Modified indices of political power: a case study of a few parliaments

Abstract

According to yes–no voting systems, players (e.g., parties in a parliament) have some influence on making some decisions. In formal voting situations, taking into account that a majority vote is needed for making a decision, the question of political power of parties can be considered. There are some well-known indices of political power e.g., the Shapley–Shubik index, the Banzhaf index, the Johnston index, the Deegan–Packel index. In order to take into account different political nature of the parties, as the main factor for forming a winning coalition i.e., a parliamentary majority, we give a modification of the power indices. For the purpose of comparison of these indices of political power from the empirical point of view, we consider the indices of power in some cases, i.e., in relation to a few parliaments.