Contextual Determinants of Electoral System Choice - Ã bo Akademi

well be independent of foreign influences. Therefore, only first choices of electoralsystems are regarded.As to the classification of electoral systems, a distinction between plurality,majority, proportional and mixed systems is obviously too broad in this respect. Ifthe colonial power applies AV and its former colony adopts TBM, the choicecannot be regarded a colonial legacy. Similarly, list PR and STV are notconsidered as equivalent systems despite the fact that they both are proportionalsystems. Former British colonies are expected to apply SMP. Plurality elections inmulti-member districts (BV) are usually regarded as a British colonial legacy aswell. I follow the same practice. Concerning former French colonies, differentpatterns are expected, depending on when the colony received independence.France used three different electoral systems during the decolonization era: list PRuntil 1946, mixed-coexistence in the 1951 and 1956 parliamentary elections, andTBM as of 1958. Electoral reforms were implemented in May 1951 and October1958. In addition, BV is regarded as a colonial legacy, because the Frenchintroduced plurality elections with party lists in several territories beforeindependence was granted (Diamond and Lipset 1995: 266). It might appearcontroversial to regard both SMP and BV in former British colonies as a legacy ofBritish colonization, but only the block vote version of plurality systems as aFrench colonial legacy. However, the crucial point is that France has never usedthe pure SMP formula, which implies that SMP cannot be considered a legacy ofFrench colonial rule. The same logic applies to former colonies that use a mixtureof single- and multi-member districts: the SMP-BV formula may be inherited fromthe United Kingdom but not from France.Portugal used nationwide list PR for the first time in April 1975 (Flora et al 2000:783-784). The Portuguese colonies in Africa received independence the same year,except for Guinea-Bissau which declared independence in 1973, and wasrecognized by Portugal the following year. However, no former Portuguese colonyin Africa enacted any electoral law before the adoption of PR in Portugal (Nohlenet al 1999). The occurrence of list PR is consequently regarded as a colonial legacyfrom Portugal. The only country that has been a Spanish colony during the postwarperiod, Equatorial Guinea, became independent in 1968. No electoral law existedin Spain between 1936 and 1977, which implies that Equatorial Guinea could nothave inherited its electoral system from Spain.128