Electoral Engineering refers to the careful design of the electoral system, its incentives and formulae for representation in an effort to bring about certain normatively inspired outcomes. For the University Study Course “Mathematics and Democracy”, held by mathematician Prof. Dr. Dierk Schleicher and political scientist Prof. Dr. Matthijs Bogaards, we were to devise an electoral system (change) for any country of our choice.

Together with my colleagues Anna Kristina Bautista, Matthias Bröcheler, Ivelina Grozeva, Nora Lücke, Adina Luican I chose the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Fiji. The archipelago is deeply divided, repeatedly shaken by ethnically inspired unrest and coups d’états.

Based on a thorough analysis of the countries history with electoral systems and its ethnic composition we prescribed an electoral system (single-transferable vote in ethnically hetereogeneous three-member districts) that was build to overcome the ethnic divide by engineering a non-ethnic political competition for 1/3 of the seats in parliament.

Drawing on a wide body of social science works, from game theory to anthropology we carefully devised a bold but feasible policy prescription.

While this project is probably the most time-consuming I have done at International University Bremen so far, it is probably also one of the most rewarding experiences. The project allowed us tremendous freedom in our choice while also forcing us to be constructive in our argument. It is exactly this kind of work, I have learned to enjoy most: scientifically founded political advising, normatively inspired, empirically rooted and constructive in its outlook, in short, social engineering at its best.

I would like to thank my teachers, my fellow students and especially my colleague and friend Matthias for this challenging but inspiring academic experience.

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