Proportional Tenure vs Proportional Representation: Introducing a New Debate

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The argument for proportional representation (PR) rests on the assumption that the legislature should accurately reflect the opinions of the voters as a whole. An alternative, and more compelling, argument is that the government (executive) should faithfully reflect the voters’ opinions. When we apply this proportional tenure (PT) criterion to 87 political parties in 18 countries from 1945 to 1980, we find that neither PR nor plurality‐majority systems have performed very well. In PR systems, small centrist parties tend to be favoured, and large parties, especially those that are ideologically ‘extreme’, are discriminated against. Three types of constitutional‐electoral arrangements may be introduced in order to make government tenure more proportional: PT in each government that is formed: PT by consecutive governments; and majoritarian PT in which the largest party forms the government for a period proportional to the size of its share of the popular vote.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: