Replication Data for: Beyond the dichotomous vote: Can expressive ballots increase ideological congruence and decrease parliamentary polarization?

Abstract: As scholars explore opportunities for democratic renewal, the potential of ballot structures to improve the quality of representation has been largely neglected. We argue that expressive ballots can improve the congruence of political preferences between voters and their vote choice and, subsequently, decrease parliamentary polarization. Recognizing that voters’ political preferences are more complex than a dichotomous party-vote allows, we propose the ‘assembly ballot’, which allows voters to choose their ‘ideal parliament’ by distributing 150 parliamentary seats across all participating parties. To assess the consequences of the assembly ballot for ideological congruence and parliamentary composition, we conducted a survey experiment with over 16,000 respondents around the 2017 Dutch parliamentary elections in which respondents cast a vote in a mock-election using the assembly ballot or a closed-list PR ballot. Results show that ideological congruence is, on average, significantly higher for voters voting with the assembly ballot for both the left–right dimension and the cultural dimension, while also producing a more centripetal, less polarized parliament.

摘要：在学界探索民主复兴路径的当下，选票架构对优化代议质量的潜力长期以来未得到足够重视。本文主张，表意型选票（expressive ballots）可提升选民政治偏好与其投票选择之间的契合度，进而降低议会极化程度。鉴于选民的政治偏好远比二元制政党投票所能容纳的更为复杂，我们提出了席位分配式选票（assembly ballot）：选民可通过将150个议会席位分配给所有参选政党，来遴选自己心目中的“理想议会”。为评估席位分配式选票对意识形态契合度与议会构成的影响，我们依托2017年荷兰议会选举开展了一项覆盖超1.6万名受访者的调查实验：受访者在模拟选举中分别使用席位分配式选票或封闭名单比例代表制选票（closed-list PR ballot）进行投票。实验结果表明，无论是左右翼维度还是文化维度，使用席位分配式选票的选民的意识形态契合度平均水平均显著更高；同时该选票模式还能催生更具向心力、极化程度更低的议会。