The Runoff Electoral Rule and Political Parties in Latin America

Recently, most Latin American nations have adopted a runoff rule for the election of the president. This article shows that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, countries with runoff rules enjoy better levels of democracy than countries with plurality rules and that the trends within runoff countries have been more positive. The author argues that, although plurality advocates ’ concern about an increase in the number of political parties under runoff rules is correct, the number of parties has increased under plurality rules too—concomitantly increasing the risk of election of a minority president (with less than 40 % of the vote)