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Malapportionment
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionment. The apportionment by country page describes the specific practices used around the world. The Mathematics of apportionment page describes mathematical formulations and properties of apportionment rules. The simplest and most universal principle is that elections should give each vote an equal weight. This is both intuitive and stated in laws such as the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (the Equal Protection Clause). One example of deliberate malapportionment is seen in bicameral legislatures: while one house, often called a house of commons or representatives, is based on proportional representation, the other is based on regional representation. This is modeled after the Connecticut Compromise, which formed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Man, One Vote
"One man, one vote" or "one vote, one value" is a slogan used to advocate for the principle of equal representation in voting. This slogan is used by advocates of democracy and political equality, especially with regard to electoral reforms like universal suffrage, direct elections, and proportional representation. Metrics and definitions The violation of equal representation on a seat per vote basis in various electoral systems can be measured with the Loosemore–Hanby index, the Gallagher index, and other measures of disproportionality. History The phrase surged in English-language usage around 1880, thanks in part to British trade unionist George Howell, who used the phrase "one man, one vote" in political pamphlets. During the mid-to-late 20th-century period of decolonisation and the struggles for national sovereignty, this phrase became widely used in developing countries where majority populations sought to gain political power in proportion to their numbers. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legislature
A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Legislatures can exist at different levels of government–national, state/provincial/regional, local, even supranational (such as the European Parliament). Countries differ as to what extent they grant deliberative assemblies at the subnational law-making power, as opposed to purely administrative responsibilities. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as primary legislation. In addition, legislatures may observe and steer governing actions, with authority to amend the budget involved. The members of a legislature are called legislators. In a democracy, legislators are most commonly popularly elected, although indirect election and appointment by the executive are also used, particularly for bicameral legis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, second-largest country by total area, with the List of countries by length of coastline, world's longest coastline. Its Canada–United States border, border with the United States is the world's longest international land border. The country is characterized by a wide range of both Temperature in Canada, meteorologic and Geography of Canada, geological regions. With Population of Canada, a population of over 41million people, it has widely varying population densities, with the majority residing in List of the largest population centres in Canada, urban areas and large areas of the country being sparsely populated. Canada's capital is Ottawa and List of census metropolitan areas and agglomerations in Canada, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apportionment Paradox
An apportionment paradox is a situation where an apportionment—a rule for dividing discrete objects according to some proportional relationship—produces results that violate notions of common sense or fairness. Certain quantities, like milk, can be divided in any proportion whatsoever; others, such as horses, cannot—only whole numbers will do. In the latter case, there is an inherent tension between the desire to obey the rule of proportion as closely as possible and the constraint restricting the size of each portion to discrete values. Several paradoxes related to apportionment and fair division have been identified. In some cases, simple adjustments to an apportionment methodology can resolve observed paradoxes. However, as shown by the Balinski–Young theorem, it is not always possible to provide a perfectly fair resolution that satisfies all competing fairness criteria. History An example of the apportionment paradox known as "the Alabama paradox" was discovered in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hare Quota
The Hare quota (sometimes called the simple, ideal, or Hamilton quota) is the number of voters represented by each legislator in an idealized system of proportional representation where every vote is used to elect someone. The Hare quota is equal to the number of votes divided by the number of seats. The Hare quota was used in Thomas Hare's proposal for a single transferable vote system and can still be used for this purpose, though the Droop quota is used for most STV elections today. The Hare quota is often used to set electoral thresholds and to calculate apportionments under party-list proportional representation when using the largest remainder method. In such cases, the Hare quota gives unbiased apportionments that do not favor either large or small parties. However, unlike Droop's quota, the Hare quota does not guarantee a party with a majority of votes in the district will win at least half the seats. The quota was first proposed by Alexander Hamilton for use in Un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sainte-Laguë Method
The Webster method, also called the Sainte-Laguë method (), is a highest averages apportionment method for allocating seats in a parliament among federal states, or among parties in a party-list proportional representation system. The Sainte-Laguë method shows a more equal seats-to-votes ratio for different sized parties among apportionment methods. The method was first described in 1832 by American statesman and senator Daniel Webster. In 1842, the method was adopted for proportional allocation of seats in United States congressional apportionment (Act of 25 June 1842, ch 46, 5 Stat. 491). The same method was independently invented in 1910 by the French mathematician André Sainte-Laguë. Motivation Proportional electoral systems attempt to distribute seats in proportion to the votes for each political party, i.e. a party with 30% of votes would receive 30% of seats. Exact proportionality is not possible because only whole seats can be distributed. Different apportionm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minority Language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and an estimated number of roughly 5,000 to 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, the vast majority of languages are minority languages in every country in which they are spoken. Some minority languages are simultaneously also official languages, such as Irish in Ireland or the numerous indigenous languages of Bolivia. Likewise, some national languages are often considered minority languages, insofar as they are the national language of a stateless nation. Definitions There is no scholarly consensus on what a "minority language" is, because various different standards have been applied in order to classify languages as "minority language" or not. According to Owens (2013), attempts to define minority languages generally fall into several cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secession
Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the creation of a new state or entity independent of the group or territory from which it seceded. Threats of secession can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.Allen Buchanan"Secession" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2007. There is some academic debate about this definition, and in particular how it relates to separatism. Secession theory There is no consensus on the definition of political secession despite many political theories on the subject. According to the 2017 book ''Secession and Security,'' by political scientist Ahsan I. Butt, Ahsan Butt, states respond violently to secessionist movements if the potential state poses a greater threat than the would-be secessionist movement. States perceive a future war with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Single-issue Politics
Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of factions or advocacy groups. Bringing together political forces based on a single intellectual or cultural common denominator can be unrealistic; though there may be considerable public opinion on one side of an argument, it does not necessarily follow that mobilizing under that one banner will bring results. A defining issue may indeed come to dominate one particular electoral campaign, sufficiently to swing the result. Imposing such an issue may well be what single-issue politics concern; but for the most part success is rather limited, and electorates choose governments for reasons with a broader base. Single-issue politics may express itself through the formation of a single-issue party, an approach that tends to be more successful in p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ideological or policy goals. Political parties have become a major part of the politics of almost every country, as modern party organizations developed and spread around the world over the last few centuries. Although List of countries without political parties, some countries have no political parties, this is extremely rare. Most countries have Multi-party system, several parties while others One-party state, only have one. Parties are important in the politics of autocracies as well as democracies, though usually Democracy, democracies have more political parties than autocracies. Autocracies often have a single party that Government, governs the country, and some political scientists consider competition between two or more parties to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral Threshold
The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ways; for example, in party-list proportional representation systems where an electoral threshold requires that a party must receive a specified minimum percentage of votes (e.g. 5%), either nationally or in a particular electoral district, to obtain seats in the legislature. In single transferable voting, the election threshold is called the quota, and it is possible to achieve it by receiving first-choice votes alone or by a combination of first-choice votes and votes transferred from other candidates based on lower preferences. In mixed-member-proportional (MMP) systems, the election threshold determines which parties are eligible for top-up seats in the legislative chamber. Some MMP systems still allow a party to retain the seats the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Party-list Proportional Representation
Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionment (politics), roughly proportional to their share of the vote. In these systems, parties provide lists of candidates to be elected, or candidates may declare their affiliation with a political party (in some open-list systems). Seats are distributed by election authorities to each party, in proportion to the number of votes the party receives. Voters may cast votes for parties, as in Spain, Turkey, and Israel (Closed list, closed lists); or for candidates whose vote totals are pooled together to parties, as in Finland, Brazil, and the Netherlands (mixed single vote or panachage). Voting In most party list systems, a voter will only support one party (a Choose-one voting, choose-one ballot). Open list systems may allow voters to suppor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
