Parliamentary systems

Although some executives still attain their position by heredity, most are now elected. In most parliamentary systems, the head of government is selected by the legislature. To reduce the influence of minor parties over the formation of governments in the Knesset, in 1992 Israel adopted a unique system that called for the direct election of the prime minister by a plurality vote of the public. Owing to the unanticipated further splintering of the political system, however, legislators later voted to restore their role in selecting the prime minister. Parliamentary systems that have, in addition to a prime minister, a less-powerful nonhereditary president have adopted different methods for his election. For example, in Germany the president is selected by both the upper and the lower chamber of the legislature. By contrast, in Ireland the president is elected by a plurality vote of the public.

Presidential and semipresidential systems

In presidential systems and mixed (semipresidential) systems, the head of state is elected independently of the legislature. Several methods of electing presidents have been adopted. In the simplest method, the plurality system, which is used in Mexico and the Philippines, the candidate with the most votes wins election. In France the president is required to win a majority. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast in the first round of balloting, the top two candidates from the first round proceed to the second round, which is held two weeks later. This system also has been used in presidential elections in Ghana, Peru, and Russia; Nicaragua adopted a variant of this model that allows a candidate to avoid a runoff with a minimum of 45 percent of the vote in the first round.

Both the plurality and the majority-decision rules are employed in the election of U.S. presidents, who are elected only indirectly by the public. The composition of the electoral college, which actually selects the president, is determined by a plurality vote taken within each state. Although voters choose between the various presidential candidates, they are in effect choosing the electors who will elect the president by means of a majority vote in the electoral college. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska, all of a state’s electoral votes (which are equal in number to its seats in Congress) are awarded to the presidential candidate who gains a plurality of the vote in the state election. It is thus possible for a president to be elected with a minority of the popular vote, as happened in the presidential election of 2016, which Donald J. Trump won with nearly 3,000,000 fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton.