Exam 7: Electoral Systems: The Core of Democratic Politics

Which of the following combinations would best favor small parties?

District magnitude refers to:

Some Latin American countries do not allow soldiers to vote.

Which type of electoral design is best designed to hold individual politicians accountable to voters?

Generally speaking, what is the consequence of scheduling a presidential election concurrently with legislative elections?

The details of an electoral system are found in the constitution.

An electoral formula with biases cannot be considered democratic.

Presidential elections with majority run-off rules pose what sort of trade-off?

What sort of values do you think are most important to the design of electoral systems? Which procedures and institutions would best support these values?

Identify and describe the five main components of an electoral system.

Which of the following is associated with the use of direct democracy?

In its ideal form, who is the primary decision-maker under direct democracy?

Apportionment refers to the drawing of constituency lines.

How might a proportional representation system be designed to better encourage constituency service?

Which of the following best reduces party system fragmentation?

Gerrymandering refers to the manipulation of district lines to favor some parties over others.

Small parties tend to win more seats in a legislature when the election is held concurrently with the presidential election.

Party system fragmentation can be associated with:

Which of the following elements of an electoral system would best create parties with nationwide appeal and high levels of party discipline?

If you were the leader of a regionally based political party, how could you design an electoral system to best serve your own personal interests?