Ideological Congruence and Electoral Institutions

摘要: Although the literature examining relationship between ideological congruence and electoral rules is quite large, relatively little attention has been paid to how should be conceptualized. As we demonstrate, empirical results regarding can depend on exactly scholars conceptualize measure it. In addition clarifying various aspects of currently congruence, introduce a new conceptualization that captures long tradition in democratic theory emphasizing ideal having legislature accurately reflects preferences citizenry as whole. Our direct counterpart for vote-seat disproportionality measures so heavily used comparative studies representation. Using particularly appropriate data from the Comparative Study Electoral Systems, we find governments proportional democracies are not substantively more congruent than those majoritarian democracies. Proportional are, however, characterized by representative legislatures.