Does everyone have equal voting power?

Debabrata Pal ()
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Debabrata Pal: Jawaharlal Nehru University

Indian Economic Review, 2021, vol. 56, issue 2, No 10, 515-525

Abstract: Abstract Banzhaf (Rutgers Law Rev 19:317–343, 1965) shows by citing a few examples that distortion in the bargaining power of the legislators may exist in the legislative body under weighted voting rules. Such a distortion leads to the incidence of unequal voting power of the citizens. In this paper, we investigate whether the distortion in the bargaining power is confined to a few weighted voting rules or is a general phenomenon. We show if the number of dominant political views (parties) present in a country is at most four, then there exists no weighted voting rule such that the distortion in the bargaining power can be avoided.

Keywords: Weighted voting rule; Banzhaf voting power; Proportional voting rule; Equal voting power; Distortion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s41775-021-00117-6

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