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Unit 12: Politics of Representation and Participation

filled up or even less than that. The voter is asked to vote for a particular list that also means his Notes
preference to the candidates in the order given in that very list. It is a different thing that in
some countries the voters are given extra freedom to show their individual preferences to the
candidates as well. At the time of counting, election quota is determined in the same manner as
given above. Then, it is seen which party has secured votes in what percentage and the seats are
apportioned between or among them according to the same percentage. Suppose a party secures
50 per cent votes in an election for 20 seats in all, it has a title for inducting its 10 members in the
legislature in the same order as given by it in the declared list. It may be that some parties either
fail to have a clear-cut percentage entitling them for certain seats, or they may have to forego
some of their percentage of votes. In such a situation, the party may take its surplus percentage
to the adjoining or some other multi-member constituency and get its claim duly adjusted by
capturing one seat or more by the accumulation of rump surpluses, or it may lend its surplus
percentage to some other party so that a seat is obtained by them for a common candidate.
The system of proportional representation may be appreciated for several reasons. It is said that it is
the best way to ensure representation to all sections of the people as far as possible. It gives political
education to the masses and a sense of security to those people or parties that are in minority. It leads
to the recognition of political parties in respect of their stands on social and economic problems. The
independence of the voters is secured and an effective check on the practices of electoral corruption
can be put. It recognises the nature of modern political parties as based not altogether on sectional
divisions but on social and economic problems of national importance. As Lord Acton says: “It is
profoundly democratic, for it increases the influence of thousands who would otherwise have no
voice in the government and it brings men more near an equality by so contriving that no vote shall
be wasted and that every voter shall contribute to bring into a parliament a member of his own.”
It is true that the system of proportional representation provides a more accurate representation of
electoral divisions and ensures some representation to minority groups, classes, races and their parties,
it also inevitably creates or perpetuates a multi-party system with possible undesirable consequences
for a stable or effective government. It may prevent the development of disciplined parties and
encourage factional groups in the parties and frequent and temporary party alliances. France of the
pre-1958 period had the worst experiments with the proportional representation system. It is rightly
said that the success of the Nazi party of Hitler in the elections of 1932-33 was partly owing to the
prevalence of this system in Germany. A French jurist Esmein expressed his vigorous opposition to
the whole idea of proportional representation system in these words: “To establish the system of
proportional representation is to convert the remedy supplied by the bicameral system into a veritable
poison; it is to organise disorder and emasculate the legislative power; it is to render cabinets unstable,
destroy their homogeneity, and make parliamentary government impossible.”
While appreciating the system of majority representation and finding fault with the system of
proportional representation, Jean Blondel says ; ‘The majority system has the great advantage of being
simple to administer. It is also easy to understand: the candidate who wins the most votes is elected. In
systems of proportional representation, rules are more complex, so much so that they may sometimes
defeat their own purpose. It is not immediately clear who has been elected or why, and the process may
be lengthy, if preferential votes have to be transferred ... Quotas or quotients have to be calculated and
the result, although fair, may not always seem to be so. There is also an often noted tendency to manipulate
the system, for instance, by introducing candidates in order to split the vote so as to benefit from the
mechanics of the quotient calculation. Proportional representation is not a panacea. It works well in
many countries, but the majority system has achieved generally acceptable results in others.”
Minority Representation: The issue of minority representation is, indeed, a very delicate affair. While
democracy means majority rule, it does not at all mean suppression of the minorities. We appreciate
the classic statement of Mill that the minorities should be adequately represented as ‘an essential part
of democracy’. As he asserted: “Nothing is more certain than that the virtual blotting out of minority
is no necessary or natural consequence of freedom, but instead is diametrically opposed to the first
principle of democracy: representation in proportion to numbers.” Mill frankly admits that in a
representative system of government, majority must rule and the minority yield to its will, but from
this it does not follow that the minority should have no representation at all. As he says:

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