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Electoral system preferences of citizens compared: evidence from a conjoint experiment in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2023

Eric Linhart Open the ORCID record for Eric Linhart [Opens in a new window] ,
Michael Jankowski  and
Markus Tepe
Eric Linhart*
Affiliation:
Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Michael Jankowski
Affiliation:
University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
Markus Tepe
Affiliation:
University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
*
Corresponding author: Eric Linhart; Email: eric.linhart@phil.tu-chemnitz.de
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Abstract

Electoral systems fulfill different functions. Typically, they cannot meet all demands at the same time, so that the evaluation of specific electoral systems depends on subjective preferences about the single demands. We argue that it is the electorate which transfers its power to representatives and, therefore, its preferences should be considered in debates about electoral systems. Consequently, our contribution presents results of citizens’ demands regarding electoral system attributes. Specifically, we rely on a large-scale conjoint experiment conducted in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK in which subjects were asked to choose between two electoral systems which randomly differed on a set of attributes referring to electoral systems’ core functions. Our results show that all core functions are generally of importance for the respondents but reveal a higher preference for proportional electoral systems. These preferences are largely stable for citizens in different countries but also for other subgroups of subjects.

Keywords

electoral systemsconjoint experimentpreferencesrepresentation
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , November 2023 , pp. 671 - 689
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research

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