Contextual Determinants of Electoral System Choice - Ã bo Akademi

epresented the “wave of the democratic future” (Lijphart 1991a: 75). Similarly,the evolution of electoral systems in Western Europe may be seen as a product ofdiffusion. Prior to the electoral reform in Belgium 1899, all Western Europeancountries applied plurality or majority systems. By the mid-1920s, all countriesexcept for Britain and France had introduced proportional systems. In addition, theadoption of PR in those countries that initially applied plurality systems was, witha few exceptions, preceded by an intermediate phase of majority elections. Thereare certainly other explanations for the introduction of PR in Europe but a tendencyof imitation was surely present as well. When some countries switched to PR,others tended to follow. In an article that examines the effects of electoral systemson party systems in a post-Communist context, Robert G. Moser (1999: 365)points out that mixed systems are frequently used in this part of the world, and heregards Germany as the primary source of influence.External imposition of electoral systems by foreign powers occurred in somecountries after World War II. The attempt of securing a peaceful and stabledemocratic future for West Germany by imposing a mixed electoral system, whichcombines constituency representativeness with proportional representation, isprobably the foremost example of electoral system design resulting from externalimposition. It was designed by the allied powers to avoid the apparent mistakes ofthe Weimar period. According to Reilly and Reynolds, external imposition alsooccurred in Austria, Japan and South Korea (1999: 9). The introduction of list PRin Namibia in the late 1980s is likewise regarded a case of external imposition. Therationale for a nationwide list system, as a means of trying to calm warringfactions, came initially from the United Nations, and South Africa played later on agreat role in designing Namibia’s electoral system (1999: 26).Notwithstanding, this kind of electoral system choice remains quite rare. It occursonly in extraordinary circumstances when the previous system has caused seriousdamages inside as well as outside the country borders. On the one hand, externalimposition of electoral systems is a process of diffusion. A model of electoralarrangements is transferred from one part (or several parts) to another. On the otherhand, the transferred system must not necessarily exist in another country, which isone of three criteria of regional diffusion stipulated in section 3.3.2.2. The Germansystem, for instance, did not exist elsewhere when it was externally imposed in1949. It was deliberately designed by foreign powers with particular goals in mind.109