Proportional Representation

The party list system is generally referred to as a proportional system of election where parties or organizations are given seats in the legislature based on the number of votes garnered by the party in proportion to the number of votes cast in the party-list elections.1 In all party list systems, political parties are the basic unit of representation. Party list systems differ from one another only in the degree to which voters can vote for individual candidates as well as for whole party lists. Essentially, all party list systems operate on the assumption that voters are most interested in supporting political parties that best express their political philosophies.2 Party list system is the most popular form of proportional representation (PR) widely used by several countries like Denmark, Israel, Switzerland, and others. The party list system as a form of proportional representation gives democracy more room because it advocates pluralist democracy and gives sectoral groups more bargaining power.3 Historically PR has been used to provide proportional representation for two kinds of groups: first, ethnic and religious groups; and secondly, political parties. Before the First World War PR was introduced in Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Moravia and Finland to give adequate representation to religious or ethnic minorities and to help integrate these minorities into the wider political system.4

Colmenares, Neri J. Impediments to an Effective Party-list System Subverting the Peoples Will: The May 10, 2004 Elections. (QC, Philippines: KEN Inc., 2004), p.100. 2 Ranney, Austin. Governing: An Introduction to Political Science. 8th ed. (New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2001), p.175. 3 Hallet, George H. Jr. Proportional Representation: The Key To Democracy. (New York, 1940). 4 Harrop, Martin and Miller, William L. Elections and Voters: A Comparative Introduction. (London: MacMillan Education Ltd., 1987), p.47.

The earliest pressures for electoral reform in favour of proportional representation were felt in Belgium and Switzerland in the late nineteenth century. In both cases, as divided societies (with ethnic and religious divisions), there was a desire to adopt an electoral system which could equalize the representation of the different communities involved.5 After the First World War, the main reason for introducing PR was to provide party proportionality.6 With the institution of PR, political parties of different ideological lines utilized the opportunity to occupy and share parliamentary seats with other old established parties. PR allowed small parties with an evenly spread vote to retain some seats in parliament without the need for electoral alliances.7 The origins of PR list systems are associated with four people in particular: Thomas Hare (England), Victor dHondt (Belgium), Eduard Hagenbach-Bischoff (Switzerland), and A. SainteLagu (France). The origins of list systems coincided with the development of representative democracy, and particularly with suffrage extension and the development of mass parties. 8 With the expanding scope of democracy and more issues tackling better and effective direct representation, proportional representation included the womens issues and problems for better representation in policy-making processes and decisions. In representative democracies, citizens can express their will only by choosing parties committed to specific actions or philosophies, and then they must rely on those parties to carry their promises on effect.9 Proportional representation (PR) systems are basically concerned with the equal allocation of seats based on the outcome of votes of the participating parties in the election. The rationale of
5 6

Farrell, David M. Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction. (New York: Palgrave, 2001), p.70. Harrop, Martin and Miller, William L., p 47. 7 Harrop, Martin and Miller, William L., p 47. 8 Farrell, David M. Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction. (New York: Palgrave, 2001), p.70. 9 Katz, Richard S. A Theory of Parties and Electoral Systems. (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), p.123.

PR is, plainly, that each parliamentary seat should represent approximately the same proportion of the national electorate. This, the advocates of PR maintain, is the only fair principle to follow in what proclaims itself to be a representative democracy.10 PR systems encourage the participation of several political parties, coalitions and alliances as a requisite to democracy and advocating of multiparty system with all different sectors be given chance to be equally and well-represented. Another characteristic of proportional representation systems is the imposition of threshold in order to occupy a seat in the parliament or legislature. The application of threshold in PR system is to prevent the entrance of extremist parties and the multiplicity of small and weak political parties. The minimum electoral thresholds tend to stabilize the multiparty system and the coalition government composing of different political parties of different ideologies. Apparently, proportional representation was alternative to the domination of two-party system marginalizing the other small political parties with enough constituent members but could not launch electoral campaigns due to financial constraints and electoral restraint instituted by the ruling government through electoral laws and mainly the flaws of the electoral system. The institutionalization of PR systems in different countries led to equal representation of small political parties, ethnic minorities, women and other sectoral groups that were once derived of parliament or legislative representation. The promotion of multiparty system under PR was another triumph in representative democracy where the marginalized and underrepresented were given the fairer chance to compete and eventually gain a seat in the parliament.

10

Dummett, Michael. Principles of Electoral Reform. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1997), p.21.