Abstract
The study of the effects of voting systems started before Maurice Duverger, but the credit goes to him for systematizing the analysis (Riker 1986) and for stating firmly the “laws”, which are still used by contemporary political scientists to describe the relationships between election rules and party system: the plurality system favours bipartism (Duverger 1951, p. 306); the runoff system and proportional representation tend to favour a multiparty system (Duverger 1951, p. 331). He can also be credited for bringing into light the theoretical foundations on which these “laws” are based, by making a clear distinction between the “mechanical effects” of voting systems, i.e., the conversion of votes into seats, and the “psychological effects” of voting systems, i.e., the tendency of voters to anticipate the mechanical effects of electoral rules and to adapt their behaviours to the chances of winning of the various parties running, to maximize the utility of their votes (Duverger 1951, p. 315). In this case, we talk about “strategic voting” (Downs 1957; Cain 1978; Cox 1994, 1997) of “sophisticated voting” (Banks 1985; Shepsle and Weingast 1984; Abramson et al. 1992) or even of “tactical voting” (Johnston and Pattie 1991; Niemi et al. 1992) or, in France, of “vote utile” (Parodi 2002).
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Notes
- 1.
The protocol was jointly established by several researchers: A Blais (Université de Montréal), B. Dolez (Université de Paris 13 – CERAPS), E. Dubois (CERAPS – University of Lille 2), J.-F. Laslier (Laboratoire d’économétrie – Ecole Polytechnique, Paris), A. Laurent (CERAPS – University of Lille 2), Michael Lewis-Beck (University of Iowa), N. Sauger (CEE, Paris) et K. Van des Straeten (GREMAQ, Toulouse).
- 2.
See Appendix.
- 3.
In every group, there were nevertheless “equidistant” participants: the participants on position 8, exactly halfway between candidate B (position 6) and candidate C (position 10), and the participants on position 12, exactly halfway between candidate C and candidate D (position 14). If we assume that equidistant participants (on position 8 and 12) randomly divided themselves between the two candidates which were the closest to their positions, it can be estimated that, in every group, 21.5% of the participants were “closer to” B and D and 19% “closer to” C.
- 4.
Thirteen spoiled ballot papers on the first round, 12 on the second round and 2 with the proportional voting system had to be eliminated.
- 5.
Development made at the CERAPS (Centre d’études et de recherches administratives, politiques et socials), a research laboratory of the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), University of Lille 2.
- 6.
D = (1 ∕ 2)[V i − P i ] in which V i is the % of votes gathered by party i and P i the % of participants “close to” i.
- 7.
This index is traditionally used to measure the deviations from votes to seats (Laasko and Taagepera 1979). Here, we have “twisted” it to our advantage to measure the deviation between the votes and the preferences by applying the formula: ENP = 1 ∕ Σv i in which v i is the % of votes gathered by party i.
- 8.
To calculate the levels of sincere voting, we have removed from the analysis the answers of the participants situated in positions 8 and 12, in other words the participants who were, respectively, equidistant from either B and C or C and D.
- 9.
For a discussion of laboratory experiments about coalitions see e.g., Gschwend and Hooghe (2007).
- 10.
For an opposite point of view, see Seiler (2006).
Acknowledgment
With the financial support of the support of the Agence national pour la recherché (ANR).
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Dolez, B., Laurent, A. (2011). Measuring Duvergerian Effects of the French Majority Runoff System with Laboratory Experiments: Duverger’s Laws Under the Microscope. In: Dolez, B., Grofman, B., Laurent, A. (eds) In Situ and Laboratory Experiments on Electoral Law Reform. Studies in Public Choice, vol 25. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7539-3_6
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