Contextual Determinants of Electoral System Choice - Ã bo Akademi

preceded by military rule or other kinds of dictatorship without elections are alsoincluded, provided that elections have previously been held and the formerelectoral system is majoritarian. A prerequisite is, however, that the former rulingorganization is still present at the political arena when the party system istransformed. Some former Soviet states are also included, although thetransformation of the party system took place shortly before independence wasproclaimed. The introduction of multi-party systems in these countries was,notwithstanding, part of the independence process, and they are, furthermore,important cases of bargaining between the old elite and the new contestants. Theprerequisite of former elections under the majoritarian rule is fulfilled, becausepre-independence elections were held in all these countries. Systems characterizedby some degree of competition between factions within the sole party are regardedas one-party systems.The introduction of multi-party politics is assumed to influence the choice ofelectoral system. In some cases, however, the distance between the independentand the dependent variable may be diminutive, since both the transformation andthe electoral reform are regarded as part of the democratization process. Bothreforms may actually be introduced simultaneously as part of a new constitution.Notwithstanding, I argue that the choice of electoral system is a consequence of thefundamental changes in the party system structure. The electoral system is a meansof dealing with a new environment consisting of several political parties. From ademocratic point of view, the introduction of competitive elections takesprecedence over the choice of electoral provisions – the former is more importantthan the latter. In addition, from a logical point of view, the regime hardly decideson the adoption of a proportional system before it decides to lift the ban onpolitical parties. Even if that were the case, the decision on the electoral systemwould still be taken with the forthcoming, often unavoidable, situation of severalcompetitors in mind.Party system transformation is closely related to the variable that measures thelevel of party system fragmentation. A crucial difference is that party systemfragmentation is concerned with countries that have previously held competitive orat least semi-competitive elections, whereas the transformation variable paysattention to countries that introduce multi-party politics. In addition, party systemtransformation is, as mentioned earlier, particularly concerned with the126