A mixed electoral system or mixed-member electoral system combines methods of majoritarian and proportional representation (PR).[1] [2] [3] The majoritarian component is usually first-past-the-post voting (FPTP/SMP),[4] whereas the proportional component is most often based on party-list PR. The results of the combination may be mixed-member proportional (MMP), where the overall results of the elections are proportional, or mixed-member majoritarian, in which case the overall results are semi-proportional, retaining disproportionalities from the majoritarian component.
Mixed-member systems also often combine local representation[5] (most often single-member constituencies) with regional or national (multi-member constituencies) representation, having multiple tiers.[6] This also means voters often elect different types of representatives who might have different types constituencies. Some representatives may be elected by personal elections where voters vote for candidates, and some by list elections where voter vote primarily for electoral lists of parties.
In most mixed systems, every voter can influence both the district-based and PR aspects of an election,[7] such as under parallel voting; in others, the voter casts just one vote (mixed single vote), which is used to contribute to both a personal (usually district) election and to the filling of seats through list system.[8] Most mixed systems have all the voters contributing to the election of both groups of members.
A major distinction is often made between mixed compensatory systems and mixed non-compensatory systems. In both types of systems, one set of seats is allocated using a plurality or majoritarian method, usually First past the post. The remaining seats are allocated to political parties partially or wholly based on a proportional allocation method such as highest averages or largest remainder. The difference is whether or not the results of the district elections are considered when allocating the PR seats.
In mixed non-compensatory systems, such as parallel voting,[4] the proportional allocation is performed independently of the district election component.
In mixed compensatory systems, the allocation of the top-up seats is done in such a way as to compensate as much as possible for dis-proportionality produced by the district elections. MMP generally produces proportional election outcomes, meaning that a political party that wins n percent of the vote will receive roughly n percent of the seats.
The following hypothetical example based on the one by Massicotte[4] illustrates how "top-up" PR seats are typically allocated in a compensatory system and in a non-compensatory system. The example assumes a 200-seat legislative assembly where 100 seats are filled using FPTP and the other 100 seats are awarded to parties using a form of PR. The table below gives the popular vote and FPTP results. The number of PR seats allocated to each party depends on whether the system is compensatory or non-compensatory.
| Party | Popular vote | FPTP seats | PR seats | Total seats (FPTP + PR) | FPTP seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party A | 44% | 64 | ? | ? | ||
| Party B | 40% | 33 | ? | ? | ||
| Party C | 10% | 0 | ? | ? | ||
| Party D | 6% | 3 | ? | ? | ||
| TOTAL | 100% | 100 | 100 | 200 | ||
In non compensatory system, each party wins its proportional share of the 100 PR seats. Under such a system, the total number of seats (FPTP + PR) received by each party would not be proportional to its share of the popular vote. Party A receives just slightly less of the popular vote than Party B, but receives significantly more seats. In addition to its success in the district contests, Party A receives almost as many of the PR seats as Party B.
| Party | Popular vote | FPTP seats | PR seats (non-compensatory) | Total seats (FPTP + PR) | PR seats (non-compensatory) | Total seats (FPTP + PR) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party A | 44% | 64 | 44 | 108 (54% of assembly) | |||
| Party B | 40% | 33 | 40 | 73 (36.5% of assembly) | |||
| Party C | 10% | 0 | 10 | 10 (5% of assembly) | |||
| Party D | 6% | 3 | 6 | 9 (4.5% of assembly) | |||
| TOTAL | 100% | 100 | 100 | 200 | |||
If the PR seats are allocated in a compensatory system, the total number of seats awarded to each party is proportional to the party's share of the popular vote. Party B wins 33 of the district seats and its proportional share of the 200 seats being filled is 80 seats (40 percent of the total 200 seats) (the same as its share of the popular vote) so it is awarded 47 of the PR seats.
| Party | Popular vote | FPTP seats | PR seats (compensatory) | Total seats (FPTP + PR) | PR seats (compensatory) | Total seats (FPTP + PR) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party A | 44% | 64 | 24 | 88 (44% of assembly) | |||
| Party B | 40% | 33 | 47 | 80 (40% of assembly) | |||
| Party C | 10% | 0 | 20 | 20 (10% of assembly) | |||
| Party D | 6% | 3 | 9 | 12 (6% of assembly) | |||
| TOTAL | 100% | 100 | 100 | 200 | |||
In practice, compensatory seat allocation is complicated by the possibility that one or more parties wins so many of the district seats ("overhang") that the available number of PR seats is insufficient to produce a fully proportional outcome.[9] Some mixed compensatory systems have rules that address these situations by adding additional PR seats to achieve overall PR. These seats are used only until the next election, unless needed again at that time.[4]
The two common ways compensation occurs are seat linkage compensation (or top-up) and vote linkage compensation (or vote transfer). Like a non-compensatory mixed system, a compensatory mixed system may be based on the mixed single vote (voters vote for a local candidate and that vote is used to set the party share of the popular vote for the party that the candidate belongs to) or it may be based on voters casting two separate votes.
| Compensatory mixed systems | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| single vote systems | dual vote systems | ||
| Seat linkage | mixed single vote, top-up versions (MSV)
| mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) | |
| additional member system (AMS) | |||
| alternative vote plus (AV+) | |||
| Hybrids: e.g. parallel voting+AMS (South Korea) | |||
| Vote linkage | positive vote transfer (PVT/MSV)
| Hybrids:
| |
| Others systems: | |||
| dual-member proportional (DMP) | mixed ballot transferable vote (MBTV) | ||
| Non-compensatory mixed systems | |||
| single vote systems | dual vote systems | ||
| No linkage | - | parallel voting | |
| Vote linkage | mixed single vote, superposition
| - | |
| Seat linkage | List seats proportional to FPTP seats | - | |
Apart from the compensatory/non-compensatory typology, a more detailed classification is possible based on how component systems relate to each other, according to academic literature. Below is a table of different categories of mixed electoral systems based on the five main types identified by Massicotte & Blais. According to their terminology, methods of compensation are referred to as compensation is referred to as correction, while another type of dependent combination exists, called the conditional relation between sub-systems. Meanwhile, independent combinations mixed systems might have both local and national/regional tiers (called superposition), but some have only one at-large (national) tier, like the majority bonus system (fusion) or only a single tier for local/regional representation (called coexistence).
There are also supermixed systems, like rural-urban proportional (RUP), which is a hybrid mixed system that uses two tiers: the lower tier uses a proportional system, like list-PR or STV, in urban regions, and the upper tier uses MMP (itself a mixed system) either in rural regions alone or in all regions.
| Independent combination | Fusion | Two formulas are used within each district (or one district for the whole electorate) | Majority bonus (MBS) | France (local), French Polynesia |
| Coexistence (hybrid) | Different districts use different systems in one tier | e.g. FPTP/SMP in single-member districts, list-PR in multi-member districts | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Panama | |
| Superposition | Different tiers use different systems | Parallel voting (e.g. FPTP/SMP locally, list-PR nationally) | Lithuania, Russia | |
| Single vote mixed-member majoritarian (e.g. FPTP/SMP locally, list-PR nationally) | Italy, Pakistan | |||
| Dependent combination | Correction (compensation) | One formula uses the results of other to compensate | Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) | Germany, New Zealand |
| Additional member system (AMS) - the semi-proportional version of MMP | Scotland, Wales | |||
| Single vote MMP/AMS | Lesotho, Bolivia | |||
| Single vote with compensatory vote transfer | Hungary (local) | |||
| Conditional | Outcome of one formula determines the other formula | e.g. conditional party block voting: party that receives more than 50%, gets all seats otherwise all seats distributed proportionally | - | |
| Combination of combinations | Supermixed | Superposition + correction | Scorporo / negative vote transfer (NVT), Parallel voting + PVT | Hungary |
| Parallel voting + AMS | South Korea | |||
| Superposition + fusion | National plurality bonus in regional list-PR | Greece | ||
| Superposition + coexistence | e.g. some elected by PR in single national district, some are elected locally by plurality | Ecuador | ||
| Coexistence + conditional | e.g. FPTP/SMP in single-member districts, conditional party block voting in multi-member districts | Cameroon, Chad | ||
| Coexistence + correction | Rural-urban proportional representation (RUP) | Denmark (formerly), Iceland (formerly) | ||
| Conditional + correction + fusion | Majority jackpot systems, particularly two-round variants | Armenia, San Marino | ||
| Fusion + correction | Dual-member proportional representation (DMP) | - |
See main article: Mixed-member majoritarian representation and Mixed-member proportional representation. Another distinction of mixed electoral systems is between mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) and mixed-member majoritarian representation (MMM).
See main article: Parallel voting. Parallel voting is a mixed non-compensatory system with two tiers of representatives: a tier of single-member district representatives elected by a plurality/majoritarian method such as FPTP/SMP, and a tier of regional or at-large representatives elected by a separate proportional method such as party list PR. It is used for the first chamber (lower house) in many countries including Japan and Russia.
This type of parallel voting provides semi-proportional results, but is often referred to as mixed-member majoritarian representation, as the lack of compensation means each party can keep all the overhang seats it might win on the majoritarian side of the electoral system.
See main article: Additional member system.
Like parallel voting, MMP and AMS also have a tier of district representatives typically elected by FPTP, and a tier of regional or at-large representatives elected by PR. Unlike parallel voting, MMP and AMS are mixed compensatory systems, meaning that the PR seats are allocated in a manner that corrects disproportionality caused by the district tier. MMP corrects disproportionalities by adding as many leveling seats as needed, this system is used by Germany and New Zealand.
The type of MMP which does not always yield proportional results, but sometimes only "mixed semi-proportional representation" is called an additional member system. If the fixed number of compensatory seats are enough to compensate the results of the majoritarian FPTP/SMP side of the election, AMS is equivalent to MMP, but if not, AMS does not compensate for remaining overhang seats. In Bolivia and Lesotho, where single vote versions of AMS are used with a relatively large number of compensatory seats, results are usually proportional. AMS models used in parts of the UK (Scotland and Wales), with small regions with a fixed number of seats tend to produce only moderately proportional election outcomes.
See main article: Majority bonus system.
Electoral systems with a majority bonus have been referred to as "unconventional mixed systems".[10] Employed by Armenia, Greece, and San Marino, as well as Italy from 2006 to 2013,[11] majority bonuses help the most popular party or alliance win a majority of the seats with a minority of the votes, similar in principle to plurality/majoritarian systems. However, PR is used to distribute seats among the opposition parties, and possibly within the governing alliance.
See main article: Scorporo.
Scorporo is a two-tier mixed system similar to MMP in that voters have two votes (one for a local candidate on the lower tier, and one for a party list on the upper tier), except that disproportionality caused by the single-member district tier is partially addressed through a vote transfer mechanism.[12] Votes that are crucial to the election of district-winning candidates are excluded from the PR seat allocation, for this reason the method used by scorporo is referred to as a negative vote transfer system.[13] The system was used in Italy from 1993 to 2005, and a modified version is currently used in Hungary.[14]
See main article: Mixed ballot transferable vote.
MBTV is a mixed compensatory type of systems similar to MSV, except voters can vote separately for a local candidate and as a transfer vote on the compensatory tier.[15] It is different from MMP/AMS and AV+ in that there is a vote linkage (instead of seat linkage) between the tiers. The two parts of the dual ballot are tied in a way that only those lists votes get counted, which are on ballots that would be transfer votes in an equivalent positive vote transfer MSV system.
See main article: Alternative vote plus.
AV+ is a mixed compensatory system similar to the additional member system, with the notable difference that the district seats are awarded using the alternative vote. The system was proposed by the Jenkins Commission as a possible alternative to FPTP for elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
See main article: Dual-member proportional representation.
DMP is a mixed compensatory system similar to MMP, except that the plurality and PR seats are paired and dedicated to dual-member (two seat) districts. Proposed as an alternative to FPTP for Canadian elections, DMP appeared as an option on a 2016 plebiscite in Prince Edward Island and a 2018 referendum in British Columbia.
Most mixed systems allow voters to cast separate votes for different formulas of the electoral system, including:
See main article: Mixed single vote.
MSV is a type of mixed systems using only a single vote that serves both as a vote for a local candidate and as a party list vote, split ticket voting is not possible. The system was used in Germany in a mixed proportional system,[16] and is currently used in Hungary as a semi-proportional system as well as Italy in a non-compensatory system. Other mixed systems using a single vote include majority bonus/jackpot systems and DMP.
Other systems that are usually considered mixed, which use a single vote are:
The RUP systems formerly used in Denmark and Iceland used a single vote, applicable both for the lower-tier constituencies - FPTP in the rural single-member constituencies, and list PR in the urban multi-member constituencies - and for the upper-tier national leveling seats (and in Denmark, also for the middle-tier regional leveling seats in rural areas). The implementation of RUP proposed in Canada foresees urban multi-member districts that use a single transferable vote, alongside single-member rural districts that are grouped in large multi-member regions; the rural districts and their corresponding regions.
See main article: Double simultaneous vote.
A simultaneous vote is a single vote that used in more than one elections held at once, which means it is not a typically regarded as a mixed system.
The table below lists the countries that use a mixed electoral system for the primary (lower) chamber of the legislature. Countries with coexistence-based hybrid systems have been excluded from the table, as have countries that mix two plurality/majoritarian systems. (See also the complete list of electoral systems by country.)
| Country | Body | Latest election(year) | Type of mixed system | Seats per constituency | Mixed system | Component electoral systems | Total seats | Number of votes | Typical results | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andorra | General Council | 2023 | Non-compensatory | 2 (local districts), 14 (nationwide constituency) | Parallel voting (superposition) | Party block voting (PBV) and party-list PR | 28 | 2 | semi-proportional | The parish lists and the national list are independent of one another: the same person cannot appear on both the national list and on a parish list, and voters cast two separate ballots (there is no requirement to vote for the same party for both lists).[17] | |
| Argentina | Legislature of Córdoba Province | 2019 | Non-compensatory | 1 (local districts), 44 (nationwide constituency) | Parallel voting (superposition) | 70 | 2 | semi-proportional | |||
| Legislature of Río Negro Province | Non-compensatory | semi-proportional | |||||||||
| Legislature of San Juan Province | Non-compensatory | semi-proportional | |||||||||
| Legislature of Santa Cruz Province | Non-compensatory | semi-proportional | |||||||||
| Armenia | Partially compensatory | Majority jackpot system | Party-list PR + party block voting (PBV) | semi-proportional | |||||||
| Bolivia | Chamber of Deputies | 2020 | Compensatory | 1 (local districts), ? (regional constituencies), 7 (indigenous seats elected by the usos y costumbres) | Additional member system (AMS) - MMP without levelling seats | First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) + Party-list PR | 130 | 2 (list ballot is DSV) | proportional | List ballots are a double simultaneous vote together with the presidential election | |
| Djibouti | National Assembly | 2018 | 3-28 | 65 | semi-proportional | 80% of seats (rounded to the nearest integer) in each constituency are awarded to the party receiving the most votes (party block voting), remaining seats are allocated proportionally to other parties receiving over 10% (closed list, D'Hondt method) | |||||
| Georgia | Parliament | 2020 | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | 150 | semi-proportional | |||||
| Germany | Bundestag (lower house of the federal parliament) | 2021 | Compensatory | 1 (local districts), varies (regional constituencies), | Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) - with levelling seats | Party-list PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 598 + leveling seats | 2 | proportional | Referred to as personalized proportional representation,[18] in 1949 as a result of inter-party bargaining.[19] Originally used single vote version, switched to two vote version before the 1953 election. | |
| State parliaments, except | varies by state | Compensatory | varies by state | Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) - with levelling seats | Party-list PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | varies by state | varies by state | proportional | Bavaria uniquely uses an open-list system for its party-list seats. Baden-Württemberg uses MMP without lists. | ||
| Greece | Hellenic Parliament | 2019 | Non-compensatory | Majority bonus | semi-proportional | ||||||
| Guinea | National Assembly | 2020 | Non-compensatory | 1 (local districts), 76 (national constituency) | parallel voting (superposition) | Party-list PR (Hare quota) + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 114 | semi-proportional | |||
| Hungary | National Assembly (Országgyűlés) | 2018 | Partially compensatory | 1 (local districts), 93 (national constituency) | Supermixed: parallel voting (superposition) and positive vote transfer (correction) | First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) + national list-PR | 199 | 2 | semi-proportional | ||
| Italy | Chamber of Deputies | Non-compensatory | 1 (147 single-member districts) 245 (national constituency, seats redistributed into 49 multi-member districts) 8 (Italians abroad constituency)[20] | Superposition | List PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 400 | 1 (mixed single vote) | semi-proportional | mixed single vote | ||
| Senate | 2022 | Non-compensatory | 1 (74 single-member districts)varies, cannot be less than 2 (20 regional constituencies, seats redistributed into 26 multi-member districts) 4 (Italians abroad constituency) | Superposition | List PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 200 | 1 (mixed single vote) | semi-proportional | mixed single vote | ||
| Japan | House of Representatives | 2021 | Non-compensatory | 1 (local districts) | Parallel voting (superposition) | First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) and List PR | 465 | 2 | semi-proportional | ||
| House of Councillors | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | SNTV and List PR | 2 | semi-proportional | ||||||
| Republic of Korea (South Korea) | National Assembly | 2024 | Partially compensatory | 1 (local districts), 46 additional seats (AMS) | Additional member system (AMS) | Party-list PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 300 | 2 | (semi-)proportional | From 2019 to 2024: supermixed parallel voting (superposition) and additional member system (correction), with 253 single-member constituencies, 17 supplementary seats (a la parallel voting), and 30 compensatory seats (AMS)Since 2024 only additional member system | |
| Kazakhstan | Majilis | 2023 | Non-compensatory | 1 (local districts), 69 (nationwide constituency) | Parallel voting (superposition) | Party-list PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 98 | 2 | semi-proportional | ||
| Kyrgyzstan | Supreme Council | 2021 | Non-compensatory | 1 (local districts), 54 (nationwide constituency) | Parallel voting (superposition) | Party-list PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 2 | semi-proportional | |||
| Lesotho | National Assembly | 2022 | Compensatory | 1 (local districts), 40 additional seats (AMS) | Additional member system (AMS) | Party-list PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 120 | 1 (mixed single vote) | proportional | ||
| Lithuania | Seimas | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | TRS and List PR | 71 | semi-proportional | |||||
| Mauritania | |||||||||||
| Mexico | Chamber of Deputies | 2021 | Partially compensatory | 1 (local districts), 40 (multi-member districts) | Supermixed parallel voting (superposition) and additional member system (correction) | First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) + Party-list PR (Largest remainder:Hare quota) | 2 | semi-proportional | Since 1996, a party cannot get more seats overall than 8% above its result nationally (i.e., to win 50% of the legislative seats, a party must win at least 42% of the vote nationwide). There are three exceptions on this rule: first, a party can only lose PR-seats due to this rule (and no plurality-seats); second, a party can never get more than 300 seats overall (even if it has more than 52% of the vote nationally); and third, a party can exceed this 8% rule if it wins the seats in the single-member districts. | ||
| Chamber of Senators | 2018 | Non-compensatory | 3 (local districts), 32 (multi-member districts) | Superposition | Limited (party) block voting locally (2 seats from each constituency to largest party, 1 to the second largest party) + Party-list PR nationwide | 1 (mixed single vote) | semi-proportional | ||||
| Monaco | |||||||||||
| Mongolia | |||||||||||
| Morocco | |||||||||||
| Nepal | |||||||||||
| New Zealand | House of Representatives | 2023 | Compensatory | 1 (local districts), 48 additional seats (AMS) + additional seats in case of overhang seats | mixed member proportional (MMP) | Party-list PR + First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) | 120 | 2 | proportional | Following a long electoral reform process, beginning with the Royal Commission on the Electoral System in 1985 and ending with the 1993 referendum on the voting system. It was first used in an election in 1996. The system's use was reviewed by referendum in November 2011, with the majority (56.17%) voting to keep it. In 2020 general election, the Labour Party won 65 out of 120 seats, becoming the first party under MMP to receive a majority. | |
| Pakistan | National Assembly | Non-compensatory | Superposition,seat linkage non compensatory | First-past-the-post (FPTP/SMP) for 272 seats + 70 members appointed by parties proportional with seats already won | 1 | majoritarian | |||||
| Philippines | House of Representatives | 2019 | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | semi-proportional | ||||||
| Russian Federation | State Duma | 2021 | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | semi-proportional | ||||||
| San Marino | Grand and General Council | 2019 | Non-compensatory | Majority jackpot | proportional (first round) | ||||||
| Senegal | National Assembly | 2017 | Non-compensatory | ||||||||
| Seychelles | National Assembly | 2020 | Non-compensatory | ||||||||
| South Africa | Municipal elections including: | 2021 | Compensatory | 1 | MMP with ca. 50% FPTP and 50% AMS | Varies by municipality 7 - 270 | Two ballots - one with FPTP candidates (Ward) and the other with just party names (PR). Compensatory seats are based on the sum of both ballots, effectively allocated using the D'Hondt method. | ||||
| Sri Lanka | |||||||||||
| Taiwan(Republic of China) | Legislative Yuan | 2024 | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | |||||||
| Tajikistan | Assembly of Representatives | 2020 | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | |||||||
| Tanzania | National Assembly | 2020 | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | |||||||
| Thailand | House of Representatives | next election,last election (2019) was held under MMP | Non-compensatory | Parallel voting (superposition) | 2 | ||||||
| United Kingdom | Scotland - Scottish Parliament | Compensatory | Additional member system (AMS) | semi-proportional | 2 | MMP with each electoral region normally electing 9 local MSPs (with exceptions to 3 regions) and 7 regional MSPs | |||||
| Wales - Senedd (Welsh Parliament) | Compensatory | Additional member system (AMS) | semi-proportional | 2 | MMP with each electoral region normally electing 8 local MSs (with exceptions to 2 regions) and 4 regional MSs. Starting from 2026, the additional member system will effectively be replaced by closed-list proportional representation following the approval of Senedd Reform Bill. | ||||||
Local elections in
| Compensatory | Additional member system (AMS) | semi-proportional | 2 | MMP with 14 constituencies each electing 1 local AM and 11 Londonwide AMs. | ||||||
| Venezuela | National Assembly | 2020 | Non-compensatory | 1 (local districts), 400 (nationwide constituency) | Parallel voting (superposition) | 2 | |||||
| Zimbabwe | National Assembly | 2018 | Non-compensatory | 1 (local districts),10 (proportional constituencies) | Superposition | 1 |