Electoral System

An electoral system is the use of particular voting systems to place some group of people in charge of administration of a legal system under pre-existing legal codes, which typically require special measures, e.g. constitutional change, to modify. Study of comparative political and electoral systems, and ethics in public life, is called civics.

An electoral system allows for varying degrees of power for political party mechanisms, which may or may not be formally recognized, but usually organize the recruiting and coaching of candidates, and provide much of the platform they promise to implement legislatively. Electoral reform is often motivated by dissatisfaction with the role of parties and perceptions of fairness in how groups of people with different political views are treated.

The most widespread electoral systems are:

one-party state in which only members of a specific party can hold office, and only members of that party are empowered to vote on any measure (often indistinguishable from a dictatorship with no electoral system).
presidential state in which the head of state is typically an elected executive, and has some degree of veto power over lower legislatures.
parliamentary democracy in which a single legislature exercises power, and selects a prime minister to perform executive functions. This is almost always the party leader of the party with the most seats. The head of state in such a system is typically not elected at the same time, or at all, e.g. in a constitutional monarchy where that head of state is a monarch or appointed representative.

See also: voting system, civics, electoral reform

Commercial Usage: Electoral System

Domain	Title
Books	The Electoral System of the United States: Its History Together With a Study of the Perils That Have Attended Its Operations an Analysis of the Sever (reference) From Votes to Seats: The Operation of the Uk Electoral System Since 1945 (reference) Capable Citizens and Improvident Democrats: The Scottish Electoral System, 1884-1929 (reference) Proportional Representation: Critics of British Electoral System 1820-1945 (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Non-Fiction Usage: Electoral System

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Uruguay	The 1999 national elections were held under a new electoral system established by a 1996 constitutional amendment. (references)
	Uruguay	Other important reforms were aimed at improving the electoral system, social security, education, and public safety. (references)
	The Netherlands	Campaigns usually last 6 weeks, and the election budgets of each party tend to be less than $500,000. The electoral system makes a coalition government almost inevitable. (references)
Human Rights	Zambia	Some domestic human rights organizations, including the Law Association of Zambia, Women for Change, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, and the Zambia Civic Education Association continued to press for a transparent democratic electoral system. (references)
Political Economy	Ireland	The Irish electoral system employs a "single transferable vote" system, which provides proportional representation from multi-candidate constituencies. (references)
	Burundi	Several of the parties signed with reservations parts of the agreement, including the key issues of leadership of the transitional government, integration of the army, and the electoral system. (references)
Political Rights	Jordan	The electoral system gives greater representation to areas that have a majority of inhabitants of non-Palestinian origin. (references)
	Senegal	The ONEL significantly improved the level of transparency of the April National Assembly elections, the 1998 National Assembly elections, and the 2000 presidential election, despite persistent flaws in the electoral system. (references)
	Sierra Leone	In December Parliament voted 52-8 to pass amendments to the Constitution allowing for this modification to the electoral system; the amendments also extend President Kabbah's term of office through the end of July 2002. The percentage of women in government and politics does not correspond to their percentage of the population. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Electoral System

Modern Translations: Electoral System

Language		Translations for "electoral system"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Dutch		kiesstelsel. (various references)

Finnish		vaalijärjestelmä. (various references)

French		régime électoral. (various references)

German		Wahlsystem. (various references)

Italian		sistema elettorale. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		選挙制度 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		せ�"きょせいど. (various references)

Pig Latin		electoralay ystemsay.(various references)

Portuguese		sistema eleitoral (electoral vote), distrito eleitoral (constituency). (various references)

Russian		избирательная система. (various references)

Spanish		sistema electoral. (various references)

Swedish		valsystem. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Anagrams: Electoral System

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-e-l-l-m-o-r-s-s-t-t-y"
	-3 letters: electrolyses, electrolytes.
	-4 letters: cellarettes, corselettes, electorates, electroless, electrolyte, telecasters.
	-5 letters: astrocytes, carelessly, cellarette, corselette, cotterless, elastomers, electorate, latecomers, octameters, relocatees, salometers, steamrolls, streamlets, tactlessly, telecaster, tessellate.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.