Blog 7

Blog 7: Duverger’s Law

            Romania uses proportional representation system in order to determine the number of seats that are allocated to each party. Duverger’s law states that proportional representation, Romania uses a variation of this form, makes it easier for more than two political parties to be represented in government. It also states that the parties are not only represented but also influential and effective. When observing the percentages of seats allocated to parties in Romania through a form of proportional representation, four different parties received a decent amount of seats. This proves that Duverger’s law is correct in its assumption that proportional representation provides better representation for smaller, less significant parties.

            The electoral system of Romania directly elects its representatives and distributes the number of seats in direct relation to the number of votes each party receives. The district magnitude for Romania is one, because there are 137 single-member constituencies. (IPU) The threshold to win parliamentary representation is 160,000 votes. (IPU) Romania uses the D’Hondt formula in order to decide how to allocate seats to the different parties. (Electionworld) This formula allocates seats using proportional representation based upon the number of votes each party received. Members of Parliament are elected through closed party list proportional representation. This means that the people of Romania cannot vote specifically for a candidate that they prefer, but rather for the party’s list as a whole. Parties endorse the candidates that they like, and it is the people’s choice to vote for their preferred party. Although the citizens of Romania are not able to vote for a specific candidate, if their party receives enough votes, they will gain representation in Parliament even if their party is not one of the two dominant parties.

Duverger’s Law claims that proportional representation leads to an increase in the number of parties present in government. While there are two leading political parties in Romania, there are multiple smaller parties who carry a significant number of votes and thus are given an influential number of seats in Parliament. In the European Parliament election in 2009 in Romania, there were a total of thirty-three seats available. Those seats were divided up between the top five parties with the largest number of votes. The Social Democratic Party + Conservative Party Alliance received 31% of the votes and was allocated 11 out of the 33 available seats. The Democratic Liberal Party received 29% of the votes of the people and was given 10 seats in Parliament. The National Liberal Party received 14% of the vote and 5 seats. The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania only received 9% of the votes but they were allocated 3 seats according to proportional representation. And lastly, the Greater Romanian Party achieved 8% and was also given 3 seats in Parliament. (Electionworld) Therefore, Duverger’s law is correct in stating that proportional representation allows for smaller political parties have a good chance of being represented in the Romanian Parliament.

In the case of the electoral system of Romania, Duverger’s law is proven to be correct. The Romanian people voted for two main parties, but the smaller parties that received a significant percentage of the votes were not eliminated. Proportional representation gave twelve out of the thirty-three seats available in Parliament to the small parties. This accurately represents the opinions of the citizens of Romania, because the majority of them agree with the views of the two larger parties but those who support the lesser-known parties still receive representation in the legislature.

Bibliography

Hawkins, Kirk. “Electoral Systems.” Lecture. October 31, 2012

Wikipedia. “Elections in Romania.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Romania

Inter-Parliamentary Union. “Romania.” http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2262_B.htm