Crashing the party. Does STV help independents

Bibliographic Data

ID6316513
AuthorsLiam Weeks (0000-0003-3067-9029, Macquarie University, Australia and University College Cork, Ireland, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume20
Issue4
Pages604-616
Publication date2014-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueParty Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-0688 • E-ISSN: 1460-3683
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1354068811436063
OpenAlexW2101512342
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited27

Parties tend to be wary of candidate-centred electoral systems, which is one factor why the use of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) is limited to a few cases. One source of this wariness is that STV is thought to favour non-party candidates, or independents, a claim based primarily on the experience of Ireland. The relative absence of independents in Australia and Malta, the other two countries using STV for national elections, challenges the merits of this reasoning. This study re-examines the nature of this causal link using constituency-level data from the Irish and Australian cases. The results indicate that there is not a great deal of evidence to support the hypothesis that STV favours independents, in particular because electoral system detail can affect a system’s ability to realize expected consequences. While constituency size, ballot access and ballot design affect support for independents, it is not always in the expected manner. This suggests that the non-party phenomenon is more than just a by-product of electoral system effects

Affect (linguistics · Ballot · Business · Democracy · Economics · Electoral system · Irish · Phenomenon · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Product (mathematics · Public relations · Sociology · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Taxation and Compliance Studies

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