Proportional representation basics
Launch library · evergreen read
Proportional representation is a family of electoral systems designed so that the share of seats a party wins closely matches the share of votes it received overall. This differs from allowing a party with a plurality in many districts to win a disproportionate number of seats relative to its actual level of support.
Common approaches include allocating seats from party lists in multi member electorates, or transferring surplus and eliminated votes between candidates in a ranked system, with the specific mechanics varying considerably between jurisdictions that have chosen some form of proportional method for their elections, a pattern that recurs in many contexts.
Because smaller parties tend to win seats more easily under proportional systems, they often produce multi party parliaments and coalition governments, which supporters see as more genuinely representative and critics sometimes describe as harder to form stable majorities within over the course of a term, particularly when scrutiny is otherwise limited.