Theories of Proportional Representation

Theories of Representation

Territorial and Functional Representation

•       Territorial: In this system all eligible voters living in a specified area vote to elect their representative. The entire population is devided into constituencies with more or less or equal number of voters.

•       Functional: Functional representation means that representatives are elected by various professional and functional groups like – industrial workers, trading functionaries, medical practitioners, lawyers, teachers, transporters, etc. According to this method separate constituencies are set up for people belonging to specific group.

•       Single Member Constituency: When only one member is elected from a constituency, it is known as single member constituency. In FPTP of CA Election the whole of Nepal is divided into 240 single member constituencies.

•       Multi-Member Constituency: This system, when when more than one candidate are elected from a constituency, is called a multi-member constituency. (Practice in Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Italy.)

Meaning and Concept of PR

•       The proportional representation is that method, whereby the percentage of seats in a legislative assembly captured by one party is proportionate to its share of the popular vote.

•       In this system any group, whether it is a political party or interest group will secure representation in proportion to the popular votes it obtains.

•       For instance, if the party 'A' polls 5 percent of the votes it should win up with 5 percent of the seats in the legislative assembly.

•       The aim is to give representation to all sections of opinion and all interests in the state in proportion to the numerical strength of their votes and in principle, that no vote should be lost.

•       J.S. Mill says “in any really equal democracy every or any section would be represented not disproportionately, but proportionately. A majority of the electors would always have a majority of representatives; but a minority of electors would always have a minority of representatives.”

•       Thus, this system ensures that the number of seats a political party gets in the legislature should be in proportion to the support of the popular votes.

Single Transferable Proportional Vote

•       The Single Transferable Vote is a preferential system in which the voter ranks the candidates in a multi-member district and the candidates that surpass a specified quota of first-preference votes are immediately elected.

•       It is called the Hare system (Thomas Hare, UK) or the Andrae (Karl Adrae, Denmark) Scheme.

•       It is also called preferential system, because,  each voter in this system can cast only one vote which can be transferred to other candidates, if necessary, according to the preference of the voter.

This system works under following conditions

•       Every constituency should be a multi-member constituency, electing three or more members.

•       A voter has only single effective vote which may be cast in order of preference – first, second, third or as many preferences as there are candidates.

•       But the voter cannot cast all his preferences in favour of only one candidate.

•       In order to be elected, a candidate must secure a certain quota of votes. The quota is determined by dividing the total votes cast by the number of seats in the constituency.

LIST Proportional Representation

•       LIST PR is such type of ES, where each party presents a list of candidates for a multi-member electoral district, and

•       The parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the vote.

•       In some (closed list) systems the winning candidates are taken from the lists in order of their position on the lists. If the lists are ‘open’ or ‘free’ the voters can influence the order of the candidates by marking individual preferences.

•       In the context of Nepal: CA Election.

•       List system has the merit of economy, simplicity, adaptability to large constutencies and its direct recognition of the party system.

Advantages of PR

•       The PR electoral system avoids the imbalance results of plurality/majority systems.

•       It translates votes cast into seats won, and thus avoid destabilizing and ‘unfair’ results.

•       The small parties can gain access to the legislature by polling a small number of votes.

•       Give rise to very few wasted votes.

•       Facilitate minority parties’ access to representation.

•       Encourage parties to campaign beyond the districts.

•       Restrict the growth of ‘regional fiefdoms’.

•       Make power-sharing between parties and interest groups more visible.

Disadvantages of PR

•       Coalition governments, which lead to legislative gridlock and inability to  carry out coherent policies.

•       A destabilizing fragmentation of the party system.

•       A platform for extremist parties.

•       Governing coalitions

•       Small parties getting a disproportionately large amount of power.

•       Difficulties to understand and apply.

PR related issues

•       District Magnitude

•       The Threshold: that is, the minimum level of

•       support which a party needs to gain representation.

•       Open and closed list