Is the First-Past-the-Post Necessarily the First?. (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chakrabarty, Arijit
• Is Part Of: Studies in microeconomics. Volume 6:Number 1/2(2018:Jun.)
• Page Start: 133
• Page End: 139
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: First-past-the-post system -- voting -- majority rule -- democracy; Microeconomics -- Periodicals; 338.505
• DOI: 10.1177/2321022218803214
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2321-0222

Abstract

In this short note, the probability of the event that in a first-past-the-post voting system, the party winning the maximum number of seats loses in terms of popular votes, is studied under a few simplifying assumptions. It turns out that the said probability is roughly 20 per cent. That is, one-fifth of the times, the said event will happen, on the average. JEL Classifications: D04, D72, D78