Glossary term
Electoral threshold
Also: electoral threshold, minimum vote requirementЧитать на русском
The minimum share of votes, nationally or in a district, that a party must obtain to be eligible for seats in a proportional system.
In more detail
Legal thresholds limit party fragmentation by excluding very small parties. They range from none beyond the natural quota (the Netherlands, about 0.67% of the vote for one seat) to 3.25% in Israel, 5% in Germany and, until 2022, 10% in Turkey. Small district magnitudes create an effective threshold even without a legal one. High thresholds can leave large shares of voters unrepresented and may push parties into alliances, while low thresholds allow broad representation at the cost of more complex coalition-building.