In most countries, elections are contested first and foremost in districts. One thorny issue is how these districts should be defined and by whom. We address three specific questions related to the boundary delimitation.
The first question is whether the districts are designed specifically for election purposes or whether existing regional/provincial/administrative boundaries are used. It seems that it is the former in an overwhelming majority of cases; only 28% of the countries appear to utilize existing regions as the basis for the boundary delimitation. There is little geographical variation across the globe, and more democratic countries do not appear to be more or less inclined to rely on existing boundaries. Again colonial heritage seems to matter. Former British colonies seem to be more prone to design specific electoral districts while former French colonies tend to rely on existing boundaries.
The second question concerns the criteria for drawing the boundaries. A plethora of criteria is utilized, such as respecting natural barriers or cultural communities, the compactness of constituencies, and conformity with local jurisdictions, as well as equality of population. We focus here on the importance attached to equality. For 25 (18%) out of 141 countries for which we have information, equality of population appears to be the sole consideration. These countries are spread across the continents and do not form any coherent pattern, and so we have little to say about the factors that may induce decision-makers to put more or less emphasis on equality of population as a principle
The last issue is whether a neutral independent agency is responsible for the boundary delimitation. This would seem to be an important requirement in order to prevent the parties, and most especially the governing parties, to draw the electoral map to their own advantage.
We find that in only 47% of the countries where information is available the authority to draw the boundaries is delegated to an independent body. Paradoxically, independent authorities are particularly infrequent in the continent where democracy is the most strongly established, that is, Europe. There is strikingly no relationship between the degree of democracy and the presence of an independent body in charge for drawing electoral boundaries. Finally, former British colonies are more prone to creating independent agencies.
This section allows us to conclude that:
- There are little clear-cut patterns when it comes to the boundary delimitation.
- Perhaps the most telling result that we have is that more and less democratic countries do not diverge at all on these questions.
- The only significant trend that we observe is that former British colonies are more inclined to have independent agencies drawing specific electoral boundaries. ´
The impact of degree of democracy, colonial heritage and economic development on boundary delimitation
| BOUNDARY DELIMITATION |
Degree of democracy |
Former French colony |
Former British colony |
Former Spanish colony |
Economic development |
Specifically designed districts
|
-
|
less likely
|
more likely
|
-
|
-
|
Equality of population criteria
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
| Independent body in charge of boundary delimination |
- |
- |
more likely |
-
|
-
|
