Teaching Comparative

Elections and legitimacy

Project Syndicate is an association of 288 newspapers in 115 countries, which publishes op-ed pieces on its web site.

Recently, it published, Elections Without Winners by Ralf Dahrendorf who is the author of numerous books and a former European Commissioner from Germany. He is a member of the British House of Lords, a former Rector of the London School of Economics, and a former Warden of St. Antony’s College, Oxford.

There are good ideas here for students to evaluate even if this essay is an introduction to the concepts.

"...quite a few recent elections have ended in at least a near-stalemate. Mexico’s presidential election is only the latest example. Several weeks ago, the general election in the Czech Republic yielded a total impasse, with the left and right each gaining 100 lower-house seats and no resolution in sight...

"There are other recent examples, including, perhaps most notoriously, the 2000 presidential election in the United States. Why are we suddenly experiencing so many close results in democratic elections? How should we best deal with them? And what do they do to the legitimacy of the governments that result from them? ...electorates everywhere seem more volatile than anything else, with voters prepared to change their preferences from one poll to the next. Often, they want change – just that...

"So what can be done in practical terms when division leads to stalemate? One solution is to form a grand coalition... Another possibility is to turn razor-thin majorities into one-sided governments that remain centrist in policy.

"As long as winners with razor-thin majorities, once in office, steer a middle course, they are more likely to remain acceptable to an electorate that is more volatile than divided.

"By contrast, grand coalitions are, in the long term, likely to raise doubts about the system and encourage radical groups. The same may also be true if narrow winners adopt a radical agenda, as some think George W. Bush has done in America and many feared Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador would do in Mexico...

"The real question is whether an uncertain electorate is prepared to defend democratic constitutions if an extremist who wins by a hair tries to overturn it and usher in a new era of tyranny...

"But one conclusion is perhaps more compelling than ever... The first-past-the-post system is still the most effective method of ensuring orderly change."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:35 PM