Contextual Determinants of Electoral System Choice - Ã bo Akademi

Greece – List PR 1958After having applied a mixed system in the 1956 elections, Greece reintroduced list PR for the1958 elections (Flora, Kraus and Rothenbacher 2000: 467). With the exception of the periodbetween 1967 and 1974, Greece has been a democracy during the postwar era.Nepal – SMP 1958The People’s Representation Act of 1958 provided for direct national elections under SMP. Thefirst direct Nepalese elections were held the following year (Krämer 2001: 624). Nepal was notdemocratic when SMP was adopted.Iceland – List PR 1959Iceland replaced the mixed system with list PR in 1959 (Flora, Kraus and Rothenbacher 2000:527). The country scores 29.49 between 1956 and 1958 in the Polyarchy dataset, and has beenregarded a democracy during the postwar era.Tunisia – BV 1959The first Electoral Law of independent Tunisia was enacted in 1959, providing for directparliamentary elections under BV (Pereira 1999: 913). Tunisia scores 0.05 in the Polyarchydataset from 1956 to 1963, and has never been democratic.Niger – BV 1960The 1959 Constitution provided for adult, universal and direct suffrage. The first parliamentaryelections in independent Niger were held in 1965 under BV (Basedau 1999b: 677-682). Nigerscores 0 in the Polyarchy dataset until 1993.Benin – BV 1960Benin held multi-party elections in 1959 and 1960 (Hartmann 1999a: 79-95). As a consequenceof the 1960 elections, Benin scores 10.11 between 1960 and 1963 in the Polyarchy dataset.However, the electoral system was introduced before the 1959 elections and, consequently, thisdecision was not made under democratic circumstances.Cameroon – BV 1960The first parliamentary elections in independent Cameroon were held in 1964 under BV (Mehler1999a: 167-173). Elections were also held in 1956 and 1960 in the French mandate and in 1959and 1961 in the British mandate. Cameroon scores 21.63 in the Polyarchy dataset from 1960-1963. However, the electoral system was introduced before the 1960 elections were held.Accordingly, Cameroon was not a democracy when BV was adopted.Central African Republic – BV 1960The first parliamentary elections in the Central African Republic were held in 1957 and thesecond elections were held in 1959, one year before independence was declared. BV was used inboth elections (Mehler 1999b: 207-208). The country scores 0 in the Polyarchy dataset between1960 and 1963. Consequently, the Central African Republic was not a democracy when BV wasintroduced.239