maggioritaria

Maggioritaria is a term used in political science to describe electoral systems in which seats in a legislature are allocated primarily on the basis of achieving a majority. In practice, majoritarian rules reward the party or candidate that secures a majority of votes in individual districts, or that achieves an overall majority of seats, often at the expense of smaller parties. This contrasts with proportional representation, where seat shares are designed to reflect the relative vote shares across the whole electorate.

There are several variants of majoritarian systems. The first-past-the-post or single-member district model elects the candidate with the most votes in each district, even if no one achieves an absolute majority. Some majoritarian systems require an absolute majority and use runoffs or second rounds to decide winners. Mixed systems combine majoritarian components with a proportional element, attempting to balance local district representation with overall proportionality.

Political and institutional effects are frequently associated with majoritarian rules. They tend to produce clearer government majorities and can encourage broad, two-party competition, but they may also exaggerate the winning party’s share of seats relative to its vote share, marginalizing smaller parties and creating incentives for strategic voting or gerrymandering.

In Italy, the term maggioritaria has been used to describe reforms moving away from pure proportional representation toward majoritarian or mixed rules, such as historical majoritarian components in certain electoral frameworks. Globally, the concept remains central to debates about how different constitutional design choices shape representation, accountability, and governance.