Majority Rule in the World's Democracies
Majority rule through IRV or majority runoffs are the standard in
modern democracies. In the following chart, out
of 28 international presidential elections studied, 21 require a
majority winner. Only 4 require a plurality, and only 3 use another
method. Of those three, at least one, the United States has no majority
requirement in presidential elections in terms of popular vote.
[ 2006 majority presidential elections in Chile, Finland and Haiti ]
| County | Runoff | Plurality | Other |
| Argentina | Mod. DCR | ||
| Austria | MR | ||
| Benin | MR | ||
| Brazil | MR | ||
| Bulgaria | MR | ||
| Chile | MR | ||
| Costa Rica | Mod. MR | ||
| Croatia | MR | ||
| Dominican Republic | MR | ||
| Finland | MR | ||
| France | MR | ||
| Ghana | MR | ||
| Ireland | IRV | ||
| Korea, South | PL | ||
| Lithuania | MR | ||
| Mali | MR | ||
| Mexico | PL | ||
| Mongolia | MR | ||
| Namibia | MR | ||
| Panama | PL | ||
| Poland | MR | ||
| Portugal | MR | ||
| Romania | MR | ||
| Slovakia | MR | ||
| Slovenia | MR | ||
| Taiwan | PL | ||
| United States | EC | ||
| Uruguay | MR | ||
|
| |||
| Total | 21 | 4 | 3 |
MR: Majority Runoff (denominator used to calculate the absolute majority threshold [50%]
ranges from valid votes, to all votes, to registered voters).
PL: Plurality (First Past the Post).
IRV: Instant runoff voting.
Mod DCR: 45% threshold, or 40% and 10% more than the #2 candidate, to avoid a runoff.
Mod. MR: 40% threshold to avoid a runoff.
EC: Electoral College.
Source: Mark P. Jones, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rice University.
