A Critical Discussion of the Characteristic Properties of List PR and FPTP Systems

Abstract:     
This paper discusses the characteristic properties of List PR systems and FPTP systems, as given in van der Hout (2005, 2006). While many of the properties we consider are common to both systems, it turns out (see van der Hout 2005) that the British system distinguishes itself by satisfying the district cancellation property, while the Dutch system distinguishes itself by satisfying consistency and anonymity. For scoring rules, topsonlyness is equivalent to being party fragmentation-proof (see van der Hout 2005, 2006). One might present this as an argument in favour of requiring topsonlyness. However, we will also give counter-arguments against insisting upon the property of being party fragmentation-proof.

Keywords: list plurality ranking, proportional representation, elections, voting, Borda-voting

JEL Classification: D72

Accepted Paper Series