The alternative vote not a solution of the problem of three-cornered contests.]
Neither second ballots nor preferential voting can solve the problem of three parties seeking representation. They may preserve the outward form of the distinguishing characteristic of the present system—that each successful candidate should secure the support of the majority of the electors voting—but this apparent conformity to the requirements of majority representation is only secured at the cost of destroying the sincerity of the parliamentary system and of rendering the composition of the House of Commons still more unstable than it is to-day. In England the competition of the three parties is most pronounced in the industrial areas, and Mr. Winston Churchill, apparently recognizing the futility of the alternative vote as a solution of the new difficulty, had good grounds for his suggestion that electoral reformers should concentrate their minds upon the proportional representation of the great cities.[7] For proportional representation attacks the new problem on entirely different lines. It provides for the realization of the essentially democratic principle, that the various sections of political' opinion are entitled to representation in proportion to their respective strengths, and that such representation should be independent of the action of other parties. Once this democratic principle is admitted we are in view of the only effective solution of the problem of three-cornered fights—a solution which not only solves this particular difficulty, but meets those serious defects of our electoral system to which attention has been directed in the two preceding chapters. "The theory of Government by party," says Professor Nanson of Melbourne, "is to find the popular mind by the issue of a number of contests between the 'ins' and the 'outs.' But owing to the multiplicity of political issues, this theory is now no more tenable than is the theory that every question can be answered by a plain 'yes' or 'no.' … We require a system capable of finding the mind of the people on more than one issue. With such a system all the difficulties caused at present by the existence of three parties disappear. Instead of being a hindrance three parties will be a help. For each will help to organize public opinion, and so enable the mind of the public on important issues to be more definitely and clearly ascertained."
[Footnote 1: The Albany Review, October 1907.]
[Footnote 2: Reports on the Second Ballot at Elections in Foreign
Countries. Miscellaneous. No. 2. 1908. (Cd. 3875.)]
[Footnote 2: La Representation Proportionnelle en Belgique, p. 7.]
[Footnote 3: An illuminating passage occurs in M. Guyot's article on
"The French Senate and Chamber of Deputies," in The Contemporary
Review, February 1910:—
"A deputy is only elected for four years, and almost on the morrow he becomes again a candidate. If he has been elected at the second ballot, with a rallying of the minority of electors, who have only voted for him as better than nothing, and who can desert him at the next elections, his position is very uncertain. Universal suffrage results in many constituencies in great instability, and it is threatening especially for the men who having had power have been obliged to act, and in acting have dispersed certain illusions which they had perhaps entertained when candidates, and have thus given offence…. Though one be an ex-Minister one is none the less a man. The greater number of men—not only ex-Ministers but men who have any reputation in Parliament—have sought to migrate from the Palais Bourbon to the Luxemburg. The result is that the Chamber of Deputies has not ceased to suffer from a species of inverse selection. No body could retain its vigour under such a system. The most experienced men have left; the composition of the Chamber of Deputies has grown steadily weaker and weaker.">[
[Footnote 4: In Australia the system is known as the contingent or preferentinal vote. In recent years the phrase "alternative vote" has been employed in England, and was adopted by the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems as a means of distinguishing the use of the transferable vote in single-member constituencies from its use in multi-member constituencies for the purpose of securing proportional representation.]
[Footnote 5: The regulations as to counting the votes contained in the
Schedule to the Bill were based upon those in Lord Courtney's Municipal
Representation Bill (see Appendix VI.), the practical application of
which is described in Chapter VII.]
[Footnote 6: Mr. Crawshay-Williams introduced a further Bill (based on that of Mr. Robertson) in 1910. This Bill, in its final form, was made applicable, in accordance with the recommendation of the Royal Commissions on Electoral Systems, to single-member constituencies only.]