Indirect Presidential Elections: A New Classification and Global Summary, 1945ꟷ2018

The rules governing direct presidential elections and their consequences have been studied extensively. In contrast, indirect presidential elections – the selection of a republication head of state without immediate public involvement – have been almost systematically neglected by the literature. Most prominently, the literature on electoral systems identifies up to five different categories of direct presidential elections, whereas indirect presidential elections are compressed into just one (if they are discussed at all). The aim of this paper is to provide a first comprehensive comparative examination of the rules governing indirect presidential elections in democracies around the world. Therefore, it proposes a new classification of indirect presidential elections based on (1) selectorate composition, (2) majority requirements and (3) finality of the vote. A systematic assessment of original data on electoral rules since 1945 demonstrates that formulae for indirect presidential elections are far more complex than suggested by the existing literature and more varied than those governing popular contests. The results call for a re-examination of the current scholarship on presidential elections and the adoption of indirect elections into the canon of electoral studies.