The Impact of Electoral Reform on Parties and Voters

Abstract

Research on electoral systems in the last decades has substantially enhanced our knowledge on the consequences of electoral systems for the behaviour of parties and voters. Nonetheless, some challenges remain. First, the classical cross-sectional design does not allow to control for all possible variables and we might thus be confronted with an omitted variable bias; second, time trends are often neglected; and third, the so called endogeneity problem remains unsolved. The panel aims to contribute to the solution of these challenges by focussing on electoral system changes. Analysing changes entails the possibility to propose quasi-experimental research designs where a whole range of potentially confounding factors can be held constant. This allows us to concentrate on the impact of one particular institutional feature on parties and voters: electoral rules. Papers submitted to the panel can address all relevant aspects of electoral system effects on parties and voters at the micro as well as the macro levels. A preference is given to comparative designs and papers using quantitative methods that explicitly deal with the dynamic dimension of electoral systems and their change.