What If California Adopted Proportional Representation?

39 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2010 Last revised: 6 Apr 2010

See all articles by Michael Latner

Michael Latner

California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo; Union of Concerned Scientists

Abstract

California's budgetary crisis has prompted calls for major institutional reform. We evaluate the argument that adoption of a mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system for the California state legislature would result in a more representative party system with potentially greater governing capacity. Party fragmentation is modeled as a function of district magnitude and assembly size, and these institutional constraints are then integrated with voting data on state initiatives to predict what the emergent party system would look like. While the Democratic Party would lose its dominant status in the state legislature, it would still be a major player in a two-coalition system dominated by the two major parties. The composition of the legislature would more accurately reflect the diversity of the California electorate, which could facilitate governing capacity, dependent on related reforms to California's hybrid democracy.

Suggested Citation

Latner, Michael, What If California Adopted Proportional Representation?. Western Political Science Association 2010 Annual Meeting Paper , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1581112

Michael Latner (Contact Author)

California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo ( email )

San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
United States

Union of Concerned Scientists ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94704
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
140
Abstract Views
1,129
Rank
412,661
PlumX Metrics