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Proportional Representation: Parties
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Proportional representation is an idea from elections. Very often, parties are elected to some assembly. With proportional representation the number of seats of a certain party in the assembly will be in a direct relation to the number of votes (or the general success) that party had in the election. Usually, there is an additional restriction, that a certain minimum of votes must be reached, to be represented at all. Very often, this minimum is 5 %.
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While proportional representation is a system for electing legislatures, Instant runoff voting can be used for elections of a single, executive position. Instant runoff voting (IRV) eliminates the "wasted vote" or "spoiler" effects of third-party candidates in such elections. Voters rank candidates in order of choice: 1,2,3 and so on. If no candidate wins a majority (more than 50%) of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Ballots cast for that candidate are redistributed to each voter's next choice. This process of elimination occurs until a candidate wins majority support. The City of San Francisco adopted IRV in 2002.
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Proportional representation does have some history in the United States. Many cities, including New York, once used it for their city councils as a way to break up the Democratic Party monopolies on elective office. In Cincinnati, Ohio, proportional representation was adopted in 1925 to get rid of a Republican party machine (the Republicans successfully overturned proportional representation in 1957).
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Proportional representation assures that each political party or organization will have the percent of legislative seats which reflects its public support. And this basic electoral change can be accomplished without any constitutional amendments. Only a change in applicable state laws is required. Using the voter initiative process, PR can be adapted to local, state and national levels, bringing the democratic promise of "one person, one vote" closer to fulfillment.
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The principle of proportional representation (PR), in essence, is that parties or blocs of like-minded voters should win seats in legislative assemblies in proportion to their share of the popular vote. In PR systems, voters in each district are represented by several elected officials rather than just one, as in the winner-take-all, one-seat district system used in most US elections. Winner-take-all systems allow 51 percent of voters to win 100 percent of representation. In contrast, PR ensures that voters in the majority will earn a majority of seats, but that voters in the minority ... will earn their fair share of representation. In a 10 seat district elected by PR, a party or bloc of voters that wins 10 percent of the popular vote becomes critically significant -- not, as in winner-take-all elections, virtually irrelevant. A party that wins 10 percent of the votes wins 10 percent of the seats.
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Negative Campaigning: Proportional representation penalizes negative campaigning. In a two-party race, a negative campaigning pays off because it hurts the victim more than the victimizer. In a multi-party system, parties that stay positive benefit while negative campaigners hurt themselves.
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