Proportional Representation: A Study in Methods of Election

by John H. Humphreys

A study of the statistics of the German General Elections shows that the representation obtained by the various parties depends very largely upon their supremacy in certain localities. In these districts the minorities have been unrepresented for many years, the second ballots having in no way saved them from practical disfranchisement. Thus the Centre Party is in the ascendant in the Rhenish Provinces. In the district of Cologne, Münster, and Aix-la-Chapelle, the Centre Party monopolizes the representation, returning in 1907 every one of the 15 members to which the districts were entitled. In the adjoining districts of Dusseldorf, Coblentz and Treves they returned 16 out of 24. In Bavaria, the districts of Lower Bavaria, the Upper Palatinate, Lower Franconia and Schwabia, which are entitled to 23 members, were represented wholly by members of the Centre Party. Taking the kingdom of Bavaria as a whole, the Centre Party obtained 34 seats out of 48, although they polled only 44.7 per cent of the votes at the first ballots. There is therefore reproduced in Germany the conditions which obtain in certain parts of the United Kingdom—the permanent supremacy of one party which monopolizes, or nearly so, the representation of the district.

Summary

The system of second ballots has therefore had a considerable influence in creating that divergence between the votes polled and the seats obtained which has characterized German elections. The representation of any one party depends, to a very large degree, upon the attitude taken towards it by other parties. The system in no way acts as a corrective to the anomalies arising from single-member constituencies, and may even accentuate the violent changes associated with them. Moreover, the system does not provide representation for minorities, and therefore does not ensure a fully representative character to popularly elected legislative bodies. It may be mentioned that all the criticisms here directed against the second ballot apply with nearly equal force to the use of the alternative vote (see p. 95), a thinly disguised form of the same principle which appears to be meeting with some acceptance in this country.

[Footnote 1: The minority would, of course, have had a better chance with six divisions. Dr. Ed. Bernstein, to whom the author submitted this memorandum, makes the following comment: "I am not so sure that the equalization of the size of the constituencies would in 1903 have secured to the Social Democratic party a number of seats far in excess of its voting strength. But this is a subordinate consideration. The possibility of an unproportional representation of parties, even if the seats are equally distributed, is undeniably there, and this ought to settle the question.]

APPENDIX III

THE SWEDISH SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

The principle of proportional representation was first discussed in Sweden in 1867. The new Danish Constitution of that year provided for the use of the transferable vote (Andrae's scheme) in the election of the Upper House, and Herr S. G. Troil proposed in the Swedish Parliament that the three most important of its committees should be elected by means of the same system. The motion was not carried, and a similar motion, made by Professor H. L. Ryön in 1878, was equally unsuccessful. It was not until 1896 that the next step was taken, when the Government, in view of the increasing demand for a more democratic franchise, proposed a proportional system of election. Nothing came of this proposal immediately, but from this date the agitation for an extension of the franchise gave rise to the demand for the proportional method of election in order to ensure the representation of minorities.

The former constitution of the two chambers.]

The story of the struggle for reform will best be understood if prefaced by a statement of the franchise conditions previously existing in Sweden. The Upper, or First, Chamber of the Riksdag, was elected by members of the provincial councils and of the councils of the five largest towns. The other towns sent members to their provincial councils. The members of provincial councils were elected in two stages; the primary electors chose electors of the second degree, who in turn chose the councillors. The primary electors in the country[1] had ten votes for every 100 kroner of rateable income, subject to a limit of 5000 votes. The electors of the second degree had only one vote in the election of councillors, and councillors had only one vote in the election of members of the First Chamber of the Riksdag. Owing to the great advantage conferred upon primary electors possessed of large incomes these electors largely controlled not only the composition of the town and provincial councils, but also the composition of the Upper Chamber. The election of members of the Lower Chamber of Parliament was direct; every person of not less than 800 kroner income was entitled to vote, but no one was entitled to more than one vote.

The struggle for electoral reform.