{"title":"Electoral systems and assembly size","authors":"Simon Otjes","doi":"10.1016/j.electstud.2025.102922","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The cube-root rules of assembly size is one of the strongest relationships in political science. Its theoretical underpinning is given by Taagepera (1972). It is based on the notion that assembly size is optimal when the number of communication channels between representatives among themselves <em>and</em> between citizens and their representative is minimal. This article argues that if one follows the logic of the cube-root rule, proportional electoral systems should be associated with greater assemblies: in that case citizens can communicate with more than one representative. This additional links will result in larger assemblies. This article tests this in 128 national parliaments or lower houses. It finds strong evidence for the importance of electoral systems for assembly size.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48188,"journal":{"name":"Electoral Studies","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 102922"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Electoral Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379425000289","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The cube-root rules of assembly size is one of the strongest relationships in political science. Its theoretical underpinning is given by Taagepera (1972). It is based on the notion that assembly size is optimal when the number of communication channels between representatives among themselves and between citizens and their representative is minimal. This article argues that if one follows the logic of the cube-root rule, proportional electoral systems should be associated with greater assemblies: in that case citizens can communicate with more than one representative. This additional links will result in larger assemblies. This article tests this in 128 national parliaments or lower houses. It finds strong evidence for the importance of electoral systems for assembly size.
期刊介绍：
Electoral Studies is an international journal covering all aspects of voting, the central act in the democratic process. Political scientists, economists, sociologists, game theorists, geographers, contemporary historians and lawyers have common, and overlapping, interests in what causes voters to act as they do, and the consequences. Electoral Studies provides a forum for these diverse approaches. It publishes fully refereed papers, both theoretical and empirical, on such topics as relationships between votes and seats, and between election outcomes and politicians reactions; historical, sociological, or geographical correlates of voting behaviour; rational choice analysis of political acts, and critiques of such analyses.
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