Does the Party List Matter?

23 Pages Posted: 13 Sep 2024

See all articles by Jack Santucci

Jack Santucci

Western New England University

Date Written: August 13, 2024

Abstract

This note updates Gosnell's (1939, The American Political Science Review) analysis of United States elections under single transferable vote (STV), expanding its coverage and making the data available. Later work used the same cases to popularize (and respond to) the claim that proportional representation (PR) leads to 'fragmentation,' which in its original formulation meant an absence of two-bloc competition. I compare that definition to leading perspectives on systemwide STV behavior. Then I describe how party-list allocation based on observed first-choice votes produces seat distributions that are less 'fragmented' from whichever perspectives might apply to the case at hand. Rare but consequential differences are consistent with a range of non-party hypotheses about ballot marking. These results speak to an old taxonomic controversy and thus the terms of a recurring fragmentation debate.

Keywords: fragmentation, fusion, local elections, semi-proportional representation, single transferable vote

Suggested Citation

Santucci, Jack, Does the Party List Matter? (August 13, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4924655 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4924655

Jack Santucci (Contact Author)

Western New England University ( email )

Springfield, MA 01119
United States

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