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Is there any electoral system that has both representatives for districts and fully proportional representation that doesn't have this problem? It seems this ki

Is there any electoral system that has both representatives for districts and fully proportional representation that doesn't have this problem? It seems this kind of problem is inherent in combining the two.

lambertsimnel 5y ago
I believe localized-list proportional representation avoids the problem of variable-sized and potentially very large legislatures, while maintaining fully proportional representation and representatives for districts: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localized_list https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localized_list As far as I can tell: 1) each voter expresses a single preference for a candidate in a single-member district 2) when the votes are counted, each party is allocated a share of seats proportional to its candidates' votes combined 3) that many of its candidates are allocated their districts, such that they are the party's best performers (not necessarily plurality winners in their own districts) I believe biproportional apportionment can also satisfy these criteria: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biproportional_apportionment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biproportional_apportionment I'm not sure these are the only systems that satisfy these criteria. Scandinavian-style systems have a broadly proportional district system and a small proportion of "levelling" seats to make the results more proportional. I don't have detailed knowledge of any Scandinavian system, but I believe they could be tweaked to be more proportional and/or localized, and levelling seats could be allocated to districts according to where the parties winning levelling seats are most under-represented. This is more of an approximation than the preceding two, but: 1) the district system for German federal elections is very far from proportional, so the other part of the system has more to compensate for than in scandinavian-style systems 2) proportionality is necessarily approximate under any system where each party has an integer number of representatives, with achieving outcomes "within quota" being the best that can be hoped for 3) most proportional systems don't even produce results within quota, with the Dutch system a notable exception My impression isn't that the variable number of seats in German federal elections is intended to limit accidental disproportionality, but that it's intended to prevent gaming the system by splitting a party into a district party and a list party, in order to be allocated list seats even if overrepresented in district seats. I doubt would that kind of manipulation would work if each district was multi-member with proportional representation.

lambertsimnel 5y ago

I believe localized-list proportional representation avoids the problem of variable-sized and potentially very large legislatures, while maintaining fully proportional representation and representatives for districts: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localized_list https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localized_list As far as I can tell: 1) each voter expresses a single preference for a candidate in a single-member district 2) when the votes are counted, each party is allocated a share of seats proportional to its candidates' votes combined 3) that many of its candidates are allocated their districts, such that they are the party's best performers (not necessarily plurality winners in their own districts) I believe biproportional apportionment can also satisfy these criteria: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biproportional_apportionment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biproportional_apportionment I'm not sure these are the only systems that satisfy these criteria. Scandinavian-style systems have a broadly proportional district system and a small proportion of "levelling" seats to make the results more proportional. I don't have detailed knowledge of any Scandinavian system, but I believe they could be tweaked to be more proportional and/or localized, and levelling seats could be allocated to districts according to where the parties winning levelling seats are most under-represented. This is more of an approximation than the preceding two, but: 1) the district system for German federal elections is very far from proportional, so the other part of the system has more to compensate for than in scandinavian-style systems 2) proportionality is necessarily approximate under any system where each party has an integer number of representatives, with achieving outcomes "within quota" being the best that can be hoped for 3) most proportional systems don't even produce results within quota, with the Dutch system a notable exception My impression isn't that the variable number of seats in German federal elections is intended to limit accidental disproportionality, but that it's intended to prevent gaming the system by splitting a party into a district party and a list party, in order to be allocated list seats even if overrepresented in district seats. I doubt would that kind of manipulation would work if each district was multi-member with proportional representation.