Argentina’s Elections Are Becoming Dangerously American

Oscar Pocasangre and Grant Tudor wrote for Foreign Policy on how Javier Milei's proposed shift from proportional representation to a winner-take-all electoral system, could consolidate his power, weaken opposition, and potentially undermine democracy.

Certain authoritarian leaders have picked up on the benefits afforded to them by the American style system. In 2011, new electoral rules in Hungary designed by Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party introduced single-member districts for more than half of legislative seats. It then won 67 percent of seats with only 45 percent of the vote. In both 2014 and 2018, Fidesz secured supermajorities with less than half the vote. In El Salvador, Nuevas Ideas, led by Nayib Bukele (the self-styled “world’s coolest dictator”), recently slashed the size of its legislature from 84 to 60 members, making it more akin to America’s unusually small Congress—another way to produce nonproportional results—and has promised to adopt winner-take-all elections next in an effort to dilute the opposition. In 2009, as public opinion began to turn against Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, his party reduced the number of legislators elected under proportional rules. Chavez’s party safeguarded its majority in the legislature despite losing majority support, winning 57 percent of seats with 48 percent of the vote.