HARVARD Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by THE UNITED STATES PUBLISHING COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. UNDER our existing electoral system, if there are, say, seven Representatives to be elected in a constituency of seven thousand voters, four thousand of whom belong to the A party, and three thousand to the B; the A voters will secure all seven Representatives, and the B voters have none. Equity demands, that as the voters stand as four is to three, the Representatives should stand in the same proportion, and to secure this equitable division is the main aim of Minority or Proportional Representation. The idea is, simply, that every party shall be represented in proportion to its strength. If it has half the vote it should have half the representation; if a third, a third; and so on. The origin and nature of the processes proposed for the accomplishment of this object, and the general history of Minority Representation, form the subject of this book. The purpose of the work is neither to criticise nor advocate, neither to decry Minority Representation on the one hand, nor on the other to hold |