Giving More Weight to Preferential Votes

Welcome or Superfluous Reform? The Case of the Local Elections in Flanders (Belgium)

Bibliographic Data

ID6302525
AuthorsBram Wauters (0000-0003-4216-2094, Ghent University), Dries Verlet (Flemish Government), Johan Ackaert (0000-0002-1990-1218, Hasselt University)
Year2012
Volume38
Issue1
Pages91-111
Publication date2012-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLocal Government Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0300-3930 • E-ISSN: 1743-9388
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03003930.2011.629193
OpenAlexW2083708935
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited23

In response to a crisis of representative democracy in many Western countries, (local) governments have introduced instruments to circumvent political parties in order to establish more direct links between citizens and governments. One of these instruments is rendering electoral systems more personal, that is by giving more weight to preferential voting. Preferential voting is important since it constitutes a major element of the personal vote and it determines whether parties or voters are the main decision-makers in designating representatives. We have investigated, in relation to the local elections in Flanders (Belgium), in what kind of municipalities voters are most likely to cast a preferential vote, whether the electoral reform granting voters more power has had an effect, and if it has had an effect, in what kind of municipalities. We have put forward five groups of explanatory variables: socio-demographic, political, social capital, geographic and ballot form variables. Our analysis shows that variables from each group correlate significantly with the percentage of preferential votes, with population density and electronic voting as most important variables. A comparison between the 1994 and 2006 elections often yields the reverse picture: characteristics of municipalities that have a positive effect on the percentage of preferential votes cast have a negative impact on the evolution of preferential voting and vice versa (electronic voting being an exception). This results in the only obvious effects of the electoral reform being seen in urban municipalities, because elsewhere local politics was already to a large extent personalised by politicians being locally known. We could conclude that in these rural municipalities the electoral reform was superfluous

Ballot · Democracy · Demographic economics · Economics · Group voting ticket · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Ranked voting system · Sociology · Spoilt vote · Voting · Voting behavior · Demography · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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