==History== One of the earliest proposals of proportionality in an assembly was by John Adams in his influential pamphlet Thoughts on Government, written in 1776 during the American Revolution: Mirabeau, speaking to the Assembly of Provence on January 30, 1789, was also an early proponent of a proportionally representative assembly: In February 1793, the Marquis de Condorcet led the drafting of the Girondist constitution which proposed a limited voting scheme with proportional aspects.
==History== One of the earliest proposals of proportionality in an assembly was by John Adams in his influential pamphlet Thoughts on Government, written in 1776 during the American Revolution: Mirabeau, speaking to the Assembly of Provence on January 30, 1789, was also an early proponent of a proportionally representative assembly: In February 1793, the Marquis de Condorcet led the drafting of the Girondist constitution which proposed a limited voting scheme with proportional aspects.
==History== One of the earliest proposals of proportionality in an assembly was by John Adams in his influential pamphlet Thoughts on Government, written in 1776 during the American Revolution: Mirabeau, speaking to the Assembly of Provence on January 30, 1789, was also an early proponent of a proportionally representative assembly: In February 1793, the Marquis de Condorcet led the drafting of the Girondist constitution which proposed a limited voting scheme with proportional aspects.
electoral college delegates and for local elections. A practical election using a single transferable vote was devised in Denmark by Carl Andræ, a mathematician, and first used there in 1855, making it the oldest PR system, but the system never really spread. STV was also invented (apparently independently) in the UK in 1857 by Thomas Hare, a London barrister, in his pamphlet The Machinery of Representation and expanded on in his 1859 Treatise on the Election of Representatives.
electoral college delegates and for local elections. A practical election using a single transferable vote was devised in Denmark by Carl Andræ, a mathematician, and first used there in 1855, making it the oldest PR system, but the system never really spread. STV was also invented (apparently independently) in the UK in 1857 by Thomas Hare, a London barrister, in his pamphlet The Machinery of Representation and expanded on in his 1859 Treatise on the Election of Representatives.
electoral college delegates and for local elections. A practical election using a single transferable vote was devised in Denmark by Carl Andræ, a mathematician, and first used there in 1855, making it the oldest PR system, but the system never really spread. STV was also invented (apparently independently) in the UK in 1857 by Thomas Hare, a London barrister, in his pamphlet The Machinery of Representation and expanded on in his 1859 Treatise on the Election of Representatives.
Some jurisdictions use leveling seats to compensate for such factors. ==Advantages and disadvantages== The case for proportional representation was made by John Stuart Mill in his 1861 essay Considerations on Representative Government: Many political theorists agree with Mill, that in a representative democracy the representatives should represent all substantial segments of society — but want reform rather than abolition of direct local community representation in the legislature.
The 1865 edition of the book included the transfer of preferences from dropped candidates and the STV method was essentially complete, Although Hare pictured the entire British Isles as one single district.
Mill proposed it to the House of Commons in 1867, but the British parliament rejected it.
From 1870 to 1980, Illinois used a semi-proportional cumulative voting system to elect its House of Representatives.
Through her influence and the efforts of the Tasmanian politician Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmania became an early pioneer of the system, electing the world's first legislators through STV in 1896, prior to its federation into Australia. A party list proportional representation system was devised and described in 1878 by Victor D'Hondt in Belgium, which became the first country to adopt list PR in 1900 for its national parliament.
Asset voting was proposed by Lewis Carroll in 1884 and has been more recently independently rediscovered and extended by Warren D.
Some Swiss cantons (beginning with Ticino in 1890) used the system before Belgium.
Victor Considerant, a utopian socialist, devised a similar system in an 1892 book.
Through her influence and the efforts of the Tasmanian politician Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmania became an early pioneer of the system, electing the world's first legislators through STV in 1896, prior to its federation into Australia. A party list proportional representation system was devised and described in 1878 by Victor D'Hondt in Belgium, which became the first country to adopt list PR in 1900 for its national parliament.
SPAV was used briefly in Sweden during the early 1900s. ====Asset voting==== In asset voting, the voters vote for candidates and then the candidates negotiate amongst each other and reallocate votes amongst themselves.
Through her influence and the efforts of the Tasmanian politician Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmania became an early pioneer of the system, electing the world's first legislators through STV in 1896, prior to its federation into Australia. A party list proportional representation system was devised and described in 1878 by Victor D'Hondt in Belgium, which became the first country to adopt list PR in 1900 for its national parliament.
It was never put into practical use, but even as late as 1914 it was put forward as a way to elect the U.S.
Between 1915 and 1962, twenty-four cities used the system for at least one election.
San Francisco used preferential voting (Bucklin Voting) in its 1917 city election. == Incentives for choosing an electoral system == Changing the electoral system requires the agreement of a majority of the currently selected legislators, who were chosen using the incumbent electoral system.
The basic design of the system has remained unchanged since its introduction in 1920. ===Single transferable vote=== The single transferable vote (STV), also called choice voting, is a ranked system: voters rank candidates in order of preference.
In Canada, STV was used to elect provincial legislators in Alberta from 1926 to 1955, and in Manitoba from 1920 to 1953.
STV is used in only two: Ireland, since independence in 1922, and Malta, since 1921.
STV is used in only two: Ireland, since independence in 1922, and Malta, since 1921.
Another famous case is Cincinnati, Ohio, where, in 1924, Democrats and Progressive-wing Republicans secured the adoption of a council-manager charter with STV elections in order to dislodge the Republican machine of Rudolph K.
In Canada, STV was used to elect provincial legislators in Alberta from 1926 to 1955, and in Manitoba from 1920 to 1953.
One of the most famous cases is New York City, where a coalition of Republicans and others pursued the adoption of STV in 1936 as part of an effort to free the city from control by the Tammany Hall machine.
In the UK, for example, about half the constituencies have always elected the same party since 1945; in the 2012 US House elections 45 districts (10% of all districts) were uncontested by one of the two dominant parties.
In Canada, STV was used to elect provincial legislators in Alberta from 1926 to 1955, and in Manitoba from 1920 to 1953.
In Canada, STV was used to elect provincial legislators in Alberta from 1926 to 1955, and in Manitoba from 1920 to 1953.
Although Cincinnati's council-manager system survives, Republicans and other disaffected groups replaced STV with plurality-at-large voting in 1957.
France adopted PR at the end of World War II, but discarded it in 1958; it was used for parliament elections in 1986.
Between 1915 and 1962, twenty-four cities used the system for at least one election.
According to Stein Rokkan in a seminal 1970 study, parties on the right opted to adopt PR as a way to survive as competitive parties in situations when the parties on the right were not united enough to exist under majoritarian systems.
Each district across the state elected both Republicans and Democrats year-after-year. Cambridge, Massachusetts (STV) and Peoria, Illinois (cumulative voting) have used PR for many years now. San Francisco (before 1977 and 1980-1999) had citywide elections in which people cast votes for as many as nine candidates, but usually five or six candidates, simultaneously (block voting), delivering some of the benefits of proportional representation through the use of a multi-member district.
From 1870 to 1980, Illinois used a semi-proportional cumulative voting system to elect its House of Representatives.
Each district across the state elected both Republicans and Democrats year-after-year. Cambridge, Massachusetts (STV) and Peoria, Illinois (cumulative voting) have used PR for many years now. San Francisco (before 1977 and 1980-1999) had citywide elections in which people cast votes for as many as nine candidates, but usually five or six candidates, simultaneously (block voting), delivering some of the benefits of proportional representation through the use of a multi-member district.
France adopted PR at the end of World War II, but discarded it in 1958; it was used for parliament elections in 1986.
Some scholars recommend voting districts of roughly four to eight seats, which are considered small relative to PR systems in general. At one extreme, the binomial electoral system used in Chile between 1989 and 2013, a nominally proportional open-list system, features two-member districts.
It was proposed for elections by the mathematician Michel Balinski in 1989, and first used by the city of Zurich for its council elections in February 2006, in a modified form called "new Zurich apportionment" (Neue Zürcher Zuteilungsverfahren).
Israel has raised its threshold from 1% (before 1992) to 1.5% (up to 2004), 2% (in 2006) and 3.25% in 2014. In STV elections, winning the quota (ballots/(seats+1)) of first preference votes assures election.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Jenifer Hart, Proportional Representation: Critics of the British Electoral System,1820-1945 (Clarendon Press, 1992) F.D.
An example is the Bloc Québécois in Canada that won 52 seats in the 1993 federal election, all in Quebec, on 13.5% of the national vote, while the Progressive Conservatives collapsed to two seats on 16% spread nationally.
New Zealand adopted MMP in 1993.
However, because up to half the parliamentary seats are list rather than district seats, the districts are necessarily up to twice as large as with a plurality/majoritarian system where all representatives serve single-member districts. An interesting case occurred in the Netherlands, when "out of the blue" a party for the elderly, the General Elderly Alliance gained six seats in the 1994 election.
In 1997, the average magnitude was 4.0 but eight parties gained representation, four of them with less than 3% of first preference votes nationally.
This argument was formalized and supported by Carles Boix in a 1999 study.
Israel has raised its threshold from 1% (before 1992) to 1.5% (up to 2004), 2% (in 2006) and 3.25% in 2014. In STV elections, winning the quota (ballots/(seats+1)) of first preference votes assures election.
In the 2005 UK election, for example, the Labour Party under Tony Blair won a comfortable parliamentary majority with the votes of only 21.6% of the total electorate.
Israel has raised its threshold from 1% (before 1992) to 1.5% (up to 2004), 2% (in 2006) and 3.25% in 2014. In STV elections, winning the quota (ballots/(seats+1)) of first preference votes assures election.
It was proposed for elections by the mathematician Michel Balinski in 1989, and first used by the city of Zurich for its council elections in February 2006, in a modified form called "new Zurich apportionment" (Neue Zürcher Zuteilungsverfahren).
An example of this was identified in a ward in the 2007 Scottish local elections where Labour, putting up three candidates, won only one seat while they might have won two had one of their voters' preferred candidates not stood.
In the 2007 general election, the district magnitudes, including compensatory representatives, varied between 14 and 28.
This system is used in many countries, including Finland (open list), Latvia (open list), Sweden (open list), Israel (national closed list), Brazil (open list), Nepal (closed list) as adopted in 2008 in first CA election, the Netherlands (open list), Russia (closed list), South Africa (closed list), Democratic Republic of the Congo (open list), and Ukraine (open list).
For example, Professor Mollison in his 2010 plan for STV for the UK divided the country into 143 districts and then allocated a different number of seats to each district (to equal the existing total of 650) depending on the number of voters in each but with wide ranges (his five-seat districts include one with 327,000 voters and another with 382,000 voters).
In 2010, a parliamentary constitutional committee recommended a minimum magnitude of four.
The same effect may have contributed to the collapse of Fianna Fáil in the 2011 Irish general election. ===Potential lack of balance in Presidential systems=== In a presidential system, the president is chosen independently from the parliament.
In the UK, for example, about half the constituencies have always elected the same party since 1945; in the 2012 US House elections 45 districts (10% of all districts) were uncontested by one of the two dominant parties.
Lesotho, Scotland and Wales do not increase the size of parliament at all, and, in 2012, a New Zealand parliamentary commission also proposed abandoning compensation for overhang seats, and so fixing the size of parliament.
Some scholars recommend voting districts of roughly four to eight seats, which are considered small relative to PR systems in general. At one extreme, the binomial electoral system used in Chile between 1989 and 2013, a nominally proportional open-list system, features two-member districts.
This was changed for the 2013 national election after the constitutional court rejected the previous law, not compensating for overhang seats had resulted in a negative vote weight effect.
Invented in 2013 in the Canadian province of Alberta, DMP received attention on Prince Edward Island where it appeared on a 2016 plebiscite as a potential replacement for FPTP, but was eliminated on the third round.
political parties). RRV was used for the nominations in the Visual Effects category for recent Academy Award Oscars from 2013 through 2017. ====Proportional approval voting==== Systems can be devised that aim at proportional representation but are based on approval votes on individual candidates (not parties).
A striking example of how the compensatory mechanism can be undermined can be seen in the 2014 Hungarian parliamentary election, where the leading party, Fidesz, combined gerrymandering and decoy lists, which resulted in a two-thirds parliamentary majority from a 45% vote.
Israel has raised its threshold from 1% (before 1992) to 1.5% (up to 2004), 2% (in 2006) and 3.25% in 2014. In STV elections, winning the quota (ballots/(seats+1)) of first preference votes assures election.
In certain Canadian elections, majority governments have been formed by parties with the support of under 40% of votes cast (2011 Canadian election, 2015 Canadian election).
Similarly, in the 2015 UK General Election, the Scottish National Party gained 56 seats, all in Scotland, with a 4.7% share of the national vote while the UK Independence Party, with 12.6%, gained only a single seat. ===Election of minor parties=== The use of multiple-member districts enables a greater variety of candidates to be elected.
This indicated a much lower degree of disproportionality than observed in the 2015 Canadian election under first-past-the-post voting, where the Gallagher index was 12. There are various other measures of proportionality, some of them have software implementation. The common indexes (Loosemore-Hanby, Gallagher, Sainte-Laguë) do not support ranked voting.
The Irish Government formed after the 2016 election even include independent representatives in the cabinet of a minority government.
For example, the Canadian Parliament's 2016 Special Committee on Electoral Reform recommended that a system be designed to achieve "a Gallagher score of 5 or less".
Invented in 2013 in the Canadian province of Alberta, DMP received attention on Prince Edward Island where it appeared on a 2016 plebiscite as a potential replacement for FPTP, but was eliminated on the third round.
political parties). RRV was used for the nominations in the Visual Effects category for recent Academy Award Oscars from 2013 through 2017. ====Proportional approval voting==== Systems can be devised that aim at proportional representation but are based on approval votes on individual candidates (not parties).
It was also one of three proportional voting system options on a 2018 referendum in British Columbia. ===Biproportional apportionment=== Biproportional apportionment aims to achieve proportionality in two dimensions, for example: proportionality by region and proportionality by party.
ISR/Kindle Books, 2019.
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