The process through which an electoral system is designed or altered has a great effect on the type of the system which results, its appropriateness for the political situation, and the degree of legitimacy and popular support it will ultimately enjoy.
Electoral systems are very rarely designed on a blank slate where no precedents exist. Even the efforts spent to design an electoral system in Afghanistan and Iraq had historical multiparty competitive precedents to draw on (albeit distant in time and casting little light on what may work in the future). Fiji, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar are recent examples of countries going from very tough circumstances—as coups d’état—to the establishment of electoral systems and institutions where previous experiences were considered.
Some key questions of electoral system design, or on the change of an existing one, are:
- Who designs? That is, who puts the idea of electoral system change onto the political agenda, and who has the responsibility for drawing up a proposed new or amended system and through what type of process?
- What are the mechanisms built into the political and legal framework for reform and amendment?
- What process of discussion and dialogue is necessary to ensure that a proposed new or amended system is accepted as legitimate? Once change has been decided upon, how is it implemented?
