The politics of electoral system choice

Abstract This chapter examines our argument, developed in the previous chapter, of how parties’ positions on electoral system change and the composition of reform coalitions depend on the type of electoral engineering available to incumbent parties. After identifying the positions of all parties in first-wave democracies on electoral system choice, we show that these party positions are systematically related to seat-vote distortions and the use of containment measures. Subsequently, we show how containment measures lead to different reform coalitions. In the final section of the chapter, we examine how external events have sometimes limited incumbent parties’ ability to rely on electoral engineering to contain insurgent parties, because they were (temporarily) weakened and thus unable to exercise control over the redistricting process, or because opposition parties demanded the removal of such containment strategies in return for political support during crisis periods.