The Impact of Electoral Reform on Political Parties

Abstract

The focus on major reforms (especially changes of electoral formula at the national level) enacted by parliaments that characterizes most of the literature on electoral reform rests on two over-simplifications. First, the choice of electoral formula is not the only question of electoral law that can have a profound effect on democratic politics. Changes in regulations concerning ballot access, the recognition or banning of political parties, party finance, qualifications and registration of voters, and the drawing of district boundaries all clearly fall under the rubric of electoral reform, and all have the potential to alter the balance of power more substantially than some reforms that conventionally are included in the “major” category. Second, particularly with regard to these other aspects of electoral law, courts have become increasingly active, either imposing what would obviously be called electoral reform if the same outcome were enacted by parliament, or imposing such severe constraints on what parliament can do that the courts might as well have legislated themselves. Topics that might be addressed by papers for this panel include: the electorally relevant jurisprudence of particular national systems; whether there are characteristics or problems that are peculiar to judicially imposed reforms; whether there are significant differences in the electorally relevant jurisprudence of courts from civil law versus common law traditions; the impact of international (especially EU) undertakings as mediated by courts; whether the judiciary provides an avenue for electoral reforms that might be blocked in the more partisan arms of government.

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