The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-03-03
Proportional Representation,

Briefly, it is that kind of political rep
resentation that enables all political par
ties to be represented in legislative bod
les in exact proportion to their numer-
ical strength. If there are $4,000 voters
in a given district, 10000 Democrats,
10000 Republicans and 1000 Populists,
proportional representation would give
them all following in the legislature in
proportion to their numbers, instead of
allowing the majority party to repre-
sent or misrepresent the other two.
Proportional representation is the rule
Of all the people instead of the rule of
the majority. Garfield was in favor Of
proportional representation as opposed
to mere majority rule. He said in a
speech in congress: Sometimes my ma
jority has exceeded $4,000. There are
about 10000 Democrats in my district,
and they have been voting there for the
last 40 years without any more hope of
having representative on this floor than
of having one in the commons of Great
Britain"
Mr. w. D. McCrackan calls attention
to this matter in The Arena. He saws
John Stuart Mill put the whole difficulty
into nutshell when he wrote: "The
pure idea of democracy, according to its
definition, is the government of the whole
people by the whole people, equally rep
resented. Democracy, as commonly con-
ceived and hitherto practiced, is tho sor
eminent of the whole people by mere
majority of the people exclusively rep
resented AS 1t is in our country at
present, majority Of even one consti-
tutes the greater party the absolute ar
bitter of the legislative destinies of only a
fraction less than half of all the popula-
ton. That such system does not rep
resent the people is frequently shown in
the Swiss referendum. Where ques-
ton has been referred to the people
there, they have often reversed the deci.
sion of their representatives in the par
lament. Garfield said further, 'In my
Judgment, it is the weak point in the
theory of representative government as
now organized and administered, that q
large portion of the voting people are
permanently disfranchised"
Mr.. McCrackan justly calls attention
to how the dead level of our Legislative
| oeeo,,,1,1;oe would no e1,o1,a,, +Ia ,,,1o "a
ring politicians broken, reforms intro
duced and things generally made lively
and profitable by having all the politica
parties represented according to theil
numerical strength. Our present geo
graphical political boundaries. as illus
trated in the district system, would o
course vanish under proportional repre-
sentation, and there would be no chanc
at all for gerrymandering.
Proportional representation present
difficulties in its practical workings
, which have been met in the five follow
!. ing proposed ways, as set forth by MI
: McCrackan:
The simplest and Ideally most perfect is ina
known as the electoral quotient. Every electo
at the polls receives a list of candidates, an
marks as many names as there are persons {
3 be elected, in the order of his preference-thui
: first, second, third, etc. Suppose the numbe
of persons to be elected is 10 and the vote
polled to be 10000; in that case 10000 divided
10, OF 1000, is the electoral quotient, and i
counting the ballots the first 10 candidates VIII
9 obtain 1900 votes are declared elected
a The cumulative vote differs from the fore
going in that the elector may distribute h
votes as he chooses, or cumulate them all upo
one candidate.
= The limited vote gives the elector a less nun
Der of votes than there are candidates to cleo
and the minority is allowed to be represente
by the remaining candidates.
In the free list the elector does not vote fl
any candidate by name, but for a list-e. B..
= a certain list receives, say, FIVE three or tw
n electoral quotients, then the first five, three
two candidates named thereon are declare
4 elected.
. Personal representation is in substance
allow votes to be received in every locality fl
/ other than local candidates Suppose legi
g lature to contain one member for every 80
: actual voters, then every candidate who r
y ceves 5000 votes would be returned in VIVA
e ever part of the country his voters might haI
4 pen to be. There are of course details in eat
of the foregoing systems and provisions +,
special cases.