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A preliminary simulative assessment of disproportionality indices

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Author Info

  • Migheli, Matteo

    ()

  • Ortona, Guido

    ()

  • Ponzano, Ferruccio

    ()

Abstract

What do indices of disproportionality actually measure? They provide an aggregate estimation of the difference between votes cast and seats assignment, but the relation between the value of the indices and the will of the voters is highly questionable. The reason is that when casting the vote the voter is deeply affected by the electoral system itself, possibly more deeply than s/he understands. The aim of this paper is to assess the performance of the most used indices of disproportionality with respect to the will of voters. To do so we compare by simulation their performance in some major electoral systems and with reference to some stylised typical cases. We use as a benchmark a "true" index, i.e. an index that measures the difference between the will of the voters (instead of the votes) and the assignment of seats. In our experiment all the indices considered perform poorly, with the unexpected exception of the Loosemore-Hanby index.

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File URL: http://polis.unipmn.it/pubbl/RePEc/uca/ucapdv/ortona129.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS in its series POLIS Working Papers with number 116.

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Length: 15 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:uca:ucapdv:116

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Web page: http://polis.unipmn.it

Related research

Keywords: Simulations; Representativity indices; Fitness of indices;

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References

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  1. Stefania Ottone & Ferrucio Ponzano & Roberto Ricciuti, 2009. "Simulating Voting Rule Reforms for the Italian Parliament: An Economic Perspective," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 3(3), pages 292-304, October.
  2. Bissey, Marie-Edith & Ortona, Guido, 2007. "The program for the simulation of electoral systems ALEX4.1: what it does and how to use it," POLIS Working Papers 82, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
  3. Alexander Karpov, 2007. "Measurement of Disproportionality in PR Systems," Working Papers CAS_RN_2007_9, Laboratory for Macroeconomic Analysis.
  4. Vani K. Borooah, 2002. "The Proportionality of Electoral Systems: Electoral Welfare and Electoral Inequality," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 83-98.
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Cited by:
  1. Cavaleri, Pietro & Keren, Michael & Ramello, Giovanni B. & Valli, Vittorio, 2009. "Publishing an E-journal on a shoe string: Is it a sustainaible project?," POLIS Working Papers 118, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
  2. Orso, Cristina Elisa, 2009. "Formal and informal sectors: Interactions between moneylenders and traditional banks in the rural Indian credit market," POLIS Working Papers 135, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
  3. Bondonio, Daniele, 2009. "Impact identification strategies for evaluating business incentive programs," POLIS Working Papers 129, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
  4. Giuranno, Michele, 2009. "The logic of party coalitions with political activism and public financing," POLIS Working Papers 134, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
  5. Privileggi, Fabio, 2008. "On the transition dynamics in endogenous recombinant growth models," POLIS Working Papers 120, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.

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