Electoral systems: advantages, disadvantages, search for optimal options

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the features of the existing electoral systems, the determination of their advantages and disadvantages, and how exactly they correlate with the level of democracy in society. It has been established that the opponents of the majoritarian system include the following as its objective disadvantages: a) the majority system of the absolute majority – the fact that the votes cast for defeated candidates are actually lost (in addition, the number of these votes can be close to half of those cast in the district); b) the majoritarian system of the relative majority - the fact that a significant number of voters' votes (usually more than half) remain "thrown away" and are not taken into account during the distribution of mandates, and the picture of the actual ratio of political forces in the state is distorted: the party that received a minority of voters' votes , can get the majority of the parliamentary seats. That is, we can say that the majoritarian system is a "crooked mirror" in which the political essence of the state is reflected. As a rule, in countries with a majoritarian system, single-mandate constituencies are formed, the option of forming multi-mandate constituencies is less common. Elections are usually held in two or even three rounds. It has been found that the proportional electoral system with open lists, provided for by the Election Code of Ukraine for the elections of people's deputies, has a number of advantages of application in our state, namely: the general interest of citizens in the electoral process will increase, voters will be more careful in choosing worthy candidates; under this electoral system, a direct connection is established between a specific candidate and a voter, because voters know who they are voting for; the influence of corruption schemes will decrease and the chances that the parties will be able to send unprofessional candidates to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will decrease significantly; competition between politicians in the party itself should increase, each deputy will be forced to work so that he is elected by the voters, and not to think about how to buy "passing" seats.