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Electoral systems re/construction in the process of post-communist democratic transition

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2011

Abstract

This study presents an analytical framework for the analysis of a special case of electoral system choice - the III. wave. The paper presents contextual factors of the process of democratic transition and introduces a number of variables influencing the whole process of bargaining for electoral systems for founding elections.

Among the most important contextual factors are non-democratic (communist) election experience or roundtable talks. The main variables are: rational actors, situation of (extreme) uncertainty and lack of shared information or the position of relevant actors in the democratic transition.

These variables show that the rational strategy of relevant actors in context of (extreme) uncertainty is to follow the maximin stategy, that means to opt for the electoral system of proportional representation. In view of the arguments used in the bargaining in CE, it is surprising that there were no proposal for the STV system, which could be acceptable, as well as favourable for all the actors.