Electoral Systems in Context

Colombia represents a rare case of a political context with a number of electoral system changes over a period of years. It serves as a natural experiment that demonstrates that party systems do react to changes in institutional parameters. There have been uninterrupted democratic elections that allow for long-term comparative study of the effects of electoral reform. From 1974 to 2014, several different basic electoral rules can be observed including single nontransferable vote (SNTV), and the D’Hondt form of party-list proportional representation. Additionally, other factors have changed including a major shift in district magnitude for the election of the Senate, a move from plurality to a two-round system for electing the president, and other areas of change including ballot format and open versus closed lists. Few cases demonstrate as many different areas of electoral study as does Colombia.