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94-506: Reforms can include changes to: Electoral reforms can contribute to democratic backsliding or may be advances toward wider and deeper democracy. In less democratic countries, elections are often demanded by dissidents; therefore the most basic electoral-reform project in such countries is to achieve a transfer of power to a democratically elected government with a minimum of bloodshed, e.g. in South Africa in 1994. This case highlights

188-532: A 2018 journal article on democratic backsliding, scholars Licia Cianetti, James Dawson, and Seán Hanley argued that the emergence of populist movements in Central and Eastern Europe , such as Andrej Babiš 's ANO in the Czech Republic , are "a potentially ambiguous phenomenon, articulating genuine societal demands for political reform and pushing issues of good governance centre stage, but further loosening

282-544: A change from the plurality system currently in force. (In the past and as recently as the 1990s, all provinces and even the federal government have reformed their electoral systems but so far none of those changes have followed a referendum, with the sole exception being extension of the franchise to (some) women in British Columbia in 1916 ). Reforms of the past without referendums initiated the partial use of proportional representation (single transferable voting) in

376-477: A change of voting system would no longer be in her mandate, citing a lack of broad consensus among Canadians on what voting system would be best. The Province of Ontario permitted the use of instant runoff voting, often called the "ranked ballot", for municipal elections. IRV is not a proportional voting system and is opposed by both Election Districts Voting and Fair Vote Canada for provincial or federal elections. The electoral threshold for multi-party coalitions

470-837: A district in which the targeted minority group, such as blacks, is in the majority and thus elects a representative of that group. The lack of ability to respect "natural" boundaries (those between municipal or community or infrastructure or natural areas) appears in some criticisms of particular reforms, such as the alternative vote plus system proposed for the United Kingdom by the Jenkins Commission , because of its use of artificial single-member districts. The use of districts of different district magnitudes , with varying numbers of seats in each district perhaps ranging from one to ten or more, allows representation of electoral districts to be changed to be broadly proportional to

564-445: A fairly wealthy state, would become a permanent fixture." This older view came to be realized as erroneous beginning in the mid-2000s, as multiple scholars acknowledged that some seemingly-stable democracies have recently faced a decline in the quality of their democracy. Huq and Ginsburg identified in an academic paper "37 instances in 25 different countries in the postwar period in which democratic quality declined significantly (though

658-479: A fully authoritarian regime didn't emerge)", including countries that were "seemingly stable, reasonably wealthy" democracies. The V-Dem Democracy Report identified for the year 2023 23 cases of stand-alone autocratization and 19 cases of bell-turn autocratization. The 2020 report of the Varieties of Democracy Institute found that the global share of democracies declined from 54% in 2009 to 49% in 2019, and that

752-503: A greater share of the global population lived in autocratizing countries (6% in 2009, 34% in 2019). The 10 countries with the highest degree of democratizing from 2009 to 2019 were Tunisia , Armenia , The Gambia , Sri Lanka , Madagascar , Myanmar , Fiji , Kyrgyzstan , Ecuador , and Niger ; the 10 countries with the highest degree of autocratizing from 2009 to 2019 were Hungary , Turkey , Poland , Serbia , Brazil, Bangladesh , Mali , Thailand , Nicaragua , and Zambia . However,

846-439: A large non-party organization advocating electoral reform nationally is Fair Vote Canada but there are other advocacy groups. One such group is The Equal Vote Coalition who has organized a multi-year research campaign involving many of the world experts on electoral reform. Several referendums to decide whether or not to adopt such reform have been held at the provincial level in the last two decades; none has thus far resulted in

940-498: A majority of voters voted for change. In 2005, a majority of votes cast in an electoral reform referendum held in British Columbia were cast in favour of change to STV. In the November 7, 2016, electoral reform plebiscite on Prince Edward Island, the government declined to specify in advance how it would use the results. Mixed member proportional Representation won the five-option instant-runoff voting contest, taking 52 percent of

1034-442: A meaningful way. They conclude that populist governments are four times more likely to cause harm to democratic institutions than non-populist governments. Also, more than half of populist leaders have amended or rewritten the countries' constitution, frequently in a way that eroded checks and balances on executive power. Lastly, populists attack individual rights such as freedom of the press, civil liberties, and political rights. In

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1128-504: A nationwide, multi-partisan support base, with members from all points on the political spectrum, regions and walks of life. Its work is endorsed by its National Advisory Board, which includes prominent Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats, and Greens. It supports political parties and politicians that share its aspirations for electoral reform. Fair Vote Canada maintains a Review of Evidence based on comparative research about countries with different types of electoral systems and tracks

1222-455: A pluralist voting system in such a political settlement, and so neither supported it, and electoral reform ceased to be a political issue for several decades. Democratic backsliding Democratic backsliding is a process of regime change toward autocracy in which the exercise of political power becomes more arbitrary and repressive . The process typically restricts the space for public contest and political participation in

1316-588: A score of 5 or less on the Gallagher Index . The Liberal members of the special all-committee on electoral reform urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to break his promise to change Canada's voting system before the next federal election in 2019. That call for inaction came as opposition members of the committee pressured Trudeau to keep the commitment. In its final report, Strengthening Democracy in Canada ,

1410-502: Is now prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is believed to prefer a winner-take-all, preferential voting system known as Instant Runoff Voting ; however, there are many prominent members of his caucus and cabinet who openly support proportional representation (Stephane Dion, Dominic Leblanc, Chrystia Freeland, and others). In 2012, Dion authored an editorial for the National Post advocating his variation of proportional representation by

1504-413: Is often led by democratically elected leaders, who use "incremental rather than revolutionary" tactics. As emphasized by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt , it is difficult to pinpoint a single specific moment at which a government is no longer democratic, given that this process of decline manifests "slowly, in barely visible steps". Ozan Varol uses the phrase stealth authoritarianism to describe

1598-1151: Is significantly higher in countries that eventually move towards a more authoritarian model. Hungary is an example of a country where a large group of unemployed, low-educated people were dissatisfied with the high levels of inequality, especially after the financial crisis of 2007–2008 . Viktor Orbán used this dissatisfaction of a relatively large segment of the population to his advantage, winning popular support by using national-populist rhetoric. Recent research on Latin America shows that institutional reforms, often introduced during crises, sometimes worsen democratic backsliding. Reforms intended to strengthen presidential powers or address public discontent can fragment political landscapes, leaving democracies vulnerable to instability and populist pressures. A 2019 study found that personalism had an adverse impact on democracy in Latin America: "presidents who dominate their own weakly organized parties are more likely to seek to concentrate power, undermine horizontal accountability, and trample

1692-590: Is that a referendum is unnecessary as they clearly campaigned on making "2015 Canada's last First Past the Post election." The Green Party of Canada has always been supportive of proportional representation. At the party's Special General Meeting in Calgary on December 5, 2016, Green Party members passed a resolution endorsing Mixed Member Proportional Representation as its preferred model, while maintaining an openness to any proportional voting system producing an outcome with

1786-649: The 2015 federal election all three opposition parties promised some measure of electoral reform before the next federal election . The NDP promised to implement mixed-member proportional representation with regional and open party lists, based on the 2004 recommendations of the Law Commission, and the Liberals simply promised to form an all-party committee to investigate various electoral reform options "including proportional representation, ranked ballots, mandatory voting and online voting." The Liberal leader, who

1880-557: The Italian electoral law of 2015 , the Italian electoral law of 2005 and the Italian electoral law of 1993 . Lesotho reformed in 2002 to a mixed-member proportional representation, where parties could choose to not run for either constituency seats or party-list seats. This prevented the compensatory mechanism and effectively resulted in parallel voting. Further reform in 2012 introduced mixed single-voting, forcing parties to run for both constituency seats or party-list seats and improving

1974-673: The V-Dem Democracy indices by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg , which contains more than eighteen-million data points relevant to democracy, measuring 350 highly specific indicators across 174 countries as of the end of 2016, found that the number of democracies in the world modestly declined from 100 in 2011 to 97 in 2017; some countries moved toward democracy, while other countries moved away from democracy. V-Dem's 2019 Annual Democracy Report found that

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2068-512: The block vote . The election silence period, where opinion polls are banned before elections, was extended in Slovakia in 2019 from 14 to 50 days, one of the longest blackout periods in the world. The Slovak courts considered this change unconstitutional. In 2022, this blackout period was reduced to 48 hours. South Korea reformed in 2019 from parallel voting to mixed-member proportional representation. The formation of satellite parties reduced

2162-458: The majority bonus system was replaced with proportional representation , applying only after next election. In 2020, proportional representation was replaced with the majority bonus system, applying only after next election. In 2012, a mixed-member majoritarian voting system with a combination of parallel and positive vote transfer was introduced. Electoral bonds allowing anonymous contributions to political parties were introduced in 2017, and

2256-424: The proportional representation mechanism. The United Kingdom has generally used first-past-the-post (FPTP) for many years, but historically many constituencies elected two MPs, and other systems were used to elect a few of its parliament's members. Its last multi-member district at the national level was disbanded in 1948. Most members in the multi-member district were elected through block voting . Limited voting

2350-400: The subversion of free and fair elections by, for example, blocking media access, disqualifying opposition candidates and voter suppression . This form of backsliding typically takes place before Election Day and now tends to be done in a slower and more incremental way that the changes may even seem not urgent to counter, making it tougher for watchdogs like the media to find and broadcast

2444-585: The Canadian provinces and was one of the prime drivers of citizens' engagement federally as part of the public consultation process in 2016. The organization is guided by a statement of purpose identifying five goals: Fair Vote Canada was created in June 2001, following a founding conference in Ottawa. It is a membership organization headed by a national council of 15 members and has chapters and action teams across

2538-542: The Cold War. Political scientist Nancy Bermeo says that "The share of successful coups that falls into the promissory category has risen significantly, from 35 percent before 1990 to 85 percent afterward." Examining 12 promissory coups in democratic states between 1990 and 2012, Bermeo found that "Few promissory coups were followed quickly by competitive elections, and fewer still paved the way for improved democracies." In political science, executive aggrandizement refers to

2632-655: The Commons insisted on AV. In a compromise, AV was abandoned and the Boundary Commission were asked to prepare a limited plan of STV to apply to 100 seats. This plan was then rejected by the Commons, although STV was introduced for the university constituencies and used until 1948 in some cases. On 8 April 1921, a private member's bill to introduce STV was rejected 211 votes to 112 by the Commons. A Liberal attempt to introduce an Alternative Vote Bill in March 1923

2726-760: The Commons. A very limited use of single transferable voting (STV) came in the Government of Ireland Act 1914 . A Speaker's Conference on electoral reform in January 1917 unanimously recommended a mix of AV and STV for elections to the House of Commons. However, that July the Commons rejected STV by 32 votes in the committee stage of the Representation of the People Bill , and by 1 vote substituted alternative vote (AV). The House of Lords then voted for STV, but

2820-510: The Congo, and Rwanda. Boundaries between electoral constituencies (or "ridings" or "districts") should be redrawn at regular intervals, or by statutory rules and definitions, to eliminate malapportionment due to population movements. Some electoral reforms seek to fix these boundaries according to pre-existing jurisdictions or cultural or ecological criteria. Bioregional democracy sets boundaries to fit exactly with ecoregions to seek to improve

2914-517: The EU's system of party politics, a reluctance to interfere in domestic political matters; appropriation of EU funds by backsliding regimes; and free movement for dissatisfied citizens, which allows citizens to leave backsliding regimes and deplete the opposition while strengthening the regimes. According to a 2020 poll by Dalia Research, only 38 percent of Polish citizens and 36 percent of Hungarian citizens believed that their countries were democratic, while

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3008-608: The European Parliament. A minimum electoral threshold is considered unconstitutional by German courts and was not applied in Germany. Transnational party-lists have been proposed for the European parliament elections. Changes to the constitution of Georgia in 2017 reformed the presidential election to an indirect election through an electoral college starting with the 2024 Georgian presidential election . In 1953

3102-804: The Lords on 21 July, but the Labour government fell in August and the bill was lost. Following the wartime coalition government , a landslide victory for the Labour Party in 1945 began a period of two-party dominance in British electoral politics, in which the Conservatives and Labour exchanged power with almost total dominance over seats won and votes cast (See British General Elections since 1945 ). There existed no incentive for these parties to embrace

3196-630: The Standing Committee on Electoral Reform recommended the government design a new proportional system and hold a national referendum to gauge Canadians' support. Between December 2016 and January 2017, the Government of Canada undertook a survey of Canadian opinion regarding electoral reform, with some 360,000 responses received. On February 1, 2017, the Liberal Minister of Democratic Institutions, Karina Gould, announced that

3290-619: The United States, and former Soviet bloc nations such as Latvia . According to Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman , four characteristics have typically provided the conditions for democratic backsliding (alone or in combination): Political polarization , racism and nativism, economic inequality, and excessive executive power. Stephen Haggard and Robert Kaufman highlight three key causes of backsliding: "the pernicious effects of polarization; realignments of party systems that enable elected autocrats to gain legislative power; and

3384-445: The ability of the political opposition to challenge the government and hold it to account. The most important feature of executive aggrandizement is that the institutional changes are made through legal channels, making it seem as if the elected official has a democratic mandate. Some examples of executive aggrandizement are the decline of media freedom and the weakening of the rule of law (i.e., judicial and bureaucratic restraints on

3478-422: The behavior of leaders, Samuel P. Huntington also describes culture as a main contributor to democratic backsliding, and goes on to argue that certain cultures are particularly hostile to democracy, but they do not necessarily prohibit democratization. Fabio Wolkenstein also cautions that some measures taken to weaken democracy can shift or concentrate power in longer-lasting ways that may not be easily reversed in

3572-472: The breakdown of the democratic regime (e.g., [Alberto] Fujimori in Peru). A 2018 analysis by political scientists Yascha Mounk and Jordan Kyle links populism to democratic backsliding, showing that since 1990, "13 right-wing populist governments have been elected; of these, five brought about significant democratic backsliding. Over the same time period, 15 left-wing populist governments were elected; of these,

3666-485: The compensation mechanism was adjusted to reduce the negative vote weight in compensating between federal states. In 2023, the German Parliament adopted a federal electoral law reform which replaced the flexible number of seats with a fixed size of 630 seats and removed the provision which allowed parties which won at least 3 single-member seats to be exempt from the 5 percent electoral threshold. In 2016,

3760-483: The complexity of such reform: such projects tend to require changes to national or other constitutions, and to alter balances of power. Electoral reforms are often politically painful and authorities may try to postpone them as long as possible, but at risk of rising unrest with potential of rebellion, political violence and/or civil war. The United Nations Fair Elections Commission provides international observers to national elections that are likely to face challenges by

3854-442: The country. Over the years, it has: Additionally, it has submitted briefs to numerous electoral reform committees and commissions. In British Columbia and Quebec, there exist parallel organizations, Fair Voting BC and Mouvement Démocratie Nouvelle respectively, which are independent of Fair Vote Canada but share similar goals. Fair Vote Canada collaborates closely with these organizations. Fair Vote Canada strives to maintain

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3948-464: The cumulative threat of all the mostly small, but significant misconducts. While the accumulation of power is more likely to start with this slower linear progression, it can accelerate once voter power seems too divided or weakened to repair all the damage done to institutions. The V-Party Dataset demonstrates a greater statistical significance of autocratization for victorious parties with very high populism, high anti-pluralism, lack of commitment to

4042-660: The democracies they claim to cherish. Scholars present evidence that this behaviour is driven in part by the belief that their opponents will undermine democracy first. In experimental studies, they revealed to partisans that their opponents are more committed to democratic norms than they think. As a result, the partisans became more committed to upholding democratic norms themselves and less willing to vote for candidates who break these norms. These findings suggest that aspiring autocrats may instigate democratic backsliding by accusing their opponents of subverting democracy and that we can foster democratic stability by informing partisans about

4136-797: The democratic process, acceptance of political violence, far-right culturally or far-left economic characteristics. Pippa Norris of the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Sydney argues that the two "twin forces" pose the largest threat to Western liberal democracies : "sporadic and random terrorist attacks on domestic soil, which damage feelings of security, and the rise of populist -authoritarian forces, which feed parasitically upon these fears." Norris defines populism as "a governing style with three defining features": Some, but not all, populists are authoritarian, emphasizing "the importance of protecting traditional lifestyles against perceived threats from 'outsiders', even at

4230-536: The democratization of authoritarian regimes, it is prone to diminish the quality of liberal democracies. Populism supports popular sovereignty, but it is inclined to oppose any limitations on majority rule, such as judicial independence and minority rights. Populism-in-power has led to processes of de-democratization (e.g., [Viktor] Orbán in Hungary or [Hugo] Chávez in Venezuela) and, in some extreme cases, even to

4324-422: The effectiveness of this reform. Taiwan reformed 2008 from the single non-transferable vote to parallel voting. A constitutional referendum was held 2022 to reduce the voting age from 20 to 18. Thailand changed electoral systems in 2019, moving from parallel voting to a mixed-member proportional representation system with a mixed single vote. Further reform in 2021 restored the parallel voting system and removed

4418-432: The executive gain majority control of such bodies." Bermeo notes that these methods mean that the aggrandizement of the executive "can be framed as having resulted from a democratic mandate." Executive aggrandizement is characterized by the presence of distress in axes of democracy, including institutional or horizontal accountability; and executive or discursive accountability. This form of democratic backsliding entails

4512-504: The exercise of political power more arbitrary and repressive and that restricts the space for public contestation and political participation in the process of government selection". Fair Vote Canada Fair Vote Canada ( FVC ) ( French : Represéntation équitable au Canada ) is a grassroots, nonprofit , multi-partisan citizens' movement for electoral reform in Canada . Headquartered in Kitchener , Ontario, it promotes

4606-428: The expansion of the leader's power beyond the " checks and balances " provided by the legislature and the judiciary, or by interfering with the independence of the public service. Even a legitimately elected leader can undermine democracy or cause a democratic backlash by using government resources to weaken his political opposition. This process contains a series of institutional changes by elected executives, impairing

4700-451: The expense of civil liberties and minority rights ." According to Norris, the reinforcement of the insecurities from the "twin forces" has led to more support for populist-authoritarian leaders, and this latter risk was especially pronounced in the United States during the presidency of Donald Trump . For example, Norris argues that Trump benefited from the mistrust of " the establishment " and that he continuously sought to undermine faith in

4794-425: The fascist wave of the 1930s or the post-1945 communist wave. Second, the sudden rise of democratic hegemons led to waves of democratization , but these waves inevitably overextended and collapsed, leading to failed consolidation and rollback." Global variation in democracy is primarily explained by variance between popular adherence to authoritarian values vs. emancipative values, which explains around 70 percent of

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4888-409: The federal state electoral threshold was replaced with a national electoral threshold, reducing party fragmentation. In 1972 the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. In 1987, the seat allocation method was switched from the D'Hondt method to largest remainder method and was switched again in 2009, to Webster/Sainte-Laguë method , due to concerns of lower proportionality for small parties. The 2013

4982-509: The final vote versus 42 percent for first-past-the-post , but the PEI government did not commit to implementing a proportional voting system, citing the turnout of 36 percent as making it "doubtful whether these results can be said to constitute a clear expression of the will of Prince Edward Islanders". PEI regularly sees turnout above 80 percent in most elections. Seven provincial level referendums on electoral reform have been held to date: During

5076-713: The government), such as when judicial autonomy is threatened. Over time, there has been a decline in active coups (in which a power-seeking individual, or small group, seizes power through forcibly, violently removing an existing government) and self-coups (involving "a freely elected chief executive suspending the constitution outright in order to amass power in one swift sweep") and an increase in executive aggrandizement . Political scientist Nancy Bermeo notes that executive aggrandizement occurs over time, through institutional changes legitimized through legal means, such as new constituent assemblies , referendums , or "existing courts or legislatures ... in cases where supporters of

5170-599: The incremental nature of derogations, which divides oppositions and keeps them off balance." A 2022 study linked polarization to support for undemocratic politicians. A 2011 study examined the effects of judicial independence in preventing democratic backsliding. The study, which analyzed 163 nations from 1960 to 2000, concluded that established independent judiciaries are successful at preventing democracies from drifting to authoritarianism, but that states with newly formed courts "are positively associated with regime collapses in both democracies and nondemocracies". A study by

5264-484: The institute found that signs of hope in an "unprecedented degree of mobilization for democracy" as reflected in increases in pro-democracy mass mobilization; the proportion of countries with "substantial pro-democracy mass protests" increased to 44% in 2019 (from 27% in 2009). According to a 2020 study, "Democratic backsliding does not necessarily see all democratic institutions erode in parallel fashion... we establish that elections are improving and rights are retracting in

5358-959: The international community of nations, e.g., in 2001 in Yugoslavia, in 2002 in Zimbabwe. The United Nations standards address safety of citizens, coercion, scrutiny, and eligibility to vote. They do not impose ballot styles, party diversity, or borders on electoral constituencies. Various global political movements, e.g., labour movements , the Green party , Islamism , Zionism , advocate various cultural, social, ecological means of setting borders that they consider "objective" or "blessed" in some other way. Contention over electoral constituency borders within or between nations and definitions of "refugee", "citizen", and "right of return" mark various global conflicts, including those in Israel/Palestine,

5452-400: The introduction of an element of proportional representation for elections at all levels of government and throughout civil society, instead of the first-past-the-post electoral system currently used at all levels of government in Canada. Its aim is "to gain broad, multi-partisan support for an independent, citizen-driven process to allow Canadians to choose a fair voting system based on

5546-498: The late twentieth century, many new, weakly institutionalized democracies were established; these regimes have been most vulnerable to democratic backsliding. The third wave of autocratization has been ongoing since 2010, when the number of liberal democracies was at an all-time high. Democratic backsliding occurs when essential components of democracy are threatened. Examples of democratic backsliding include: Democratic backsliding can occur in several common ways. Backsliding

5640-483: The legitimacy of the media and the independence of the courts . In 2017, Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser wrote: Populism does not have the same effect in each stage of the democratization process. In fact, we suggest that populism tends to play a positive role in the promotion of electoral or minimal democracy, but a negative role when it comes to fostering the development of a full-fledged liberal democratic regime. Consequently, while populism tends to favor

5734-531: The limit on financial contributions by companies was removed. In 2020, the proportional representation with modified Sainte-Laguë method for seat allocation was reformed to single non-transferable vote . There is continuous talk in Israel about "governability" ("משילות" in Hebrew). The following reforms were carried in the last three decades: Italian electoral reforms include the Italian electoral law of 2017 ,

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5828-593: The lower house in two states. Several national and provincial organizations promote electoral reform, especially by advocating more party-proportional representation, as most regions of Canada have at least three competitive political parties (some four or five) and the traditional first-past-the-post election system operates best where just two parties are competing. Furthermore, Election Districts Voting advocates proportional representation electoral reforms that enable large majorities of voters to directly elect party candidates of choice, not just parties of choice. Also,

5922-523: The majority of countries were democracies, the number of liberal democracies declined to 39 by 2018 (down from 44 a decade earlier). The research group Freedom House , in reports in 2017 and 2019, identified democratic backsliding in a variety of regions across the world. Freedom House's 2019 Freedom in the World report, titled Democracy in Retreat , showed freedom of expression declining each year over

6016-521: The management of commonly-owned property and natural resources. Some electoral reforms seek to fix districts to avoid gerrymandering , in which constituency boundaries are set deliberately to favor one party over another. Electoral boundaries and their manipulation have been a major issue in the United States, in particular. Due to political or legal obstacles preventing deeper electoral reform, such as multiple-member districts or proportional representation, "affirmative gerrymandering" has been used to create

6110-399: The next election. In a promissory coup, an incumbent elected government is deposed in a coup d'état by coup leaders who claim to defend democracy and promise to hold elections to restore democracy. In these situations, coup-makers emphasize the temporary and necessary nature of their intervention to ensure democracy in the future. This is unlike the more open-ended coups that occurred during

6204-406: The number of voters while retaining pre-existing district boundaries, such as city corporate limits, counties or even small provinces. Also, multi-member districts are a component of many proportional representation systems. Where multi-member districts are used, the number of seats in a district may be altered to fulfill one of the purposes of changing electoral district boundaries: to ensure that

6298-436: The other side's commitment to democracy. The term "populism" has been criticized as a misleading term for phenomena such as nativism and intentional promotion of authoritarianism by political elites. Many political economy scholars, such as Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson , have investigated the effect of income inequality on the democratic breakdown. Studies of democratic collapse show that economic inequality

6392-460: The pandemic to "make massive shifts and reprogramming of our sensibilities about privacy and civil liberties that may not be reversible". Keilitz saw this as a threat to judicial independence. Great power transitions have contributed to democratic backsliding and the spread of authoritarianism in two ways: "First, the sudden rise of autocratic Great Powers led to waves of autocracy driven by conquest but also by self-interest and even admiration, as in

6486-488: The practice of an authoritarian leader (or a potential authoritarian leader) using "seemingly legitimate legal mechanisms for anti-democratic ends ... concealing anti-democratic practices under the mask of law." Together with Juan Linz (1996), Levitsky and Ziblatt developed and agreed upon their "litmus test", which includes what they believe to be the four key indicators of authoritarian behavior. These four factors are: rejection of (or weak commitment to) democratic rules of

6580-465: The preceding 13 years, with sharper drops since 2012. Scholarly work in the 2010s detailed democratic backsliding, in various forms and to various extents, in Hungary and Poland , the Czech Republic , Turkey , Brazil , Venezuela , and India . The scholarly recognition of the concept of democratic backsliding reflects a reversal from older views, which held "that democracy, once attained in

6674-407: The principles that all voters are equal, and that every vote must count." Fair Vote Canada does not advocate for any particular form of proportional representation but has been involved in the design and discussion of different models from a made-in-Canada perspective. It has worked to mobilize its supporters in support of proportional representation in the context of several initiatives coming out of

6768-730: The process of government selection. Democratic decline involves the weakening of democratic institutions, such as the peaceful transition of power or free and fair elections , or the violation of individual rights that underpin democracies, especially freedom of expression . Democratic backsliding is the opposite of democratization . Proposed causes of democratic backsliding include economic inequality , rampant culture wars , culturally conservative reactions to societal changes, populist or personalist politics, and external influence from great power politics . During crises, backsliding can occur when leaders impose autocratic rules during states of emergency that are either disproportionate to

6862-502: The proportionality. In 2019, the electoral law for Mongolian legislative elections was changed to plurality-at-large voting . The new electoral law barred people found guilty of "corrupt practices" from standing in elections, marginalized smaller parties, and effectively removed the right of Mongolian expatriates to vote, as they could not be registered in a specific constituency. Electoral reform in New Zealand began in 1986 with

6956-413: The provinces of Manitoba and Alberta. Controversially, the referendum threshold for adoption of a new voting system has regularly been set at a "supermajority": for example, 60 percent of ballots cast approving the proposed system in order for the change to be implemented. In most provincial referendums the change side was roundly defeated, gaining less than 40 percent support in most cases. But in two cases,

7050-484: The ratio between voters (or population) and the member is the same across districts. In 2020, a 1 percent electoral threshold was set and the election campaign financing law was reformed in Albania. The Proportional Representation Society of Australia advocates the single transferable vote and proportional representation . STV is currently used to elect the upper house at the national level and in four states, and

7144-541: The report of the Royal Commission on the Electoral System entitled Towards A Better Democracy . The Royal Commission recommended that Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) be adopted instead of the current first-past-the-post system. After two referendums in 1992 and 1993, New Zealand adopted MMP. In 2004, some local body elections in New Zealand were elected using single transferable vote instead of

7238-595: The rest said that they would like their countries to be more democratic. According to the Democracy Index , backsliding in Europe is most advanced in Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Democratic backsliding in the United States has been identified as a trend at the state and national levels in various indices and analyses. Democratic backsliding is "a process of regime change towards autocracy that makes

7332-459: The rising prosperity of other ethnic groups). Stern and Stenner say about a third of the population in Western countries is predisposed to favor homogeneity, obedience, and strong leaders over diversity and freedom. In their view, authoritarianism is only loosely correlated with conservatism, which may defend a liberal democracy as the status quo. Political scientist Christian Welzel argues that

7426-668: The rule of law than presidents who preside over parties that have an independent leadership and an institutionalized bureaucracy." Many national governments worldwide delayed, postponed or canceled a variety of democratic elections at both national and subnational governmental levels resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic opening gaps in the action of democracy. According to the V-Dem Institute, only 39% of all countries have committed no or only minor violations of democratic standards in response to COVID-19. According to Ingo Keilitz, both authoritarian leaders and surveillance capitalists used

7520-540: The same number, five, brought about significant democratic backsliding." A December 2018 report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change concluded that populist rule, whether left- or right-wing, leads to a significant risk of democratic backsliding. The authors examine the effect of populism on three major aspects of democracy: the quality of democracy in general, Checks and Balances on executive power and citizens' right to politically participate in

7614-761: The same time period, and in many of the same cases." Democracy indices with varying democracy concepts and measurement approaches show different extents of recent global democracy decline. In the 2010s, a scholarly consensus developed that the Central and Eastern Europe region was experiencing democratic backsliding, most prominently in Hungary and Poland , and the European Union (EU) failed to prevent democratic backsliding in some of its other member states . Rutgers University political scientist R. Daniel Kelemen argues that EU membership has enabled an "authoritarian equilibrium" and may even make it easier for authoritarian-minded leaders to erode democracy due to

7708-463: The severity of the crisis or remain in place after the situation has improved. During the Cold War, democratic backsliding occurred most frequently through coups . Since the end of the Cold War , democratic backsliding has occurred more frequently through the election of personalist leaders or parties who subsequently dismantle democratic institutions. During the third wave of democratization in

7802-415: The single transferable vote dubbed "P3" (proportional, preferential and personalized). Regardless, Trudeau has promised to approach the issue with an open mind. Conservative interim leader, Rona Ambrose, has indicated a willingness to investigate electoral reform options, but her party's emphatic position is that any reform must first be approved by the voters in a referendum. The Liberal government's position

7896-457: The strongest predictor of support for authoritarian modes of governance. Professor Jessica Stern and the political psychologist Karen Stenner write that international research finds that "perceptions of sociocultural threat" (such as rising ethnic diversity, tolerance for LGBT people) are more important in explaining how democracies turn authoritarian compared to economic inequality (though they include economic threats such as globalization and

7990-493: The system, denial of the legitimacy of political opponents, toleration or encouragement of violence, and readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including media. Varol describes the manipulation of libel laws, electoral laws, or "terrorism" laws as tools to target or discredit political opponents, and the employment of democratic rhetoric as a distraction from anti-democratic practices, as manifestations of stealth authoritarianism. In addition to these key signs derived from

8084-850: The third wave of democratization overshot the demand for democracy in some countries. Therefore, Welzel sees the current autocratization trend as regression to the mean , but expects that it too will reverse in response to long-term changes in values. The 2019 Annual Democracy Report of the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg identified three challenges confronting global democracy: (1) "Government manipulation of media, civil society, rule of law, and elections"; (2) rising "toxic polarization", including "the division of society into distrustful, antagonistic camps"; diminishing "respect for opponents, factual reasoning, and engagement with society" among political elites; and increasing use of hate speech by political leaders; and (3) foreign disinformation campaigns, primarily digital, and mostly affecting Taiwan,

8178-487: The trend of autocratization continued, while "24 countries are now severely affected by what is established as a 'third wave of autocratization ' " including "populous countries such as Brazil, Bangladesh and the United States, as well as several Eastern European countries" (specifically Bulgaria and Serbia). The report found that an increasing proportion of the world population lived in countries undergoing autocratization (2.3 billion in 2018). The report found that while

8272-685: The variation of democracy between countries every year since 1960. Emancipative values, as measured by the World Values Survey , have been consistently rising over time in response to increasing economic prosperity. A 2020 study, which used World Values Survey data, found that cultural conservatism was the ideological group most open to authoritarian governance within Western democracies. Within English-speaking Western democracies, "protection-based" attitudes combining cultural conservatism and leftist economic attitudes were

8366-547: The various Commissions, Assemblies and Reports that have been produced in Canada and its provinces over the years. Fair Vote Canada's "Resources" webpage provides a wide range of public education materials. On August 2, 2011, Fair Vote Canada launched Democracy Day and Democracy Week in Canada annual events encouraging participation, education, and celebration of Canadian democracy. In its first year events were held by different groups in cities across Canada. Fair Vote Canada designated Democracy Day to be Canada's celebration of

8460-488: The weak checks and balances that characterise post-communist democracy and embedding private interests at the core of the state." In a 2019 paper, presented to the International Society of Political Psychologists, Shawn Rosenberg argues that right-wing populism is exposing a vulnerability in democratic structures and that "democracy is likely to devour itself." Around the world, citizens are voting away

8554-414: Was defeated by 208 votes to 178. On 2 May 1924, another private member's bill for STV was defeated 240 votes to 146 in the Commons. In January 1931, the minority Labour government, then supported by the Liberals, introduced a Representation of the People Bill that included switching to AV. The bill passed its second reading in the Commons by 295 votes to 230 on 3 February 1931 and the clause introducing AV

8648-421: Was passed at committee stage by 277 to 251. (The Speaker had refused to allow discussion of STV.) The bill's second reading in the Lords followed in June, with an amendment replacing AV with STV in 100 constituencies being abandoned as outside the scope of the bill. An amendment was passed by 80 votes to 29 limiting AV to constituencies in boroughs with populations over 200,000. The bill received its third reading in

8742-423: Was reduced due to a court ruling from 10 percent to 8 percent for two-party coalitions in 2021. The Danish electoral system was reformed from first-past-the-post voting to additional member system in 1915 and proportional representation (a form of mixed-member proportional with list PR) used at both district level and overall at-large in 1920. An minimum electoral threshold of 3.5 percent has been proposed by

8836-564: Was used to elect some of its members starting in 1867. The passage of the Great Reform Bill of 1832 made the electoral system fairer by eliminating many of the rotten boroughs and burgage tenements that were represented by two members while having very few voters, and by allocating more seats to districts in relatively newer factory towns and cities. Since 1900, there have been several attempts at more reform. A 1910 Royal Commission on Electoral Systems recommended AV be adopted for

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