Gaming the (electoral) system

Guest post from David Jandura, a student in the MA in Democracy and Governance Program. David takes a look at Sudan’s electoral system:

In the world of electoral system design, there are advantages and disadvantages to the many types of systems that exist.  It would probably be incorrect to say that any one system is “better” than another, because better is dependent upon what your priorities are.  One of the many advantages of a proportional representation, or PR system, for example, is that it does a relatively good job of ensuring that electors’ votes accurately translate into who is elected with less “wasted votes.” While it may be wrong to say which system is better, however, I don’t think it’s wrong to look at a system and question what its priorities are.  Sudan is a good case in point.  The nation claims to have a parallel system, which includes a significant amount of PR seats, yet the Sudanese have managed to create a PR tier that doesn’t actually deliver any of the advantages the system is designed to provide.

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Democratic decline, Filipino style

Today’s attack on local opposition supporters in the Philippines is a chilling reminder of what Freedom House’s Arch Puddington called the global “decline in freedom” – for three straight years, Freedom House has measured a net drop in democratic indicators around the world. The Philippines is just one example; five years ago, this country rated as “Free,” but today the New York Times reports the abduction of 40 people who were on their way to file gubernatorial election candidacy papers in the province of Maguindanao. Up to 30 have been killed, most of them women, including the wife and sister of the candidate. While this is the most brutal single attack in recent history, it is indicative of a trend of extrajudicial killings and impunity in this once-impressive democracy. With cases like this, it seems unlikely the global democratic deficit will be making a strong about-face anytime soon.