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Evaluation and possible improvements of the Swedish electoral system

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  • Victoriano Ramírez-González
  • Blanca Delgado-Márquez
  • Antonio Palomares
  • Adolfo López-Carmona

Abstract

The Swedish electoral system exhibits significant levels of proportionality compared with the systems used in other countries. However, it has several deficiencies that could be corrected. Therefore, this paper (a) evaluates the current Swedish electoral system by identifying the imbalances in the representation of political parties and the sizes of the electoral constituencies that can occur and (b) presents two proposals for improvement that seek to correct the previously identified deficiencies. The first proposal consists of a slight modification of the current system that applies when parties get more seats than they proportionally deserve according to their global number of votes, as occurred in the 2010 election. In this case, the proposal includes a criterion so that the overrepresented parties return their excess seats. The second proposal relies on the implementation of biproportional allotments and on the replacement of the electoral thresholds of 4 % of the total votes nationwide and 12 % of the votes in a given constituency by a new threshold based on a reduction in the number of votes of the parties. The application of any of these proposals to the Swedish election held in 2010 reveals that the deficiencies in the representation of political parties are eliminated. Furthermore, the second proposal also corrects the deficiencies in the sizes of the electoral constituencies for Sweden. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Victoriano Ramírez-González & Blanca Delgado-Márquez & Antonio Palomares & Adolfo López-Carmona, 2014. "Evaluation and possible improvements of the Swedish electoral system," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 215(1), pages 285-307, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:215:y:2014:i:1:p:285-307:10.1007/s10479-013-1457-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-013-1457-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. M. L. Balinski & G. Demange, 1989. "An Axiomatic Approach to Proportionality Between Matrices," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(4), pages 700-719, November.
    2. Marjorie B. Gassner, 1991. "Biproportional Delegations," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 3(3), pages 321-342, July.
    3. Sebastian Maier & Petur Zachariassen & Martin Zachariasen, 2010. "Divisor-Based Biproportional Apportionment in Electoral Systems: A Real-Life Benchmark Study," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 373-387, February.
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    1. Anderson Kenji Hirose & Cassius Tadeu Scarpin & José Eduardo Pécora Junior, 2020. "Goal programming approach for political districting in Santa Catarina State: Brazil," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 287(1), pages 209-232, April.
    2. David F. Muñoz & Héctor Gardida & Hugo Velázquez & Jorge D. Ayala, 2022. "Simulation models to support the preliminary electoral results program for the Mexican Electoral Institute," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 316(2), pages 1141-1156, September.

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