Political Equality in Electoral Systems: Equality Implies Proportionality

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چکیده

This chapter argues that the value of political equality implies proportionality in an electoral system. The literature on electoral systems and democratic theory has been remarkably agnostic about how basic values may be translated into institutions. Dahl (1956) constructs an axiomatic theory of democracy based on the idea of political equality but then declares it has little to say about practical politics because it does not consider representative elections. Much of the empirical literature on electoral systems is essentially instrumental—if you want this value, choose this kind of institution. Proportionality is considered as a value but is not grounded in any more fundamental principle. Social choice theory offers a means of translating values into institutions, but this literature has tended to concentrate on social decision rules rather than electoral systems. Here, by contrast, it is argued that proportionality is logically implied by the basic value of political equality, that is, by the concept of democracy itself. Of course, there are many different ways to implement proportionality, and these will be considered later in this chapter. Nevertheless, the value of political equality implies that proportionality is a basic requirement for an electoral system being democratic. If we wish to defend a system that is not proportional, we have to argue that there are other values that outweigh the value of political equality. This chapter shows that proportionality follows logically from the liberal conception of political equality deAned in the last chapter, that is, from the requirement that all individual voters be treated equally. It is thus very different from the usual arguments that proportional representation (PR) is “fair.” Frequently the fairness of proportionality is simply assumed. For example, Lijphart (1994, 140) concludes that for many PR supporters, proportionality is simply a goal in itself, “virtually synonymous with political justice.” When proportionality is given justiAcation, this tends to be in terms of fairness to political parties or social groups, or in terms of the desirable instrumental effects of proportional representation. For example, McLean (1991) argues that the case for proportional representation rests on the idea that a legislature should be a microcosm

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تاریخ انتشار 2006