El sistema electoral de la Región de Murciabalance y perspectivas

Abstract

In recent years, the public opinion has been demanding increasingly, the introduction of measures of political regeneration and of further democratic deepening. They are particularly emphasizing the need of a reform of the electoral system in order to seek a greater proportionality and equality of votes. Generally, the electoral systems in Spain have been designed to promote the stability of the government by supporting the main parties. In the case of the Region of Murcia, the combination between low-magnitude electoral districts and the existence of an electoral threshold of 5% has caused that it is considered as a system with strong disproportional effects. After many years of controversy, in 2015 the reform of the electoral system was conducted with an introduction of the single constituency and the reduction of the electoral threshold to 3%. Thus, the concrete objectives of this doctoral thesis are directed at analyzing the legal framework and the characteristics of the electoral system of the Region of Murcia, making a balance of its performances and effects over more than thirty years of being in effect. Similarly, it deals with the reform of the electoral system operated in 2015 from various perspectives, examining the process, the contents, the distinctive alternatives and the suggestions of contemplated improvement. Moreover, it deals with its consequences and expectations concerning the representation, the proportionality and the party system. Therefore, a methodology was chosen in which different analysis techniques are combined, accentuating the legislation and jurisprudence review and by comparison with other autonomous regions and the calculation of indicators to measure the proportionality and the different dimensions of the party system. Moreover, the application of projective techniques to predict the impact of the new configuration in the representation is used. All this is complemented by the contributions of several authors from across literature. During the process some conclusions are obtained that respond to the initially emphasized objectives. Thus, it is concluded that the system of five electoral districts has been the source of distortions in the representation for its disproportionate effect. Moreover, the inequality of the vote, while the electoral threshold of 5% has limited the plurality to avoid winning seats for the political forces that are a minority, thereby burdening their development potential. These characteristics have led to a singularity of the Region of Murcia, compared to the homogeneity of the majority of the autonomous communities, despite the wide degree of autonomy given to the legislator to adopt different configurations. The reform has put an end to the dispute on proportionality, but its contents have been very limited and the whole process was performed under the condition of time pressure due to partisan strategy, wasting the opportunity to undertake more fundamental changes in a situation inclined to the reform that is difficult to repeat. The main conclusions on the impact of the new system are derived from the completed simulations. They allow advancing more proportionality and facilitate the access to obtain seats to political parties with less electoral support, so that a greater capillarity of the regional assembly is expected as well as more plurality of the represented political forces. Finally, through the study of alternatives it is shown that at short-term the more practical proposals of improvement pass through interventions of the candidate lists.