Contextual Determinants of Electoral System Choice - Ã bo Akademi

6.3.2 Temporal Diffusion – Democratic CountriesIn this section, the same procedure as above is carried out with choices made underdemocratic circumstances. There are 36 first choices and 27 cases of electoralsystem change. First choices of electoral systems among democracies areillustrated in figure 6.3. Three distinct epochs appear. The first one ranges from1958 to 1970, when ten democracies chose electoral systems for the first time asindependent countries. During the second period, 1974-1983, 15 new cases areobserved. Between 1984 and 1990, no first choices of electoral systems indemocracies took place. A third, short period is observed from 1991 to 1994, wheneight systems were chosen. It may also be pointed out that only the Philippines,Israel and Sri Lanka chose electoral systems for the first time before 1958.43210First electoral system choice in democracies 1945-2003Figure 6.3. Frequencies of first electoral system choice in democracies 1945-2003.Electoral system change among democracies is presented in figure 6.4. OnlyFrance had implemented a major electoral reform before 1951. A period ofelectoral system change took place between 1951 and 1961, ten such cases beingobserved. Seven of these electoral reforms occurred in France, Italy and Greece.Iceland and Turkey introduced PR reforms, whereas Lebanon replaced TBM withBV. Thereafter, a 17 year-period of no major reforms in democracies followed. SriLanka and Cyprus replaced plurality systems with list PR in 1978 and 1981respectively. At the second half of the 1980s, France started a period of electoralsystem reforms. Between 1991 and 2002, eleven democratic countries changed184