Electoral Systems and Party Responsiveness

Abstract

Do political parties respond to shifts in the preferences of their supporters or to shifts in the mean voter position? Also, do electoral systems mediate these crucial citizen-party linkages? The central finding of this chapter is that electoral systems do condition these effects. Parties in proportional systems are systematically responsive to the mean voter position while parties in disproportional systems do not display the same tendency. Additionally, neither system induces parties to systematically respond to their supporters.