[EM] PRACTICAL DEMOCRACY, Proportional Elections

[Fred Gohlke]

This describes a practical method of electing proportional legislatures 
while empowering every member of the electorate to the full extent of 
each individual's desire and ability.  It uses the 2010 Dutch 
Parliamentary elections[1] for realistic size relationships between 
parties contending for public office.  The voting eligible population, 
the distribution of voters among the political parties, and the number 
of elective seats available are taken from this report which is used for 
verisimilitude only.

The proportional distribution of the seats in the legislatures is 
calculated using the reported turnout for each party as a percentage of 
the voting eligible population.  In the cited report, 9,442,977 people 
(75.4% of the voting eligible population of 12,523,842) voted in 2010. 
Of these, 9,312,710 voted for one of ten political parties.  Since the 
source material shows that seats were only allocated to members of 
parties, we see that 130,267 voters and 3,080,865 non-voters were 
unrepresented.

Since no electoral method that systematically excludes a large portion 
of the electorate from representation can be called democratic, we 
combine the latter two groups to form an 11th category (i.e., "None") of 
3,211,132 people who are also entitled to representation.

        Proportional Distribution of Legislative Seats
    (based on Political Parties in the Netherlands - 2010)

                       House              European     Total
            Party      of Rep   Senate   Parliament   Elective
           Members     seats    seats      seats      Offices
Party*    (2010)      (150)     (75)       (25)       (250)
-----     ------      -----    -----      -----      --------
None    3,211,132       38       19          6          64
VVD     1,929,575       23       11          4          39
PvdA    1,848,805       22       11          4          37
PVV     1,454,493       17        9          3          29
CDA     1,281,886       15        8          3          26
SP        924,696       11        5          2          18
D66       654,167        8        4          1          13
GL        628,096        8        4          1          13
CU        305,094        4        2          1           6
SGP       163,581        2        1          0           3
PvdD      122,317        2        1          0           2
----   ----------      ---       --         --         ---
Total  12,523,842      150       75         25         250

* Party abbreviations are taken from the cited report.  The
   party names have no significance for this description but
   are available on request.

The electoral method is described in detail in the Practical Democracy 
entry on Participedia[2] and in posts on the Election-Methods site on 
02/04/08, 09/11/08 and 03/06/09.  The members of each category of voters 
(party) are divided into triads that select one participant to represent 
the other two.  Those so selected are again divided into triads and the 
process continues, pyramid-wise, until a target number of candidates, 
determined by those who implement the process, are selected.  The method 
of assigning selected individuals to public offices, which must adhere 
to electoral district boundaries and other electoral strictures, is 
implementation-dependent.

This electoral method features several noteworthy features:

* It includes every member of the electorate in the electoral
   process.

* Each member of the electorate can participate in the process
   to the full extent of their desire and ability.

* It is a bottom-up process.  It lets the people decide what
   issues concern them and who are the best people to address
   those issues.  (This is in contrast to the prevailing top-down
   methodology that lets party leaders set the agenda and choose
   the candidates the people will be allowed to elect.)

* It eliminates political campaigning and the corrosive effect
   political campaigns have on society.  It stops the corruption
   that flows from soliciting campaign funds.

* It completes in less time than traditional, campaign-based
   electoral methods.  Furthermore, as each level completes,
   approximately 2/3rds of the remaining participants have
   fulfilled their civic obligation and are free to resume
   their normal lives.

* It guarantees that all candidates are carefully examined to
   determine their suitability for public office by people who
   have an incentive to uncover their flaws.  It creates a direct
   link between a candidate's character and chance of election.

* It includes a simple, direct way for the people to guide or
   instruct their candidates and, after the election is complete,
   to recall elected officials.

The bottom-up nature of the Practical Democracy concept lets the people 
impress their moral sense on their government.

Fred Gohlke

[1] 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_Netherlands
[2] http://participedia.net/methods/practical-democracy