Automatic majority in Uruguay

the experience of departmental governments (1984-1994)

Authors

  • Juan Andrés Moraes Instituto de Ciencia Política, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República de Uruguay

Keywords:

Uruguay, Governement, municipalities

Abstract

Most scholars who have studied electoral systems, cJassify them as either proportional or majoritarian. Less attention has been granted to sorne important variations within these two formulas. This articJe shows one case study on the Automatic Majority implemented in Uruguay at the subnational gobernments. In such a system a winner by simple majority authomatically has theabsolute majority of seats in the legislature. Yet, the rest of seats are divíded tbrough proportional representation. This work analízes the different effects of the system on the effective number of parties for the past tbree elections in the country. Through the use a simulation model and with data from the three last elections I argue that the variations on vote behavior, given these electoral rules, produces increasing rates of disproportion -mismatch- between votes and seats, reducíng the effective number of parties.

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Published

2018-12-06

How to Cite

Automatic majority in Uruguay: the experience of departmental governments (1984-1994). (2018). Revista Uruguaya De Ciencia Política, 10, 47-78. https://rucp.cienciassociales.edu.uy/index.php/rucp/article/view/380