Proportional Representation | Page 3

enough to restore
parliamentary efficiency and to combine in the maintenance of a stable
administration. It may require a little exercise of political imagination
to realize how the transformed House of Commons would work, and to
many the demonstration will only come through a new experience to
which they will be driven through the failure of the existing apparatus.
Meanwhile it may be suggested to doubters whether their anxiety
respecting the possible working of a reformed House of Commons is
not at bottom a distrust of freedom. They are afraid of a House of
chartered liberties, whereas they would find the best security for stable
and ordered progress in the self-adjustment of an assembly which
would be a nation in miniature.
COURTNEY OF PENWITH
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Current constitutional and electoral problems cannot be solved in the
absence of a satisfactory method of choosing representatives. An
attempt has therefore been made in the present volume to contrast the
practical working of various methods of election; of majority systems
as exemplified in single-member constituencies and in multi-member
constituencies with the block vote; of majority systems modified by the
use of the second ballot or of the transferable vote; of the earlier forms

of minority representation; and, lastly, of modern systems of
proportional representation.
Care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the descriptions of the
electoral systems in use. The memorandum on the use of the single
vote in Japan has been kindly supplied by Mr. Kametaro Hayashida,
the Chief Secretary of the Japanese House of Representatives; the
description of the Belgian system of proportional representation has
been revised by Count Goblet d'Alviella, Secretary of the Belgian
Senate; the account of the Swedish system by Major E. von
Heidenstam, of Ronneby; that of the Finland system by Dr. J.N. Reuter,
of Helsingfors; whilst the chapter on the second ballot and the
transferable vote in single-member constituencies is based upon
information furnished by correspondents in the countries in which these
systems are in force. The statistical analyses of elections in the United
Kingdom were prepared by Mr. J. Booke Corbett, of the Manchester
Statistical Society, whose figures were accepted by the Royal
Commission on Electoral Systems as representing "the truth as
correctly as circumstances will permit."
The author is greatly indebted to his colleagues of the Proportional
Representation Society, Mr. J. Fischer Williams and Mr. Alfred J. Gray,
for the cordial assistance rendered by them in the preparation of this
book. Acknowledgments are also due to the editors of the Times, the
Contemporary Review, and the Albany Review, for permission to make
use of contributions to these journals.
J.H.H.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AS AN EXPRESSION OF THE
NATIONAL WILL

The spread of Representative Government--The House of Commons
and sovereign power--The demand for complete sovereignty--Complete
sovereignty demands complete representation--Strengthening the
foundations of the House of Commons--The rise of a new party--The
new political conditions and electoral reform.
CHAPTER II
THE DIRECT RESULTS OF MAJORITY SYSTEMS
The exaggeration of majorities--The disfranchisement of
minorities--The under-representation of majorities--A "game of
dice"--The importance of boundaries--The "gerrymander"--The modern
gerrymander--The "block" vote--The election of the London County
Council--The election of aldermen of the London County Council--The
election of Representative Peers of Scotland--The Australian
Senate--London Borough Councils--Provincial Municipal
Councils--Summary.
CHAPTER III
THE INDIRECT RESULTS OF MAJORITY SYSTEMS
False impressions of public opinion--become the basis of legislative
action--Loss of prestige by the House of Commons--Unstable
representation--Weakened personnel--Degradation of party strife--The
"final rally"--Bribery and "nursing"--The organization of victory--Party
exclusiveness--Mechanical debates--Disfranchisement of minorities in
bi-racial countries--Defective representation in municipal
bodies--Wasteful municipal finance--No continuity in
administration--The root of the evil.
CHAPTER IV
THE REPRESENTATION OF MINORITIES
The Limited vote--The Cumulative vote--The Single vote--The need of

minority representation.
CHAPTER V
THE SECOND BALLOT AND THE TRANSFERABLE VOTE IN
SINGLE-MEMBER CONSTITUENCIES
Three-cornered contests--The second ballot--Experience in Germany,
Austria, Belgium, France--The bargainings at second ballots in
France--The "Kuh-Handel" in Germany--The position of a deputy
elected at a second ballot--The Alternative vote--The Alternative or
Contingent vote in Queensland, in West Australia--Mr. Deakin's failure
to carry the Alternative vote--Probable effect of the Alternative vote in
England--The Alternative vote not a solution of the problem of
three-cornered contests.
CHAPTER VI
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
The essential features of a sound electoral method--Constituencies
returning several members--Proportional representation of the
electors--Experience in Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, German
States, France, Holland, Finland, Sweden, Australasia, South Africa,
Canada, Oregon, The United Kingdom--The success of proportional
representation in practice--An election by miners.
CHAPTER VII
THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE
Its present application--An English movement--The system in
brief--Large constituencies--The single vote--The vote made
transferable--How votes are transferred--The quota--A simple
case--The transfer of surplus votes--The elimination of the lowest
unelected candidate--The result--Different methods of transferring
surplus votes: The Hare method--The Hare-Clark method--The Gregory

method--The Gove or Dobbs method--The Model election of
1908--The counting of votes: general arrangements--The first
count--The quota--The transfer