A 2011-es választási reform kihatásai a magyar választási eredményekre I.
The Effects of the 2011 Electoral Reform on the Results of the Hungarian Legislative Elections I

Theoretical aspects of the reform

Summary/Abstract: The second wave of democracy after World War II, followed by the third wave in the 1970’s and the 80’s – including the historic democratic transitions in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Empire – led to the expansion of democratic electoral systems around the world. The design of electoral systems and of the undergoing electoral reforms has become a vital component of the democratization process. The study of the theory and politics of electoral reform led to the adoption of new theoretical and methodological approaches in order to cope with the challenging phenomena. The main goal of this paper is to interpret the concept of reform, and to unfold some of theoretical aspects of it in order to identify some of the main components of the concept. With the theoretical approach we can get a better understanding of the reform itself, and we can demonstrate that electoral reform is a complex process which should not be reduced to a simplistic model in which a few actors driven by a few motives can fully explain the whole phenomenon. The theoretical study of the reform can show that some political events, the established party system (first and foremost the distribution of power between the various parties), the type of the actual electoral system (its advantages and disadvantages) as well as some contingents factors must be taken into consideration in order to have a better understanding of the nature of the political arena in which reform proposals are promoted and the reform itself takes place.

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