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Old establishments, like the British Constitution, said Edmund Burke, "are not often constructed after any theory; theories are rather drawn from them." In setting out on an endeavour to understand the principles underlying political representation, the saying expresses exactl...
+England.+--We have seen that the fundamental error of the proportionalists is that they have failed to distinguish between the two stages of representation. In constantly appea...
2. Chapter 2All schemes of electoral reform hitherto proposed under the name of proportional representation are based on the so-called "representative principle"--viz., that every section o...
4. Chapter 4How to give effect to the principles of organization and leadership in an electoral reform--that is the problem which we shall now attempt to solve. We have already laid down th...
6. Chapter 6The single transferable vote, generally known as the Hare system, was first invented by a Danish statesman, M. Andrae, and was used for the election of a portion of the "Rigsraa...
1. Chapter 1Old establishments, like the British Constitution, said Edmund Burke, "are not often constructed after any theory; theories are rather drawn from them." In setting out on an end...
5. Chapter 5From the inception of the representative system it has been usual to elect representatives in small districts, returning only one or two members, and the single-membered elector...
8. Chapter 8+Preferential Voting.+--Laplace, the great mathematician, to whom we owe so much of the theory of probability, showed more than a century ago that although individual electors m...
11. Chapter 11+The Agent of Progress.+--If the analysis made in the preceding pages of the principles underlying political representation comes to be regarded as correct, the science of socio...
10. Chapter 10+Federal Legislatures.+--The keynote of the Australian Federal Constitution, as expressed in the Commonwealth Bill, is full and unreserved trust in the people. This is in direct...
7. Chapter 7The _Liste Libre_, or Free List system, is a far simpler and more practical method of proportional representation than the Hare system. The distinctive feature is that it applie...
9. Chapter 9+The Double Election.+--In the preceding chapter we have strongly insisted that the different methods considered for ensuring the return of the candidate acceptable to all secti...