AUTHOR:
Cholovska Oleksandra
ABSTRACT:
The article is devoted to the comprehensive generalization of the historical and transformation- al preconditions and peculiarities of the formation and reformation of the electoral systems of the Visegrad Group countries at the local level. The problem-descriptive approach and the method of generalization are used in the research, by which the countries were analyzed as separate cases and then subsequently systematized based on this. The unifying factor that influenced the formation of the electoral legislation and electoral systems at the local level of the Visegrad Group countries was the process of transformation and democratization of their political systems as well as the implementation of administrative and territorial reforms and decentralization. The electoral systems used at the local level of the Visegrad Group countries are dependent on several factors. The first one is the type of the elective body of local government, i.e. individual or collective.The second one is the size (depending on the number of voters) of the collective elective bodies of local government. It has been determined that collective elective bodies are usually elected on the basis of proportional electoral systems of lists (including those with preferences), but rarely on the basis of majoritarian electoral systems (either of two-round majority systems or first-past-the-post majority systems or even systems of preferential block voting). On the other hand, for individual elective bodies, mostly a majoritarian electoral system (of two-round or first-past-the-post voting) is common, although sometimes mayors have been elected or are still elected by indirect elections. The throughout logic of the study is the periodization of the transformation of the Visegrad Group countries electoral systems at the local level.
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