Proportional Representation | Page 4

act of voting--The allotment of seats to parties--The selection of the successful candidates--A Belgian election, Ghent, 1908: the poll--The counting of the votes--The final process--Public opinion favourable to the system--The relation of the Belgian to other list systems--The different methods of apportioning seats to lists--Criticism of the d'Hondt rule--The formation of Cartels--The different methods of selecting successful candidates--Panachage--The single vote and _case de tête_--The limited and cumulative vote--Special characteristics of Swedish and Finnish systems.
CHAPTER IX
A COMPARISON OF LIST SYSTEMS WITH THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE
The influence of previous conditions--Party the basis of representation in a list system--The freedom of the elector within the party--Comparative accuracy--Panachage--Applicability to non-political elections--Bye-elections--Relative simplicity of scrutiny.
CHAPTER X
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND PARTY GOVERNMENT
Proportional representation and the two-party system--Burke's view of party and party discipline--Narrow basis fatal to a large party--Proportional representation and party discipline--"Free questions" in Japan--The formation of groups--The formation of an executive--A check on partisan legislation--Unlike the referendum, proportional representation will strengthen the House of Commons--Proportional representation facilitates legislation desired by the nation--Proportional representation in Standing Committees--Taking off the Whips--New political conditions.
CHAPTER XI
OBJECTIONS TO PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
The question of practicability--The elector's task--The returning officer's task--Time required for counting the votes--Fads and sectional interests--The representation of localities--The member and his constituents--Objections of party agents--Alleged difficulties in the organization of elections--Alleged increase of cost--The accuracy of representation--Summary.
CHAPTER XII
THE KEY TO ELECTORAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
Electoral problems awaiting solution--Simplification of the franchise--Redistribution--Should be automatic--Secures neither one vote one value nor true representation--The problem simplified by proportional representation--The case of Ireland--Three-cornered contests--Partial adoption of proportional representation not desirable--Proportional representation and democratic principles --Constitutional reform--Federal Home Rule--Imperial Federation --Conclusion.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
THE JAPANESE ELECTORAL SYSTEM--THE SINGLE NON-TRANSFERABLE VOTE
Failure of single-member system--Multi-member constituencies: Single Vote adopted 1900--Equitable results--The new system and party organization--The position of independents--Public opinion and the new system.
APPENDIX II
THE SECOND BALLOT: A NOTE ON THE GERMAN GENERAL ELECTIONS OF 1903 AND 1907
The effect of unequal constituencies on representation--The effect of second ballots--Second ballots and the swing of the pendulum--The second ballot and the representation of minorities--Summary.
APPENDIX III
THE SWEDISH SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
The former constitution of the two Chambers--The struggle for electoral reform--The Swedish law of 1909--The Swedish system of proportional representation--The allotment of seats to parties--The selection of the successful candidates--Free voters and double candidatures--An election at Carlskrona--The poll--The allotment of seats to parties--The selection of the successful candidates--The election of suppliants--Comparison with Belgian system--The system and party organization--The great improvement effected by the Swedish system.
APPENDIX IV
THE FINLAND SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
The influence of the Belgian system--Schedules and "compacts" in place of lists--An election in Nyland--Returning officer's task--The allotment of seats--Successful candidates in the Nyland election--Equitable results--Elector's freedom of choice.
APPENDIX V
STATISTICS OF THE GENERAL ELECTIONS, 1885-1910
Explanatory notes--The representation of minorities.
APPENDIX VI
PREFERENTIAL VOTING: THE TRANSFER OF SUPERFLUOUS VOTES
I. The element of chance involved: Its magnitude. II. Method of eliminating the chance element--Example.
APPENDIX VII
THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE: SCHEDULE TO MUNICIPAL REPRESENTATION BILL, 1910
APPENDIX VIII
THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE: SCHEDULE TO TASMANIAN ELECTORAL ACT, 1907
APPENDIX IX
THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE: REGULATIONS FOR THE ELECTION OF SENATORS UNDER THE SOUTH AFRICA ACT, 1909
APPENDIX X LIST SYSTEM: BILL PRESENTED TO THE FRENCH CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, 1907
APPENDIX XI
LIST SYSTEM: LAW ADOPTED BY THE CANTON OF B?LE TOWN, 1905
INDEX

"The object of our deliberation is to promote the good purposes for which elections have been instituted, and to prevent their inconveniences."
--BURKE
CHAPTER I
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AS AN EXPRESSION OF THE NATIONAL WILL
"The virtue, the spirit, the essence of the House of Commons, consists in its being the express image of the nation."--BURKE.
"It is necessary," said Burke, "to resort to the theory of government whenever you propose any alteration in the frame of it, whether that alteration means the revival of some former antiquated and forsaken constitution or state, or the introduction of some new improvement in the commonwealth." The following chapters are a plea for an improvement in our electoral methods, and although the suggested improvement and the arguments with which it is supported are not new, yet it is desirable, in the spirit of Burke's declaration, to preface the plea with some reference to the main feature of our constitution.
The spread of representative government.
The outstanding characteristic of the British Constitution, its fundamental principle, is now, if not fully so in Burke's time, the government of the nation by its chosen representatives. Indeed, so much is this the case that, in spite of the continued presence of elements which are far from representative in character, originating in that distant past when commoners had little, if any, political influence, the British Constitution and Representative Government are almost synonymous terms, and the "mother of parliaments" has given birth to so long a succession of constitutions of which the cardinal principle is representative government--the association of the governed with the government--that we cannot now think of our House of Commons save as the most complete expression