Several methods for degressively proportional allotments. A case study
The term degressively proportional was first introduced, but not defined in the Project of the European Constitution as a rule to distribute the seats of the European Parliament, and continues to be such since then. The aim of degressive proportionality is to allocate to the smaller States more delegates than would correspond to their population and to the bigger states fewer delegates. A definition of degressive proportionality given in 2007 by the Lisbon Intergovernmental Conference may not generally be applicable, since an allotment according to this definition may not exist for a particular composition of the European Parliament. This paper proposes some properties that a reasonable definition of degressive proportionality should possess and offers a comparative analysis of several allocation methods according to such reasonable definitions with application to the European Parliament. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
european parliament degressive proportionality proportionality seat allocation