Let’s take a trip to the Caribbean to a place called Jamaica, a small island that happens to be also one of the most popular vacation spots in the world.  Jamaica is actually  a commonwealth but it doesn’t stop it from being such a popular place for people to visit. Now what makes this country interesting is how it handles its electoral system and how it also holds up to Duverger’s law.

                Jamaica may have once been ruled by the Spaniards, but their political structure reflects upon their later English rule, before they declared independence from England. Their legislature branch is bicameral but we are going to focus more on the lower house they call the House of Representatives.  Jamaica has a total of 63 seats that are appointed by direct simple majority vote¹ (according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union) . Now for a candidate to be considered they must be at 21 years old, must have citizenship and/ or residency within the country for at least a year before the nomination, and not have any undischarged bankrupts. It seems astounding to have representatives that could be barely out of teams making decisions in legislation in a more direct capacity. It is respectable though how they handle their voting system with the people’s vote making the most difference in appointing their representatives.

                In their elections last year, there were a total of 869,438 votes which is about half the population participating in elections despite them being open and non-compulsory.  The votes were mainly divided between the People’s National Party with 463,232 votes and the Jamaica  Labour party  at 405,234.(The Jamaican Gleaner, 2011) The other parties were left far behind in the dust with about 400 or less votes. Now to determine the effective number of parties we use a formula we learned in class, Neff= 1/∑(p²).  The results come up to two effective parties that are represented in the government. The two major parties got all the chairs with the People’s National Party getting 42 of the seats whereas the Jamaica Labour Party getting only 21 seats in the House of Representatives.  This landslide victory for the People’s National Party led to a shift in political power for their party and was actually one of their least violent elections that have happened in awhile³ (BBC NEWs).

                Looking at this through the eyes of Duverger’s law we find that it supports his claims that multipartism usually only supports a two party system. Jamaica, our island home, for steel drums and clear waters has a foundation built on the direct representation of the people’s wishes, which has served it well and led to such an astounding system that is for the people and by the people. In conclusion,  political systems tend to favor only two parties like yin and yang. You will never find one without the other, always cycling between the two.

WORKS CITED:

1-      Inter-Parliamentary Union, Jamaica- House of Representatives data,

2-      The Jamaican Gleaner, Results of 2011 Elections, Dec 29 2011

3-      BBC News, “Jamaica’s People National Party secures big poll win”, Dec 30 2011