From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Subject: Proportional Representation for the US House of Representatives?
Organization: LLNL
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 00:20:45 GMT

	In the current issue of _The Atlantic_ (August 1992), there is
a proposal to make the US HR work better, and all it requires is an
act of Congress, as specified in the Constitution.

	Our current system is a winner-take-all one, in which getting
51% of the vote means getting 100% of the office. Proportional
representation works by each party sending in office-holders in
proportion to the amount of the vote it received. That way, smaller
parties are adequately represented. Probably for that reason,
proportional representation is nearly universal in the democracies of
the world. The major exceptions are the United States and the United
Kingdom.

	Proportional representation can be done district-by-district,
state-by-state being likely in the US. In small countries like Israel,
the whole country makes up one election district.

	As is well-known, there is a lot of unhappiness about our
current system, as is indicated by the success of H. Ross Perot's
temporary candidacy. A lot of people simply don't feel properly
represented by those who run for election.

	The article suggests that three would-be solutions would not
do much good -- term limitations, imitation of an idealized version of
the British model, and presidential rule. The third option sounds
suspiciously like autocracy, for example.

	The article mentions one difficulty with proportional
representation -- what about small extremist parties? In Israel, the
major parties have to court some small and rather extremist religious
parties, who have had a deadlock on their favorite issues (Reform
Judaism and Israel's first female rabbi, got started there only
recently). The way out in Germany, at least, is to raise the
representation threshold to 5%. But raising it more than (say) 10%
would mean doing a lot of disenfranchising -- is it worth doing?

	The article goes on to describe the likely political parties
that would result, since the existing parties contain some rather
awkward coalitions (are conservative Southern Democrats and the Jesse
Jackson wing of the Democratic Party very comfortable with each
other?)

	Perhaps the biggest would be the Republican Party, which its
right wing would desert. It would be left as a pro-choice,
pro-business party. Next up would be "Reagan Democrats" as a party
analogous to European Christian Democrats, a largely Catholic party
that is somewhat liberal on economic issues and somewhat conservative
on social issues.

	The US has never had any big Social Democratic movement, but
some unions could start such a party under a
proportional-representation system. Other relatively small
constituencies would also be representated as political parties, such
as hard-line conservatives, Libertarians, and environmentalists in an
American Green Party. Some minority groups, like blacks and Hispanics,
could band together to form a party that represents their interests,
although a large fraction of them would probably vote for the other
parties. There might even be a hard-shell "God is an American" Fundie
party.

	Difficulties?

	There are always those who are willing to defend the status
quo, no matter what, to start with. That's one thing that prevents the
abolition of the Electoral College.

	And the leaders of the two current parties probably benefit
from not having much competition, and might not be willing to make
life easier for would-be competition.

	But then some political leaders might start getting fed up
with the sort of coalitions they have to make -- do the average
conservative Democrats and Jesse Jacksonites get along very well? And
do hard-line conservative Republicans and pro-choice ones get along
very well either?

	And it will make getting elected much simpler -- one can
appeal to a smaller consitituency, and not have to pervert one's
positions just to get as many votes as possible, no matter how much it
alienates other voters one wants.

	Even if proportional representation is not tried on the
national level, it can be implemented on the state and local levels if
the national Congresscritters are unwilling to do it for themselves.