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Designing Preference Voting

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp Harfst

    (TU Dresden - Technische Universität Dresden = Dresden University of Technology)

  • Damien Bol

    (King‘s College London)

  • Jean-François Laslier

    (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

Electoral systems in which voters can cast preference votes for individual candidates within a party list are increasingly popular. To the best of our knowledge, there is no research on whether and how the scale used to evaluate candidates can affect electoral behavior and results. In this paper, we analyze data from an original voting experiment leveraging real-life political preferences and embedded in a nationally representative online survey in Austria. We show that the scale used by voters to evaluate candidates makes differences. For example, the possibility to give up to two points advantages male candidates because male voters are more likely to give 'zero points' to female candidates. Yet this pattern does not exist in the system in which voters can give positive and negative points because male voters seem reluctant to actively withdraw points from female candidates. We thus encourage constitution makers to think carefully about the design of preference voting.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Harfst & Damien Bol & Jean-François Laslier, 2021. "Designing Preference Voting," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-03033239, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-03033239
    DOI: 10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102262
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03033239
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    Keywords

    Electoral system; Proportional representation; Preference voting; Approval voting; Experiment; Austria;
    All these keywords.

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