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One woman, one vote. Though not in the USA, UK and France

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  • Colignatus, Thomas

Abstract

This paper gives an economic analysis of the design of electoral systems. It particular it evaluates how political science has been dealing with this issue. The main choice is between either district representation (DR) or equal or proportional representation (EPR). It appears that DR obliterates votes so that the principle of One Woman, One Vote and also article 21 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are violated. Holland in 1917 switched from DR to EPR but countries like the USA, UK and France still adopt DR. Brexit can be diagnosed as a result of the UK system of DR and the build-up of frustration on democracy within the UK itself. It appears that the advisory role of political scientists cannot be overlooked. Political science started in the humanities and only gradually adopted the methods of science, e.g. with the foundation of APSA in 1903. However, political science on the particular topic of electoral systems apparently still remains with its tradition in the humanities, in which assumptions are more important than analysis and hard data. Political science on electoral systems is no experimental science, since one cannot experiment with nations and their elections. The situation is similar as for macro-economics or astronomy that also are observational sciences, yet the latter fields have managed better in adopting the methods of science. A new development uses laboratory experiments, but these obviously cannot replace actual elections for the US House of Representatives or the UK House of Commons. This paper focuses on a deconstruction of a study by Carey & Hix (2011) (C&H) on an “electoral sweet spot”, that favours DR and that would mean the end of EPR. Other evidence on other studies is given in appendices. The deconstruction of the C&H study is sufficient evidence though, since it constitutes the culmination of a particular branch in political science. This branch appears to contain fundamental confusion and bias. Political science might regard this deconstruction as mere opinion but for science an empirical observation constitutes a fact. C&H also take ‘the most frequent of good outcomes’ as ‘thus the best overall’, which confuses frequency with optimality. This is more particular to their study though other political scientists are already copying this confusion instead of criticising it. Proper science should step in and assist political science to become a real science.

Suggested Citation

  • Colignatus, Thomas, 2017. "One woman, one vote. Though not in the USA, UK and France," MPRA Paper 82513, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Nov 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:82513
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Colignatus, 2005. "On the political economy of world government: a short discussion of the role of the World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum and indicating the possibility of a World Parliament," General Economics and Teaching 0501002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Colignatus, Thomas, 2010. "Single vote multiple seats elections. Didactics of district versus proportional representation, using the examples of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands," MPRA Paper 22671, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Jul 2007.
    3. Douglas W. Rae, 1995. "Using District Magnitude to Regulate Political Party Competition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 65-75, Winter.
    4. Colignatus, Thomas, 2009. "Elegance with substance," MPRA Paper 15173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Alex Robson, 2007. "Voting Power in the Australian Senate: 1901-2004," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2007-480, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    6. Colignatus, Thomas, 2017. "The performance of four possible rules for selecting the Prime Minister after the Dutch Parliamentary elections of March 2017," MPRA Paper 77616, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Mar 2017.
    7. Colignatus, Thomas, 2017. "Two conditions for the application of Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient to voting and allocated seats," MPRA Paper 80297, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Jul 2017.
    8. Edwin van de Haar, 2015. "CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis: Dutch (economic) policy-making," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 182-190, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Colignatus, Thomas, 2020. "Forum Theory & A National Assembly of Science and Learning," MPRA Paper 98568, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Feb 2020.
    2. Colignatus, Thomas, 2018. "Measures of policy distance and inequality / disproportionality of votes and seats," MPRA Paper 84324, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 02 Feb 2018.
    3. Colignatus, Thomas, 2018. "Comparing the Aitchison distance and the angular distance for use as inequality or disproportionality measures for votes and seats," MPRA Paper 84334, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 03 Feb 2018.
    4. Colignatus, Thomas, 2018. "An overview of the elementary statistics of correlation, R-squared, cosine, sine, and regression through the origin, with application to votes and seats for Parliament," MPRA Paper 84722, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Feb 2018.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    General Economics; Social Choice; Social Welfare; Election; Majority Rule; Parliament; Legislative; Party System; Representation; Proportion; District; Voting; Seat; Equity; Inequality; Lorenz; Gini coefficient; Voting Paradox; Arrow's Impossibility Theorem; Accountability; Interest congruence; Brexit; Disproportionality; SDID;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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