2005/04/01 by Shaun Bowler, David M. Farrell, Robin T. Pettitt · 1 voice · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/13689880500064544
openalex publication_date 2005/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Electoral systems are now much more prone to reform than 10–20 years ago, and as a consequence electoral system specialists are developing a useful sideline in advising on electoral system design across the globe. Given that in many of the recent cases of electoral system design some variant of a “mixed‐member” electoral system has been adopted, one might be forgiven for concluding that the electoral system specialists are themselves leaning towards this particular electoral system family. So what do they really think? This paper reports the responses to a recent survey of electoral system specialists (members of the relevant specialist groups of the Political Studies Association, American Political Science Association and International Political Science Association) that was funded by the McDougall Trust. It asks and seeks to answer two questions. First, is there an electoral system which scholars agree to be the best? Second, if there are disagreements about electoral systems, are the disagreements about the properties of electoral systems or the normative values of democracy?