[EM] Switzerland, Runoffs, and Multi-Party Systems

[Adam Haas Tarr]

>Can somebody answer definitely how Switzerland elects the upper house of
>its parliament?  I seem to recall reading somewhere that in the Council of
>States (their version of the Senate, with each canton (their word for
>state) having 2 seats) is elected by "majority vote", and that apparently
>this is another name for 2-step runoff.  I did some googling but can't
>find my source anymore.

http://www.aceproject.org/main/english/es/esy_ch.htm

relevant quote: "The Swiss parliament has two chambers, the National Council and 
the Council of States. In the National Council, the cantons are represented 
according to population. In the Council of States, each canton has two 
representatives, but there are also a few half-cantons with one representative 
each. For the National Council, there are uniform electoral rules for the 
country at large; for the Council of States, it is up to each canton to 
determine the electoral rules as long as they are democratic."

So it appears that there is not actually a standard method for electing the 
council of states members.

>I did find, however, that in the Swiss Council of States the current
>divide among the 4 major parties is 8/9/14/15 (46 seats total).
>
>If the Swiss do indeed use 2-step runoff this would suggest that runoff
>methods are not necessarily as conducive to 2-party systems as frequently
>claimed.  This isn't ironclad proof, of course, because Switzerland has a
>unique political culture.  

Another easy explanation would be that particular parties are much stronger or 
weaker in different parts of the country.

>Anyway, can somebody tell me how the Swiss elect their other chamber of
>parliament? 

According to the above link, it's a slightly modified variety of open list PR, 
carried out in each of the 26 cantons of varying sizes.