Proportional Representation

Proportional Representation describes various election systems which try to ensure that the proportional support gained by different groups is accurately reflected in the election result. In practice this usually involves ensuring that political parties in parliament or legislative assemblies receive a number of seats (approximately) proportional to the percentage of vote they received.¹

Some election systems that strive to achieve proportional representation include the single transferable vote (STV) and the party-list proportional representation systems. Some systems, such as the single non-transferable vote and cumulative voting are described as semi-proportional. Systems that do not result in proportional representation are known as majoritarian systems. These include the single member constituency/plurality, also called the first-past-the-post, the single member constituency/ majority, also called the majority run-off, the alternative vote, and the bloc vote, in which parties can receive seat numbers that bear no relationship to the national percentages they received in parliament.

The district or constituency magnitude of a system (i.e., the number of seats in a constituency) plays a vital role in determining how proportional it can be. When using proportional systems, the greater the number of seats in a district or constituency, the more proportional an electoral system can become. Any system with single-member districts is by necessity majoritarian at district or constituency level. However, district or constituency borders may be gerrymandered to create "majority-minority" districts or constituencies where a group of voters in the minority system-wide form the majority in a particular district or constituency, thus allowing a simulation of proportionality system-wide.

However, multiple-member districts do not ensure that a system will be proportional. The bloc vote can result in "super-majoritarian" results in which, in addition to the normal disproportionality of single-member majoritarian systems, geographical variations that could create majority-minority districts become subsumed into the larger districts.

Proportional representation seems unusual to Americans, but it is actually a much more common system of voting than first-past-the-post. In general, first-past-the-post is only used in former British colonies, and even Britain itself uses PR for the Scottish and Welsh assemblies and for its EU delegation. Nonetheless, PR does have some history in the United States. Many cities, including New York, used it for their city councils as a way to break up Democratic party monopolies.

Footnote

¹ Many electoral systems incorporate additional features to ensure absolutely accurate or more comprehensive representation, based on gender, ethnicity, etc. For example, the electoral system used to elect the Romanian Chamber of Deputies also includes an additional 15 single member seats elected from at large constituencies, each of which represents one of 15 ethnic minority groups too small in number and too dispersed to win representation in parliament under the other electoral mechanism. (See the article, "Seat/Vote Proportionality in Romanian and Spanish Parliamentary Elections," by John Hickman and Chris Little in the Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Volume 2, Number 2, 2000, pp. 197-212.) Note that features such as this are not strictly part of proportional representation.

External Resources

Description of Proportional Representation systems from the ACE Project

Commercial Usage: Proportional Representation

Domain	Title
Books	Towards Consensus?: The 1993 General Election in New Zealand and the Transition to Proportional Representation (reference) Proportional Representation (reference) Voters' Victory? : New Zealand's First Election Under Proportional Representation (reference) Reflecting All of Us: The Case for Proportional Representation (New Democracy Forum Series) (reference) Topics in Social Choice: Sophisticated Voting, Efficacy, and Proportional Representation (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Non-Fiction Usage: Proportional Representation

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Hungary	Only FIDESZ-led coalition Government delegates served on the truncated media boards for Hungarian Public Radio and Hungarian Public Television, despite the fact that the law requires politically proportional representation on the boards. (references)
Economic History	Finland	Below the provincial level, they are divided into cities, townships, and communes administered by municipal and communal councils elected by proportional representation once every four years. (references)
	Lebanon	The National Assembly is elected by adult suffrage (majority age is 21) based on a system of proportional representation for the various confessional groups. (references)
Political Economy	Austria	Virtually all legislative authority is concentrated in the National Council whose 183 members are elected according to a system of proportional representation and party affiliation, including a threshold of 4 percent for each party. (references)
	Turkey	Elections are by proportional representation. (references)
	Bolivia	Bolivia's plurinominal electoral system (which mixes proportional representation in Congress with direct elections) encourages multiple parties and makes it difficult for any one party to gain a legislative majority. (references)
Political Rights	Macedonia	Partly to address these concerns, the electoral law includes provisions for proportional representation. (references)
	Lithuania	Of 141 seats in the Parliament, 71 are elected directly, and 70 are elected through proportional representation. (references)
	Liberia	Since the legislative elections were held on the basis of proportional representation, Taylor's National Patriotic Party won control of the legislature by the same 75 percent majority that he received in the popular vote for the presidency. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Proportional Representation

Modern Translation: Proportional Representation

Language		Translations for "proportional representation"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Finnish		suhteellinen vaalitapa. (various references)

French		représentation proportionnelle au plus fort reste (largest remainder proportional representation), représentation proportionnelle � la plus forte moyenne (highest average proportional representation). (various references)

German		verhältniswahl. (various references)

Hungarian		arányos képviselet. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		�"例代表制 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ひれい� いひょうせい. (various references)

Pig Latin		oportionalpray epresentationray

Romanian		reprezentare proporţionalã. (various references)

Spanish		representación proporcional. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Expression	Similar	Related	Narrower	Broader
Elections		Practical politics Proportional representation	Presidential elections Primaries
Political representation			Proportional representation
Source: the U.S. Library of Congress and various crossword puzzle references.

Proportional Representation

Definition: Proportional Representation