Do Electoral Systems Influence Political Equality? - A Multimethod Thesis on the Relationship Between Electoral Systems and Political Equality

Abstract

In this thesis I look at the relationship between political equality and electoral systems. While I mention several different aspects of electoral systems in the thesis, mostly I focus on the effects of district magnitude and whether or not there is a proportional allocation of seats. I discuss five different mechanisms, two relating mostly to equal descriptive representation and three relating mostly to substantive representation. I utilize the synthetic control method on a constitutional reform in New Zealand, which implemented Mixed Member Proportional Representation, in a country previously using the First Past The Post system. Then I do a literature review to try to qualitatively determine any causal effects by discussing empirical results from other studies. Both the findings of the synthetic control analysis and the literature review indicate that proportional representation systems in general are associated with increased levels of political equality and that this relationship likely is due, at least partly, to the proposed mechanisms.