Mixed Electoral Systems: Contamination and Its Consequences

Using election returns, public opinion surveys, and legislative roll-call data from many mixed systems in every world region, the authors show that contamination systematically affects party strategy, voting behavior, legislative cohesion and the overall structure of partisan competition.

Using election returns, public opinion surveys, and legislative roll-call data from many mixed systems in every world region, the authors show that contamination systematically affects party strategy, voting behavior, legislative cohesion and the overall structure of partisan competition.

Federico Ferrara is a Ph.D. candidate, Harvard University. Erik S. Herron is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Kansas. Misa Nishikawa is Assistant Professor, Ball State University.