Abstract

Disproportionality, the discrepancy between the amount of votes in an election and subsequent seats in a legislature that a party receives, has long been noted as a potential flaw of many electoral systems, especially when present at high levels. This paper is concerned with the extreme disproportionality that has long been present in electoral contests in the country of Georgia. After briefly detailing the history of Georgia’s electoral system, the background to the 2016 election, and the results thereof, this paper seeks to provide potential solutions to lessen the disproportionality of the country’s elections. This goal is pursued by modeling the results of the 2016 election under alternative electoral rules. While models under both mixed-member proportional (MMP) and proportional representation (PR) rules produce more proportional results, ultimately this paper recommends the latter along with the use of a single, nationwide district and a threshold around 3% given a few unique characteristics of Georgian politics.