote of no confidence. The PM can then a draft a list of cabinet members (the council), which the President must approve (“An Introductory Guide to the Italian Political System”, 2017).
3. There was no direct executive election.
4. On June 1, 2018, the incumbent PM, Paolo Gentiloni (Democratic Party), was removed from office through a vote of no confidence. He was replaced by Giuseppe Conte, an Independent (Borghese & Vonberg, 2018).
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is ruled primarily by three parties/coalitions after the 2018 election: Centre-Right coalition, Five Star Movement (a party), and the Centre Left coalition control 265, 226, and 122 of the seats in parliament. The Centre-Right and Five Star Movement saw an increase in their number of seats after the election, whereas the centre-left coalition lost seats after the election. From 2013 to 2018, three parties/coalitions dominated the lower house: Centre Right, Five Star Movement, and Italy Common Good (30%, 29%, and 26% of the lower house). Italy, Common Good lost power in the lower house (in that it does not exist currently as the coalition disbanded), and the Centre Left has taken its position in the list of top three seat holders. Centre-Right and Five Star Movement have maintained their power in the lower house. There is no single coalition which controlled an absolute majority of parliamentary seats before and after the 2018 elections (“Italy Chamber of Deputies”, 2018).
The elections for Italian Senate were held March 4, 2018. The three main parties/coalitions that compose the Senate appear to be the Centre-Right coalition, Five-Star movement, and the Centre-Left coalition (or Democratic Party) with 137, 111, and 60 seats won during this election. A total of 6 parties/coalitions won seats during this year’s election (“Italy Senate 2018”, 2018).
5. Italy is a parliamentary democracy with two houses in its legislature, and it is unitary in nature. Since it is parliamentary, Italy is majoritarian with respect to its executive structure. This because, whichever party or parties control the legislature, control who the president and prime minister are. Hence, this system tends to concentrate power in the hands of a coalition. This coalition also has the power to remove the PM. Since Italy is bicameral (it has a senate and chamber of deputies), it is proportional in this regard. It is possible for different parties or coalitions to control each house, resulting in a dispersion of power (and in the worst situations, gridlock). Finally, Italy is a unitary country, making it majoritarian in this respect. Hence, most power is concentrated in the national government, which makes policy making for the country more effective, but also reduces competition among states or regions (“Countries Archive”, n.d).
Italy uses a parallel voting system. 37% of Italy’s seats in both houses are distributed through FPTP, and 63% of its seats are distributed through PR. This makes Italy intermediate as it combines both aspects of majoritarian and proportional systems when it comes to electoral laws. This means that both large majority parties and small minority parties are represented in both houses. Benefits of the majoritarian elected seats are that citizens can hold these senators or deputies accountable for policy outcomes. This is not possible with PR seats. The merits of the PR elected seats are that a tyrannical majority does not trample the wishes of minority parties. Also, there are large number of small parties in Italy (allowing for the representation of majority and minority groups), resulting in coalitions, which are proportional in nature.
Mexico – July 1, 2018 (President); July 1, 2018 (Chamber of Deputies)
1. Mexico has a parallel voting system. There are a total of 500 seats in the lower house. 300 of these seats are distributed to single member constituencies and use FPTP plurality system (candidate with the most votes wins the constituency) to elect the candidate. 200 of these seats are allocated based on the closed list proportional system (the seat share that a candidate gets is the proportional to the vote share he or she gets). The 200 PR seats are used to counter disproportional vote to seat ratios (there are five 40 seat multi member districts). Term length is 3 years with no term limits (before 2015, consecutive terms weren’t allowed, but with the current 2018 election this rule has been changed).
Since this is closed PR, when voting from multi member districts, voters only have the option of voting for specific parties. The order of candidates (which candidate from that party is actually elected) is dependent on the party/party leader’s own preference. When it comes to the single member constituencies, voters vote for specific candidates, and the candidate with the most vote share wins the only seat in that specific district (“Elections: Mexico Chamber of Deputies 2018”, 2018).
2. The executive (the President) is directly elected through a plurality electoral system (candidate with most vote share wins the election). The term length is 6 years. No one who holds the post of President may become president again (“Country Studies”, n.d.).
3. Four candidates ran in the election for President: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Together We Make History coalition), Ricardo Anaya Cortes (Mexico to the Front), Jose Antonio Meade (All for Mexico), Jaime Heliodoro Rodriguez Calderon (Independent). The top three candidates were Obrador, Cortes, and Meade. They won 53.20%, 22.28%, 16.41% of the vote, respectively (“Elections: Mexico President 2018”, 2018).
4. The incumbent president is Enrique Pena Nieto from the Institutional Revolutionary Party. He is not allowed to go for a second term as a person who has been the president of Mexico once cannot be reelected ever again. Hence, the incumbent was replaced with the candidate who won the most votes, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (McDonnell, 2018).
After the 2018 elections, in the chamber of deputies, three coalitions make up most of the chamber of deputies: Together We Make History (comprised of National Regeneration Party, Women’s Party, and Citizen’s Movement Party) with 210 seats, All For Mexico (made up of Institutional Revolutionary Party, Ecologist Green Party, and New Alliance Party) with 13 seats, and Mexico to the Front (Democratic Revolution Party, Citizens’ Movement, and the National Action Party) with 63 seats. When it comes to individual parties, National Regeneration Party has 93 seats, National Action Party has 46 seats, and Industrial Revolutionary Party has 38 seats (“Elections: Mexico Chamber of Deputies 2018”, 2018).
Seat totals mentioned prior may include both PR seats and SMDP seats. The incumbents were National Action Party with 108 seats, Institutional Revolutionary Party with 203 seats, and Party of the Democratic Revolution with 56 seats (the three parties with most seats prior to 2018). In terms of the top three parties with with the most number of seats, National Action Party and Institutional Revolutionary Party have maintained power (although their individual seat totals have dropped considerably. Party of the Democratic Revolution lost seats and dropped out of the top three controlling parties in the legislature. This incumbent was in a sense replaced with the National Regeneration Party (“Elections: Mexico Chamber of Deputies 2018”, 2018).
In the Mexican Senate, the following coalitions have a large portion of the total seats: Together We Make History, All for Mexico, and Mexico to the Front. In the 2018 elections, these coalitions won 53, 13, and 25 seats, respectively. Major individual parties in the Senate include National Regeneration Movement, National Action Party, and Institutional Revolutionary Party, who won 15, 7, and 6 seats, respectively (“Elections: Mexico Federal Senate 2018”, 2018).
5. Mexico is a federal presidential democracy with a bicameral congress. Since it is federal, it is made up of relatively autonomous states each with a large amount of control over the people in its geographical boundary (“Countries Archive”, n.d). In this case, the national government’s power has been dispersed to a number of separate subnational entities, which is proportional nature. Because Mexico is presidential, the president’s survival of origin is independent of legislature, creating a separation of power between the two branches. Hence, there is a chance that the president is from a different party than that of the legislature, creating conflict as well offsetting the tyranny of the majority. So, the executive structure of Mexico is proportional as well. Mexico’s bicameral congress also disperses power, making it proportional. The Chamber of Deputies and Senate can be controlled by two different parties or alliances, resulting in bargaining to determine policy outcomes .
Mexico, like Italy, uses parallel voting as its electoral rule for the chamber of deputies. 300 deputies are elected using a plurality system, whereas the other 200 are allocated based on PR. This makes Mexico intermediate in terms of proportional and majoritarianism as seats are based on both methods. In the Mexican Senate, each state gets two seats. The first two seats go to the top two candidates based on plurality rule. The rest of the 32 seats are divided through PR nationally. This allows for the presence of both minority groups as well as large political parties. Hence, people may place their vote in the hands of a delegate and trustee, reaping the benefits of both majoritarian and proportional visions of democracy. The Mexican party system is proportional in nature as most parties are small, and coalitions must be built to pass legislation.
Sweden – September 9, 2018 (Riksdag)
1. There are a total of 349 seats in the Swedish Riksdag. Term length for Riksdag members are four years. 310 of these seats are fixed seats and distributed based on the size of the electorate to a total of 29 multi member districts. Candidates are chosen through the Party List Proportional Representation (the seat share of a party in a multi member district is approximately equal to the vote share that this party gets) system using a Saint-League Method. The rest of the seats are known as leveling or adjustment seats; they are used to ensure each party’s seat share is proportional to its vote share nationally. The threshold of the Swedish PR system is 4% of the national vote or 12% in a individual constituency (“Election: Sweden Parliament 2018”, 2018).
The Sainte-Lague method is a divisor system that is similar to d’Honte, except it uses different divisors (namely, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9). In divisor systems, the number of votes that a party receives is divided by a series of divisors to give a series of quotients. Seats are allocated based on which party receives the highest quotients (Clark, Golder, & Golder 553).
There are separate ballots for each party. Swedish citizens may vote in the following ways: they can vote for a specific party (without preference for a candidate), specific party and a specific candidate, or can write a party’s name on a blank ballot. Sweden also uses apparentement, which means they link certain party ballots together as forming a political alliance.
2. Sweden is a parliamentary democracy, which means there are no direct elections for executive in this country. There is no term limit. The PM serves as long has he or she has parliamentary support. The PM is chosen by the Parliament. Hence, a formateur (member of a large party in the Riksdag and candidate for PM), forms a coalition with other parties by offering office perks and policy options. Once he or she has formed a MWC or a super majority in parliament, the formateur is chosen as the PM. This PM then appoints cabinet members. There is also a King, whose power is passed down hereditarily (“The Swedish System of Government”, 2018).
3. There was no direct executive election in Sweden.
4. On September 26, 2018 the prime minister of Sweden, Stefan Lofven (from the Swedish Social Democratic Party), recently lost a vote of no confidence and was removed from his position by the newly elected Riksdag. The Swedish speaker of the Riksdag is making efforts to choose a new PM to replace the incumbent (“The Swedish System of Government”, 2018).
The top three parties in the newly elected Riksdag are Swedish Social Democratic party (with 100 seats), Moderate party (with 70 seats), and Sweden Democrats (with 62 seats). Before the 2018 election, the Social Democratic Party held 113 seats, the Moderate Party held 84 seats, and the Sweden Democrats held 49 seats. All three parties maintained their power in the Riksdag to some extent. The Social Democratic party lost 13 seats, the Sweden Democrats gained 13 seats, and the Moderate party lost 14 seats (“Election: Sweden Parliament 2018”, 2018).
5. Sweden is a unicameral parliamentary democracy and is a decentralized unitary country (“Countries Archive”, n.d). Despite having local governments, the national government has full power and ultimately dictates policies. So, Sweden has concentrated power in the central government, a characteristic of majoritarianism. Although, it could also be argued that its decentralization is a proportional characteristic in a sense, because local governments have a good portion of tax revenue that can be used to fund local laws/regulations. Because Sweden is unicameral, it has one legislative body, the Riksdag, and is majoritarian in this respect. That is, there is only a single legislative body that controls the appointment of the PM and legislation that is created (making this legislative structure concentrated in power). Furthermore, the parliamentary structure of Sweden makes it majoritarian in nature. Despite bargaining amongst parties, once there is a minimum winning coalition, this coalition controls the most of the parliament as well appointment of the PM.
All candidates in the Riksdag are chosen through proportional representation system. Hence, citizens choose representative agents or delegates who then, through complex bargaining with other delegates, come up with policy that satisfies both large and small political groups. Due to the PR system there is equitable allocation of seats to multiple parties and most of the diverse interests of society are expressed in government policy and decisions. The purely PR electoral laws also makes elections indirect: which candidates are elected doesn’t really determine the policies that are put in place. Despite stopping the tyranny of the majority, the PR laws decrease accountability, as citizens don’t know which legislator was responsible for a certain policies. Sweden has many political parties and none of them can control the legislature alone, resulting in coalition building. This adds to the proportional nature of Swedish political institutions.
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