proportional representation
Sign in to savevoting system that makes outcomes proportional to vote totals
AI overview
Proportional representation is a voting system designed so that the number of seats or positions each party wins matches the percentage of votes they receive. It matters because it can give smaller parties a fair voice in government rather than allowing larger parties to dominate even with just a slight majority of votes.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
On the left are the results of the last first-past-the-post election in New Zealand before the implementation of mixed-member proportional representation in 1996. PR systems aim to align vote percentage with seat distribution. The 1996 seat results (right) matched the popular vote more closely than the 1993 election. Proportional representation (PR) is achieved by any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The party make-up of the elected representatives reflects the party make-up of the votes cast. The concept applies to representation of political parties and also other divisions of voters.
The term is used for any of the various electoral systems that produce proportional representation. The aim of such systems is that all votes cast, or at least a large proportion, are used to elect someone and that each representative in an assembly is elected by a roughly equal number of votes, and thus all (or most) votes have equal weight. Under other election systems, a slight majority in a district – or even just a minority of votes when it forms a plurality – is all that is needed to elect a member or group of members. PR systems provide balanced representation to different factions, usually defined by parties, reflecting how votes were cast.