50 



QUOTA IN PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION, 



1, It is the object of the various systems of proportionar 

 representation to secure, in the words of J. S. Mill, that 

 " every or any section shall be represented, not dispro- 

 portionately, but proportionately." 



If it is necessary to divide a country into a number of 

 constituencies, the only way to secure proportional repre- 

 sentation with certainty is to ensure that in every constit- 

 uency each party is represented in proportion to the num- 

 ber of its supporters in that constituency. The adoption 

 of any other electoral system must make the representation 

 depend on the accident of the distribution of the parties 

 among the constituencies. (^) 



The division of a country into single-member constit- 

 uencies will usually produce disproportionate representa- 

 tion, even if the member for each constituency is elected 

 by a majority of the voters in the constituency, (^) for the 

 representation of either party will depend on the number 

 of constituencies in which it is in a majority, and this 



(') J. Rooke Corbett, Recent Electoral Statistics (a paper read before 

 the Manchester Statistical Society in 1906, and re-printed with additional 

 statistics by the Proportional Representation Society in 1910). 



C) The j-esults of the seven General Elections held in the United King- 

 dom from 1885 to 1910 are shown by the following- table. Uncontested 

 constituencies are allowed for by assuming that the strength of each party 

 varied in them from one election to another in Ihe same ratio as in the 

 contested constituencies in the same county. Liberals include Labour and 

 Irish IVationalist members, Conservatives include Liberal Unionists : — 



General Elections, United Kingdom, 1885-1910. 



(Sec J. Rooke Corbett (1), Table I.). There are a few double con- 

 stituencies in England, and there were three-party contests in some 

 constituencies, but this table gives a reliable view of the possibilities of 

 single-member constituencies. 



