Many Americans believe that the United States is an outlier among major democratic nations because we do not directly elect our chief executive and a candidate who did not receive the most votes can win. In fact, many major nations have similar systems.
In most major democratic nations, voters elect members of the national legislature which then elects a prime minister. The public has no direct vote for the head of government. (Some of these nations also maintain a hereditary monarch as head of state.)
Voters in these countries often know who a party will elect as prime minister (the leader of the winning party), but not always. In 2018, Giauseppe Conte became prime minister of Italy as part of a coalition government despite not being the leader of any party.
The leadership of these nations can also switch without a general election. In Australia, four prime ministers in the last decade have taken office after winning internal party leadership contests instead of leading their party to an electoral victory, and four out of the past six British prime ministers took office the same way.
Minority-led governments are not unusual in democratic nations either. In 2019, the Conservative Party in Canada won the most votes (it won extremely large margins in two provinces), but the Liberal Party had broader support throughout the rest of the country and won more seats in Parliament, allowing it to re-elect Justin Trudeau as prime minister. Other countries have had similar outcomes in recent decades, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
The Electoral College, like the systems of most democratic nations, provides a two-step, geographically distributed election process for choosing our head of government. And just like in those other systems, this occasionally allows a winner who did not receive a majority or plurality of the popular vote. Compared with the systems of these other democratic nations, however, the Electoral College is more democratic.
HOW THE TOP 20 MOST POPULOUS O.E.C.D. COUNTRIES SELECT THEIR LEADERS
| Country | Population (State Comparison) | Head of Government |
| United States | 331,208,717 | Election by electoral college |
| Mexico | 127,792,286 (3x California) | Direct election |
| Japan | 125,960,000 (3x California) | Election by legislature |
| Germany | 83,166,711 (2x California) | President elected by electoral college, Chancellor elected by legislature |
| France | 67,098,000 (2x Texas) | Direct election |
| United Kingdom | 66,796,807 (2x Texas) | Election by legislature |
| Italy | 60,244,639 (2x Texas) | Election by legislature |
| South Korea | 51,780,579 (2x Florida) | Direct election |
| Colombia | 50,372,424 (2x Florida) | Direct election |
| Spain | 46,329,981 (2x Florida) | Election by legislature |
| Poland | 38,356,000 (California) | Election by legislature |
| Canada | 38,134,663 (California) | Election by legislature |
| Australia | 25,646,039 (Florida) | Election by legislature |
| Chile | 19,458,310 (New York) | Direct election |
| Netherlands | 17,497,581 (New York) | Election by legislature |
| Belgium | 11,528,375 (Ohio) | Election by legislature |
| Greece | 10,724,599 (Georgia) | Election by legislature |
| Czech Republic | 10,694,364 (Georgia) | Election by legislature |
| Sweden | 10,348,730 (North Carolina) | Election by legislature |
| Portugal | 10,295,909 (North Carolina) | Direct election |
Election data from The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency.
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