Against the background of ongoing elections, most people have the question of what is a proportional electoral system? This problem has long ceased to be purely encyclopedic in nature, moving to a more practical plane. Therefore, it makes sense to characterize the designated electoral process and identify its advantages and disadvantages.
Proportional Electoral System: Distinctive Features
If you simply formulate the essence of this type of election, it can look like this: the voter votes for the image of a particular political force. And this is what distinguishes this view from the majority model. But such a definition requires decryption. So, the main features of a proportional type are:
- No unaccounted votes.
- Direct correlation between the percentage of votes cast in elections and the percentage of seats in the elected body.
These two characteristics determine the election process itself. In fact, a certain section of the country or the whole state is a multi-member district, in which everyone is free to choose the political force that he likes. At the same time, parties, movements, associations, blocs are elected, but only individuals represented in the registered lists pass to the body. It is worth noting that in countries of developed democracy, in the proportional system of elections, “linked lists” and “independent lists” can be set. In the first case, the unifying political forces go to the polls on a united front, without specifying who will represent them in the body. In the second, a proportional electoral system allows you to stand for a single individual (this situation is typical for Belgium or Switzerland).
In general, the electoral process in this system is as follows: having come to the polling station, the voter casts his only vote for a particular party. After counting the votes, the political force receives such a number of seats in the body that corresponds to the percentage received in the elections. Further, the number of mandates is distributed according to the list registered in advance between members of the political force. Rotation of places occurs only in cases where an individual is not able to exercise authority due to physical or legislative reasons.
From all this we can conclude that the proportional electoral system is a special type of election process in which a representative of the electorate votes not for specific individuals, but for political forces. It is also worth remembering that the territory in which the elections take place is one large multi-member constituency.
Proportional electoral system: advantages and disadvantages
Like any type of electoral process, this system has both advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages should be attributed to the fact that a proportional electoral system helps to take into account the preferences of the entire electorate, which decided to announce its will. In this case, it compares favorably with the majority one, taking into account only the will of the majority.
But a significant drawback of this system is that the voter is actually given the right to vote for the image of a political force, and not for a specific person. It is worth noting that in this case the appearance can be built on the charisma of the leader (as it happened, for example, in Germany in 1933). Moreover, other individuals who came to power may be completely unfamiliar to the electorate. Thus, the proportional electoral system contributes to the development of the "personality cult" and, as a consequence, the possible transition from a democratic system to autocracy. However, this situation is not so common due to the implementation of containment standards.
Consequently, the proportional electoral system is a convenient mechanism for taking into account the opinions of the whole society living in a particular part of the country or in the whole state.