What Do Voters Want from an Electoral System? Experimental Evidence on Thresholds and Territorial Representation

Despite their significant potential impact on the representation of citizens’ interests, we know little about what voters want from electoral systems. At the same time, there are good reasons to believe that, from the perspective of the viability of electoral reform, citizens’ perspectives on the electoral system matter. In this paper, we explore voters’ preferences regarding two aspects of electoral systems: Thresholds and territorial representation. We propose that in general people with higher political dissatisfaction will favour changes in the electoral system, and as they favour change to the status-quo, this should apply to both thresholds and territorial representation. Attitudes towards thresholds are expected to be impacted by partisan concerns, given that higher thresholds advantages larger parties and disadvantages smaller parties. As such, supporters of larger parties are expected to favour higher thresholds, while supporters of smaller parties are expected to oppose them. In terms of territorial representation, we expect that voters who rely more on government services will favour more localised representation, as will voters with higher levels of place-based resentment. We test these expectations about voters’ electoral system preferences using two pre-registered survey experiments in the Netherlands, where a recent public debate on electoral reform means that respondents are more likely to hold informed opinions on the form the electoral system should take.