Proportionality as the Most Important Feature of an Electoral System

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Proportionality as the Most Important Feature of an Electoral System

Many people citizen many of the electoral systems are that they try to

produce a single winner therefore distorting proportionality and the

distribution of preferences among the voters. These systems are

designed to produce a balance between the total number of votes and

the total number of seats which it receives from the legislation.

Proportionality is basically about fairness but elections are not

always fair, for example, In 1997 Labour only won 44% or the votes but

won 64% of the seats using the first past the post system. In a truly

proportional system the labour party would only have been entitled to

44% of the seats.

Proportional representation tries to prevent this distortion between

votes and seats, although it is not always successful. This is the

most proportional system where votes are equal to the seats. There are

many various forms of P.R, and the most commonly used one is called

the P.R List system. This is used in all European countries except for

the UK Ireland and France. Parties list there candidates in the order

in which they want them to be elected. There are 2 variants of the

list system, Closed List and Open List.

In the closed list system is used in Israeland Spain. This system can

be used in multi-member constituencies, but in Israelthere is one

constituency and 120 seats. Electors must simply vote for a party with

an 'X' as they have no choice of candidate. This system usually ends

up with coalitions as it is so proportional. Despite the

proportionality these governments can be unstable, for example,

Israelhad 3 elections in four years.

The open list system is used in Belgium. It is slightly different from

the closed list system as electors may vote for a specific

candidate(s) on one party list. This is beneficial as it is a fair

reflection of the voter's wishes. It is also beneficial as it leads to

power sharing coalitions, for example the French and the Dutch of

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