Open Lists, Preferential Voting, and Intra-Party Competition Effects

Abstract

This panel examines how candidate-centered proportional representation (PR) rules—and, in one case, a reform package—reconfigure intra-party competition and legislative capacity. Paper 1 uses candidate data from 28 elections in 15 European countries to test whether list openness is associated with ideological dispersion within parties, finding larger distance from the party mean in more open systems and a stronger association among right-wing parties. Paper 2 introduces a “climbers and divers” design using local elections in Poland (2006–2022) to estimate list-position self-primacy by comparing the same candidates when listed first versus lower, yielding a substantial top-slot bonus net of list and district factors. Paper 3 analyzes candidate data from the Czech Republic since 1996 to explain when preferential voting becomes a disproportionate, hard-to-anticipate force within party and coalition lists, tracing how ballot position, incumbency, and coalition settings interact with personalization and mobilization for preference votes. Paper 4 studies Chile’s shift to PR alongside term limits, using electoral results (1989–2025) to document higher turnover, lower reelection, and reduced legislative experience consistent with a renewal–capacity trade-off. Paper 5 combines modeling with cross-national OLPR evidence to compare intra- and inter-party victory margins, showing how formulas, district magnitude, and thresholds can make co-partisans the decisive rivals.

Title	Details
Climbers and Divers: Self‑Primacy Effects in Open‑List Proportional Representation	View Paper Details
List Openness and Intra-Party Ideological Diversity in Proportional Representation	View Paper Details
The Trade-Offs of Democratic Renewal: How Electoral and Career Reforms Reshape Representation and Professionalization in Legislatures	View Paper Details
Disproportionate Effects of Preferential Voting Under Proportional Representation: Evidence from the Czech Republic	View Paper Details
Who’s the Real Rival? Intra- Vs. Inter-Party Margins Under Open List Proportional Representation	View Paper Details