Party-list proportional representation

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Poster for the European Parliament election 2004 in Italy, showing party lists

Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation (PR) in elections returning multiple candidates (e.g. elections to parliament). They can also be used as part of mixed additional member systems.

In these systems, parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get allocated to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives. Voters may vote directly for the party, as in Israel, for candidates and that vote will pool to the party, as in Turkey and Finland, or for a list of candidates, as in Hong Kong.

The order in which a party's list candidates get elected may be pre-determined by some method internal to the party or the candidates (a closed list system) or it may be determined by the voters at large (an open list system).

There are many variations on seat allocation within party-list proportional representation. The three most common are:

• The D'Hondt method (or Jefferson's method), used in Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Austria, Finland and Poland, among other places;
• The Sainte-Laguë method (or Webster's method), used in many Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, and the German state of Bremen;
• The largest remainder (LR) methods, including the Hamilton method.

List proportional representation may also be combined in various hybrids, e.g. using the additional member system.

The unmodified Sainte-Laguë method and the LR-Hare method rank as the most proportional^{[citation needed]} followed by LR-Droop; single transferable vote; modified Sainte-Laguë, D'Hondt and largest remainder Imperiali. While the allocation formula is important, equally important is the district magnitude (number of seats in a constituency). The higher the district magnitude, the more proportional an electoral system becomes.

[edit] See also

• List of democracy and elections-related topics
• List MP
• Ley de lemas
• Legislative Council of Hong Kong
• Party-list representation in the Philippines

[edit] External links

• Advantages and disadvantages of List PR - from the ACE Project
• Open, Closed and Free Lists - from the ACE Project
• Handbook of Electoral System Choice