PR System Design, Formula Engineering, and Unintended Consequences

Abstract

This panel examines unintended consequences of institutional choices within proportional representation (PR), highlighting how design details reshape outcomes and fairness perceptions. Paper 1 studies substitute-vote proposals in Germany’s post-2023 mixed-member proportional reform, linking them to orphaned constituencies under second-vote coverage and to substitute party choices to limit threshold “wasted votes,” and discussing effects on representation, strategic incentives, and acceptance of reform. Paper 2 analyzes divisor design in modified Sainte-Laguë, using Denmark’s post-2007 rise in district magnitude and the switch to D’Hondt to model how the first divisor affects proportionality, small-party entry, and compensatory-seat dynamics via simulations and proportionality indices. Paper 3 investigates Israel’s restricted two-list apparentements in national and local elections, examining their frequency and the reasons they can violate monotonicity and distort proportional seat allocations amid contrasting expectations in prior studies. Paper 4 maps the “grey side” of implementing PR—indivisible seats, local representation, and candidate selection—showing how extending proportionality to ranked or multi-choice ballots creates paradoxes and how list openness and district magnitude complicate proportionality and bargaining power. Paper 5 explains the Czechia system’s “stickiness” while tracing the 2021 court-triggered redesign as “reform without change,” and details pathologies including coalition-level preferential-vote inversions and the emergence of low-transparency “hidden coalitions.”

Title	Details
The Anomalous Effects of Apparentement in Israeli National and Local Elections	View Paper Details
Are Mechanisms of Substitute Votes a Suitable Means of Solving Certain Problems Associated with Electoral Systems of Proportional Representation?	View Paper Details
The Grey Side of Proportional Representation	View Paper Details
Divisor Choices and District Magnitude: Unintended Consequences in Modified Sainte-Laguë Systems	View Paper Details
The Unbearable Lightness of Reform: The Stickiness, Paradoxes, and Dark Sides of the Czech Proportional System	View Paper Details