4.3 Proportional Systems
While plurality systems are easy for voters to understand and quick to report results, they don’t always provide an accurate representation of voter preferences. Plurality systems emphasize the importance of winning an electoral district, but it does not consider the total number of votes, called the popular vote. For example, in the 2021 Canadian Federal election, the Liberal Party won the most seats despite receiving fewer votes than the Conservative Party.
| Party | Seats Won | Popular Vote (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 160 | 32.62 |
| Conservative | 119 | 33.74 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 32 | 7.64 |
| New Democratic Party | 25 | 17.82 |
| Greens | 2 | 2.33 |
| People’s Party | 0 | 4.94 |
To better reflect the overall preferences of the population, a system of proportional representation (PR) can be used. In a PR system, the percentage of votes a party receives roughly translates into the percentage of seats they win in the legislature. For example, if a party gets about 40% of the votes, it should get about 40% of the seats. Proportional systems are the most common worldwide, with 87 countries using a form of proportional representation.
Who wins the seats?
Without the geographic link central to plurality systems, systems of proportional representation use multimember districts. They also use party lists to allocate seats in the legislature. These lists can take two forms.
Closed List Systems
One variant of PR uses a closed list system (Blais & Bol, 2023). In this system, each party publishes a party list of candidates who are standing for election. This list includes candidates who will win seats in the legislature. For example, if a party wins twenty seats, the top twenty names from the party list will win seats in the legislature.
Open List Systems
In an open list PR system, voters can cast a preferential vote by ranking the candidates on the ballot. This is sometimes called Single Transferable Vote (STV) or panachage (O’Neal, 1993). Seats in the legislature are allocated to the top vote getters on each party list.
Minimum Thresholds
To prevent a fractured legislature dominated by small, often extremist, parties, some PR systems will have a minimum threshold to qualify for legislative seats. For example, in Sweden, a party must win at least 4% of the popular vote to be awarded seats in the legislature (Blais & Bol, 2023).
