PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5366, 8 June 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

■e-.-t ■ ;(From . the Copenhagen- * i i Century.”) I - • PRECIS TRANSLATED FOR THE NEW ZEALAND '.TIMES, BY V. MONHAD. , . In the year 185!) Thomas* Hare, M.P.-J u published a treatiaej “ The Election of Representatives, Parliamentary and Municipal”—wherein:- ho , strongly criticised the 1 existing ■ electoral?system, i and-proposed quite a new one. His plan was hailed d.;ii - with enthusiasm -by Stewart Mill, who called it “One of the greatest political ■ ' ■ inventions ;” it excited the attention- of I ■■ the civilized world. It was discussed in ■ ■ ■ Switzerland, France, America, and Aus- • * tralia, and everywhere the chief objection to it was that however grand the; idea ,j" might' .bo, - it was not a practical one. ... Impracticable-? when suddenly it was de? ,taotodthat iu one country—Denmark—it j:'n; .was not an idea, but- since -1855 a reality. . "-The name of the Danish Treasurer Andre

- - was placed on a level-with that of Thomas ' -Hare,.-and? Denmark became a standing ' ’ theme in every debate on the subject. ’ J ' Who is to be an elector, and how is the • !.■■' ■ olectiohto bo carried out ? . It is the last. " of these two questions "which is to be , 'considered here. Still, it must be bom iii I mind, that if the first question is answered in a demobratical spirit, it will bo somuch more necessary that- ther mannor in which the election-is/carried out shall be as

perfect as possible. - - ~ ■ The old ; time-honored.' system ,is to, •; divide the country into'electoral districts, but the population of these districts isvariable, and a readjustment of repreaen- ~- tation becomes necessary; This,, however, „ j .- v is not easily ..done., ,The,, readjustment will always’ threaten to weaken, one.or aii.l q ; other Bof the-i Contending-parties,' and-a L : ’ .political - party devoid of selfishness; ■ ■ ••’would bo quite a new phnomenon. The consequence is - that-the representation, "will always be more or less, unfair;; But, .’\ ;I i ,ir even if; this point vfas arranged in the, '.faeat manner alill'there would bo no' great ..reason for . satisfaction.'- V . - - , ’ The division of the country into dis-i .iricts,, for;the purpose.,of representation, - ia in itselfi unnatural and.artificial ; 'it

often divides what''should bo connectodj ;and vice versa. , The imaginary .'line bn. map prevents -elecfcora who hava in-'; ::;fi Jtefests,; sympathies’;’or intellectual views, 1 ■ i ■ in ' common froni voting” and ■ working ' /•- together.’’ Public opinion does'not object ;‘if a town'is'formed into one'electoral di5.).... .).... t r j c t (a ‘,‘ three-cornored one” for instance).; .But when’if is ; proposed that the whole y "/■ country:'..ahould be one,;great electoral .Vi district,', the] objections .are' sure to pour' li-q.., in, , '.** Members-ought to represent districts, and in this way every locality will' have, .... i .ita spokesman ;; local interests should not ; uhmbe neglected.” - Does anybody who knows :!•«ts!human nature really’suppose that local '■ interests ;would not be heard? They, would be heard as. much as the blectora pleased] neither more nor less, and.is. not r: /the idea’of a constitution...that local/' V ■ . interests should ; be subservient -to; the welfare, of- the . nation., . Every little cell: ;1* in the human body has beeti aaid to be a .living animal,’one of the'animalculse, andevery man may be compared to a cell in the body of the State.' • .’/.'■■’lf now. the whole country.was formed . into, one'electoral’ district, and every ; elector had as many, votes, as, there! are members in the Parliament, the.majority’ .'■* would in that case ;be sole master of the , situation,- and., the: minority would not ■ ’ even; as now,■ have the chance of putting. .i ] 'm-. a>i member;-here ;or .'there; where ;tho ;[’t' * partyi; which;is, inthe! minority in the ; / wholemountryis yet'the' majority in , - 'some -of ; the -’ electoral’’- districts./' INO ■; ’ wonder, therefore,’that the; minorities inFrance prefer the - “ scrutin .d’arondiso- ; merit”'to the “scrutin deviate.” ’~J * ’/■' The' majority .innsfrule—]they are ithe strongest, and where is..the judge who ~ ;, ’,cah,.iulb ; .that' they arenot the, wisest. >■, I, But thoi minorities.have a ; right to be; re- , - .presented according to their numerical strength they, have ’a right ito be -as,. . , well'-represented- in the- councils of ;the,i r nation -as the majority'is;; - to exclude >f*v; them from'defending 1 their opinions in ; .Parliament is tyrannical not - demo-; ■; f ' statical. ■ t , t V : ' Public opinion will agree that such a Z '/ rule of the majority,'extending over ithe f ']' * whole country, os one electoral ......-would - he f unbearable,, but .it, may: bo • maintained; that the ■ considerations .mehtioned above, do ’ not apply when the .r / country is-divided into .many districts, i i where the parties that are in tha minority place will often be'-in the'majority in another. .... , - ' ; > But what’ r guarantee is there, that; an’ equal number of votes ar'onotkilledon both’ sides, and ’ thus ' utterly and irretrievably • lost, without any-influence whatsoever! on ■; - the result-of the election ?■; Stewart Mill ■ - has demonstrated i that under the present s;,-i systam -a little more: than one quarter of the-people may govern the rest;'tliac is,> .if the same political-party was to-be vie- 1 torious by a small majority in.all the’elec-, toral districts; when/again,’one more than ,' ’ half of the, representatives thus elected Jfl would be able'to .rule tlie House,..,,Theo- ' retically this 'is ' possible, practically it tory of all the constitutional countries :: does nevertheless- confirm the notion that ■: .. the political opinions of the; electors are .f,V not in Parliament according to their numerical strength. ! -Ic has beeh said that practically ther.e

-is no ideaof any .public importance which has not got a representative in Parlia-. ■ 'meat; but' this, is not always the, case, ■v;' 'When the electoral strife commences and; “y parties are' 'formed,, and amalgamated v ‘ within every district, the elector - who i . does not like to waste his ; vote on an idle demonstration will have the choice be- • : • tween two or three parties whom he may join, and whose watchword he will have • to ‘adopt, A liberal who is a freetrader I may thns have to support a'liberal - who is ;' a protectloniat, &c. ■ : Would it not be better if every idea, ’ ' every view that could, find a sufficient support in the country were to have:its: '. own chosen representative in Parliament! - Again,; it is urged that the careful're-* / presentation of minorities would only serve 'to hamper the action of the Parliament; -• "Be it .so, ’ But would not that tend to prevent hasty legislation, would not that ' - make the - pendulum swing a little'less j violently from the right to the left and. ■ hackagain, and would not even the " ’ socialists lose a little of their venom if ; 'they were in a position to be properly heard and answered in Parliament ? ' The party discipline might become weakened, it .is true ; but the discussion l would become more lively, and intelligent.

■ , Too much discipline hurts ; there is then , a danger lest uncontrollable private meetings shall take the place of the public • ■' discussion in Parliament. ■ ; There is ‘at present no guarantee that , the real public opinion of the electors will '"find an expression at the hustings. The quality of the candidate whom the 1 majority proposes and elects depends upon which of the fractions of which the ma- - jority is made, up is the greatest, or the most- energetical, - or - has the best leader, - .or is most necessary to the cohesion of ' the party. - In short, it depends upon circumstances beyond all rational calculation, which' open up a wide field for ro- - suits of a more or less extraordinary character. All this involves a, great ■ ' " 'danger. *lt is possible that the Jrepre- ‘ ’ sentation may, by every election, be sinking in intellectual capacity. A man ', who thinks for himself, and who is of an open and independent character, will run , a great risk of being, rejected by,such a „ r majority - as. the; ■ one* described: above. . ■-.The majority itself must rest satisfied 1 with a candidate who is common enough • ■ ‘not to offend anybody by his ideas, or a •; man who understands the art'of hiding 'his thoughts behind his words. It will " ■ thus bo seen that the: majority as well as '' ‘ the minority may suffer under the preHnt system. r

The bitterness of party strife amongst: the electors would be lessened if a system, was introduced! by which every party.,in the country could 'make sure of being -represented.--l-aocordiugi fto- j; its- 1 actual strength, without-the necessity of svvamp-, ting" the votes' and- influence of -their op? ■ponents. •To resume; Suppression, of minorities numerous enough to be entitled to. com-,, maud some seats in the House;, artificial - majorities; violent party strifes,, and political apathy : these , are;,the , dangersi invited by the present electoral system. •

Wherein does now this new system consist, this system to which the attention of the world- has been drawn by Thomas Hare, and which several years-before that time had already been brought into application in Denmark by Andre. ■ By t-ho Electoral law, October 2,. 1855, Denmark proper was divided into nine; ■ electoral districts, represented by,throe to seven members for each district. ... . ; When an election is,to take place every -elector-receives a printed form-to bo-filled in with the names of the persons to whom ; he desires to givejhis vote, which is to be signed;-and returned to the proper authority.- A voting paper is valid if- there is only one name on'it,’ but ■ more\names must be- added if the elector wishes make sure of not wasting his vote/-on a candidate' who has already.boon elected, - as will presently be seen. The chairman of. the electoral oomr. mittee opens the proceedings by. conn ting all, the voting; papers-,which have, been received. -The number is:divided by the number i of -members to be elected for the district, and the quotient thus obtained will’ be the basis on which’ the election • proceeds:’ ■’ The voting papers are then ' 'deposited-in,an urn,, from which’thoy-are-drawn by the; chairman, one by one. Ho.furnishos them with consecutive numbers, and reads out the. first name on each. The name-is .taken down byitwo. .members.,of Ihe committee., -The papers headed,j by : the-, same; -name . are placed [together,' and .when any candidate -has; .reached-the;quotient,'.the treading-stops, the "papers with his -name' are counted ' once more;'and that candidate is declared , electee].? -The voting papers which; ha.ve thus been counted over then, for thetimo being loft put of consideration. The'reading is'then continued,as before, but if any .paper is headed,by, the .name of the candidate who has already been de--clared' elected, a- line is,,drawn, through that name, and the name .which follows on ■the paper ia read out’by the chairman,- ■ -In this manner?; all - the i-paper's > are drawn, "always leaving out' the names of the candidates who have ’ reached the quotient; - If a sufficient' number of candidates have’' not reached the quotient, the candidates who, after them, have got the: greatest .number t of votes, will be-do-; dared'elected,'provided that, the votos-in. their fayor, amount to .more, than half the; quotient.lt has been shown above that the quotient is the -number: oleivotingelectors ? who originally and ini; the first place are entitled to command one of the seats;? If > vacancies''still exist, then the whole of the voting papers will ’again be taken into consideration -in such a' manner that from each-’of these the names .of as many non-oleoted candidates rare read out as there are vacancies to bo tilled. If; for instance, three members are yet to. be elected, then the three first namesiare . read out and taken down, and the result - is. decided by a simple.majority. - ■■■■■• So far' tho electoral law of October, 1855. By the law; of November,; 1863, the application of it was.confined to the indirect election. of members for the Upper, House—the-Landsthing..We rhave thus made a'step backwards, and it "is only with'sorae reservation that we can accep t the'praise which'has been bestowed upon us. in foreign countries ; still wo J may be -said to have'shown that tho principle is'not a phantastical’one. Andre was right when he wrote to E.'.Naville:—“ln Denmark -at nobody has a right to talk of the complications .of .the, proportional representation, seeing that it has been in use here for: fourteen years without any hitches or-complications whatsoever.”;