Editing Proportional representation (section)

==Attributes of PR systems==
===District magnitude===
Academics agree that the most important influence on proportionality is an electoral district's [[District magnitude|magnitude]], the number of representatives elected from the district. As magnitude increases, proportionality improves.<ref name="ideaEsd" />

At one extreme, where the district encompasses the entire country (and with a low [[electoral threshold]], highly proportionate representation of political parties can result), parties gain by broadening their appeal by nominating more minority and women candidates.<ref name="ideaEsd" />{{rp|83}} Very few countries elect using an at-large district{{Snd}}only the Netherlands, Israel, and a few others. Almost all PR systems use multi-member districts that divide the electorate while producing local representation. 

At the other extreme, the [[binomial voting|binomial electoral system]] used in [[Chile]] between 1989 and 2013,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21643216-new-voting-system-should-liven-up-politics-tie-breaker |title=Electoral reform in Chile: Tie breaker |newspaper=The Economist |date=14 February 2015 |access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref> a nominally proportional open-list system, featured two-member districts. In some of those elections, a party with more than a quarter of the vote in a district was ignored. As well, overall it gave just one seat to a party with 5 percent of the vote. It is generally not considered a genuinely proportional system.<ref name="ideaEsd" />{{rp|79}}

Similar plans for very small districts that produce quasi- or semi-proportional representation have been proposed in the United States and United Kingdom.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} 

Mollison's plan for STV in the UK proposes four- and five-member districts mostly, with three- and six-seat districts used as necessary to fit existing boundaries, and even two-seat and single-member districts used where geography dictates.<ref name="DMstvPdf" />{{Secondary source needed|date=May 2025}}

[[Politics of the Republic of Ireland|After the introduction of STV in Ireland]] in 1921, district magnitudes slowly diminished as more and more three-member constituencies were defined, benefiting the dominant [[Fianna Fáil]] party, until 1979, when an independent boundary commission was established, reversing the trend.<ref name="laver">{{cite web |last1=Laver |first1=Michael |title=A new electoral system for Ireland? |url=http://www.tcd.ie/policy-institute/assets/pdf/BP2_Laver_Electoral_System.pdf |publisher=The Policy Institute, [[Trinity College Dublin]] |year=1998}}</ref> In 2010, a parliamentary constitutional committee recommended a minimum magnitude of four but that was not implemented. Currently every [[Dáil constituency]] elects three, four or five TDs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Joint Committee on the Constitution |url=http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/Committees30thDail/J-Constitution/Report_2008/20100722.pdf |publisher=Houses of the [[Oireachtas]] |location=Dublin |date=July 2010}}</ref>

===Electoral threshold===
The [[electoral threshold]] is the minimum vote required to win one seat. The lower the threshold, the higher the proportion of votes contributing to the election of representatives and the lower the proportion of votes wasted.<ref name="ideaEsd" /> An explicit threshold requires parties to win a certain percentage of the vote in order to be awarded seats from the party lists, and otherwise denies any representation to parties . By contrast, a [[Electoral threshold#Natural threshold|natural threshold]] is (equal to a [[Droop quota]]) is the smallest number of votes needed to mathematically guarantee a seat.<ref name="ideaEsd" />{{rp|83}}

In New Zealand, which uses [[mixed-member proportional representation]], the electoral threshold is 5% of the national vote but parties that win at least one constituency seat get their due number of seats even if they do not achieve the threshold.<ref>{{Cite web| title=New Zealand's electoral system | url=https://www.ourcommons.ca/content/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8391757/br-external/2PedenR-e.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170602031536/https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8391757/br-external/2PedenR-e.pdf | archive-date=2017-06-02}}</ref>

Turkey sets its electoral threshold at 7 percent,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Turkey reduces election threshold to 7 percent{{snd}}Türkiye News |url=https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-parliament-approves-election-law-changes-172648 |access-date=19 March 2023 |website=Hürriyet Daily News |date=April 2022}}</ref> while the Netherlands sets its threshold at a single [[Hare quota]], or 0.67 percent of national vote count.<ref name="ideaEsd" /> 

Israel has raised its threshold from 1 percent (before 1992) to 1.5 percent (1992-2004), to 2 percent ([[2006 Israeli legislative election|in 2006]], and to 3.25 percent in 2014. Because that country uses at-large districting, the natural threshold would be less than 1 percent, much lower than the electoral threshold.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lubell |first1=Maayan |title=Israel ups threshold for Knesset seats despite opposition boycott |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-knesset-idUSBREA2A0MX20140311 |access-date=10 July 2014 |publisher=[[Thomson Reuters]] |date=11 March 2014}}</ref> 

South Africa has no explicit electoral threshold.{{Cn|date=August 2024}}

In STV elections, a candidate winning an [[electoral quota]]'s worth of votes (usually [[Droop quota]]) is assured election, and thus that candidate's party would win one seat in the district.<ref>Benoit, Kenneth. "Which Electoral Formula Is the Most Proportional?" (PDF). {{doi|10.1093/oxfordjournals.pan.a029822}}. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2010</ref>

===Party magnitude===
Party magnitude is the number of candidates elected from one party in one district. As district magnitude increases, it is likely more parties will elect larger delegations in the district and thus enjoy larger party magnitude.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/pc/pcc/pcc04/pcc04b|title=Party Magnitude and Candidate Selection —|website=aceproject.org}}</ref>

As party magnitude increases, a party may decide to broaden its appeal by nominating women and members of minority groups.<ref name=":0" /> A balanced ticket will be more successful than a narrow slate. This encourages parties to nominate women and minority candidates.<ref>{{cite web |title=Party Magnitude and Candidate Selection |url=http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/pc/pcc/pcc04/pcc04b |publisher=[[ACE Electoral Knowledge Network]]}}</ref>

But under STV, nominating too many candidates can be counter-productive, splitting the first-preference votes and allowing candidates to be eliminated before receiving transferred votes from elected or eliminated candidates of the same party and of other parties. An example of this was identified in a ward in the [[2007 Scottish local elections]] where [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]], putting up three candidates, won only one seat while they might have won two if they had only run two and party support (as seen in first-preference votes) had been redistributed among just the two.<ref name="DMstvPdf" /> 

The same effect may have contributed to the collapse of representation of [[Fianna Fáil]] in the [[2011 Irish general election]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=O'Kelly |first1=Michael |title=The fall of Fianna Fáil in the 2011 Irish general election |url=http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/1048883/The-fall-of-Fianna-Fail-in-the-2011-Irish-general-election.html |website=[[Significance (magazine)|Significance]] |publisher=[[Royal Statistical Society]], [[American Statistical Association]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140806103006/http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/1048883/The-fall-of-Fianna-Fail-in-the-2011-Irish-general-election.html |archive-date=6 August 2014}}</ref> The party received about half the votes compared to the previous election but received only one quarter of the seats it had received in that earlier election. In Dublin West, for example, it ran 13 candidates but elected just one.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/observatoire/1194 | title=General Elections 2011 Ireland }}</ref>

But generally in STV contests, transfers of votes allow each party to take roughly its due share of the seats based on vote tallies of the party's candidates. As well, where all the candidates of a party preferred by a voter are eliminated, the vote may find usefulness by being transferred to a candidate of a different party who is liked by the voter.<ref>Hoag and Hallett, Proportional Representation, p. 74</ref>

===Others===
Other aspects of PR can influence proportionality such as the size of the elected body, the choice of open or closed lists, ballot design, and vote counting methods.