This brings me to the end of my answers to your inquiries. In conclusion
I may say a few words about the public opinions in our country as to the
Election Laws.
Public opinion and the new system.
Despite the fact that the new system enables the elector of the country to be more reasonably represented in the House, still there are some ambitious politicians urging for their own selfish purpose to restore the old system. But, as almost all prominent members in both Houses are fully cognizant of the relative merits and demerits of the two systems, there is not much chance of our returning to the old system.
APPENDIX II
THE SECOND BALLOT
A Note on the German General Elections of 1903 and 1907.
The German Reichstag, which consists of 397 members, is elected by a system of single-member constituencies. Every member, however, must have obtained a majority of the votes polled, either at a first or second ballot, in the constituency for which he has been returned. The German Official Returns furnish very complete details of the elections, including the figures for the first and second ballots, and the summaries at the end of the Returns disclose a very striking divergence between the proportions of seats obtained and votes polled by the various political parties. These discrepancies have attracted general attention, and have usually been attributed to the great variation in the size of German constituencies. As a matter of fact, the effect of redistribution on the proportionality between seats and votes is not nearly so large as is generally supposed. Apart from the consequences of neglecting the votes of the minority or minorities in each constituency, wherein lies the gravest defect of a single-member system, the second ballot is a disturbing factor of considerable importance. So far from diminishing the disproportion between seats and votes polled by the various parties, the second ballot frequently increases that disproportion. In order to appreciate the respective effects of unequal constituencies and of the second ballots it is necessary to consider these two factors separately. This will be facilitated by making a comparison between the results which would have been obtained without second ballots with the results actually obtained. The following tables, which are based upon the official returns, give the votes polled and the seats obtained by the five principal groups:—
GERMAN GENERAL ELECTION, 1903
Parties. Votes. Results without Results with
Second Ballot. Second Ballot.
Social Democrats 3,010,771 122 81
(31.7%) (30.7%) (20.4%)
Centre Party 1,875,273 104 100
(19.7%) (26.2%) (25.2%)
National Liberals 1,317,401 32 51
(13.9%) ( 8.1%) (12.8%)
Conservatives 1,281,852 79 75
(13.6%) (19.9%) (18.9%)
Radical Parties 872,653 11 36
( 9.2%) ( 2.8%) ( 9.1%)