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The cost of winning: Why majoritarian electoral systems redistribute less

Holmberg, Clara LU and Thiringer, Sara LU (2017) STVA22 20171
Department of Political Science
Abstract (Swedish)
Majoritarian electoral systems are associated with lower levels of redistribution, but there is no consensus on the working mechanisms behind this. This thesis aims to provide a new explanation. We connect research on elections and individual policy preferences and develop a theory in which low levels of redistribution is explained by large shares of high income groups in the legislature in majoritarian states. We test our theory by looking at the share of highly educated people in the legislatures of seven countries. We find that majoritarian states have more highly educated members of parliament. However, we also see a reversed relationship when comparing winning and losing candidates in two of the countries. These inconclusive results... (More)
Majoritarian electoral systems are associated with lower levels of redistribution, but there is no consensus on the working mechanisms behind this. This thesis aims to provide a new explanation. We connect research on elections and individual policy preferences and develop a theory in which low levels of redistribution is explained by large shares of high income groups in the legislature in majoritarian states. We test our theory by looking at the share of highly educated people in the legislatures of seven countries. We find that majoritarian states have more highly educated members of parliament. However, we also see a reversed relationship when comparing winning and losing candidates in two of the countries. These inconclusive results lead us to believe that what might matter is the representation of the poor rather than the rich. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Holmberg, Clara LU and Thiringer, Sara LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVA22 20171
year
type
L2 - 2nd term paper (old degree order)
subject
keywords
electoral systems, electoral campaigning, redistribution, policy preferences, funding of political parties
language
English
id
8907192
date added to LUP
2017-06-27 15:21:26
date last changed
2017-06-27 15:21:26
@misc{8907192,
  abstract     = {{Majoritarian electoral systems are associated with lower levels of redistribution, but there is no consensus on the working mechanisms behind this. This thesis aims to provide a new explanation. We connect research on elections and individual policy preferences and develop a theory in which low levels of redistribution is explained by large shares of high income groups in the legislature in majoritarian states. We test our theory by looking at the share of highly educated people in the legislatures of seven countries. We find that majoritarian states have more highly educated members of parliament. However, we also see a reversed relationship when comparing winning and losing candidates in two of the countries. These inconclusive results lead us to believe that what might matter is the representation of the poor rather than the rich.}},
  author       = {{Holmberg, Clara and Thiringer, Sara}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The cost of winning: Why majoritarian electoral systems redistribute less}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}