Hungary: Holding Back the Tiers

Few voting systems in the world possess a feature set as rich as the Hungarian electoral law, which incorporates three distinct sets of districts, a mixed-member system, a two-round system (2RS) (using two different criteria for run-off qualification), two potentially separate legal thresholds, two different sets of rules for proportional representation (PR), plus a few additional twists related to the implementation of the PR formula apparently found only in Hungary. Act XXXIV of 1989 is something of a legend in the annals of the politics of electoral systems, both for the political circumstances responsible for its creation, as well as the complex and often unpredictable ways that political parties and candidates have evolved strategies in response to the incentives it exerts. In its thirteen-year existence, Hungary’s electoral system has operated in four elections and seen four governments (although one was a rerun). It has been responsible for strange outcomes, like the fact that the party with the second most votes won the plurality of the seats in both the 1998 and 2002 elections, or the fact that even with a strong PR component and a compensatory list mechanically capable of supporting many parties, the tendency in the past two elections has been reduction to a near two-party system. In this chapter I explore and discuss these issues, starting with the general outlines of the Hungarian political system and then describing the origins and features of the Hungarian electoral law. I then discuss the consequences of the electoral law on voters, parties, and the system as a whole. The final section assesses the process and prospects for electoral system reform.