The Galician electoral system: to reform, or not to reform, that is the question

Abstract

Abstract:
Since Galicia reached its political autonomy until the last elections of September of 2016, ten regional elections of the representatives for the Galician Parliament have been held. In the course of this time, it is possible to analyze the Galician electoral system´s yields (in terms of proportionality, party fragmentation, malapportionment, and premiums, as well as penalties to the parties), and inquire in the debates about its origin and later modifications. After the approval of the Autonomous Statute in 1981, the Galician electoral system was changed in 1992 to increase the electoral threshold and, more recently, two proposals of reform have been suggested in 2012 and 2014. Yet, the electoral rules have remained stable since the slight modification in the nineties, so they have continued to benefit the established parties, by creating barriers preventing the entrance of other parties and generating inequality in the value of the vote. Thus, in this paper we propose an electoral reform that, with minor changes, could solve some problems of the Galician electoral system, without jeopardizing the governability and political stability that have characterized the Galician political subsystem during these years of political autonomy.