Interview with Arend Lijphart, professor at the University of California: “The main disadvantage of open lists is that it weakens party unity”

The use of open lists allows the making of a hierarchy of candidates of the same party according to each voter’s options. In this case, political parties have an important role only in determining the composition of the electoral lists, offering to each candidate – at least theoretically – equal opportunities in the electoral competition. Nevertheless, the electoral competition between candidates of the same party represents a real challenge to the unity and identity of political parties.

Arend Lijphart, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of California in the United States, one of the most influential political scientists in the world at the moment, describes the advantages and disadvantages of using electoral open lists, in an interview given for Europunkt to Vladimir Adrian Costea.

Citeşte versiunea în limba română aici.

Vladimir Adrian Costea: What are the main features of the electoral systems using open lists? At the same time, in which countries are they used?

Arendt Lijphart: Open list systems can be used, as the term implies, in list PR systems (list systems of proportional representation).  In these systems, parties present lists of candidates, and the voters vote for the list of their choice.

When these lists are open or partly open, voters can vote for individual candidates on the list in addition to selecting one of the party lists.  If the lists are partly open, this usually means that voters can vote for a candidate who is placed in a relatively low position on the list.  If that candidate gets enough votes, he or she is elected ahead of candidates who may have a higher position on the list.  If the list is completely open, candidates are elected completely on the basis of the numbers of votes they receive from the voters.

I think that the Finnish system is the only with such completely open list.  There are many examples of partly open lists, and I think that both the Netherlands and Belgium have such systems.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using open lists?

One advantage of open lists (both partly and completely open) is that they give the voters more choice.  The main disadvantage is that it weakens party unity, because it encourages candidates of the same party to run against each other.  Because I think that party unity is important in democracies, I think that the disadvantage is greater than the advantage.

To what extent does the use of open lists contribute to the increase of voters’ participation in the elections?

I have not seen any evidence concerning this question, but I doubt very much that it has any effect on voter participation.

What is the level of political education that voters must have in order to understand systems using open lists?

Open lists are not all that complicated, and I don’t think any high level of political knowledge is needed in order to know how to use open lists.