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Tom Monto
Dec 11, 202233 min read

Old Books and Information on PR and STV

Updated: 5 days ago

If we go back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, we see how people presented PR back then.

(PR meant mostly STV then but much of their case for for STV is actually the case for PR)


This blog provides information on old books about PR and STV and also cross-references other Montopedia blogs on that subject.

============================



I found a whole slew of PR books online

at

The Canadian books are not mentioned/catalogued elsewhere, I think.


I find that kind of thing to be amazing stuff once you dive in.


U.S. or British


Andræ and his invention, the proportional representation method (The author, Printed in Philadelphia, 1926), by Poul Georg Andræ and Vaughn Meisling (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)


Democracy or anarchy? : A study of proportional representation (University of Notre Dame, 1941), by Ferdinand A. Hermens (page images at HathiTrust


The Direct legislation record and the proportional representation review. ([National Direct Legislation League], 1901), by National Direct Legislation League (U.S.) (page images at HathiTrust)




A list of books (with references to periodicals) relating to proportional representation. (Govt. print. off., 1904), by Library of Congress Division of Bibliography and Appleton P. C. Griffin (page images at HathiTrust


Minority or proportional representation. Its nature, aims, history, processes, and practical operation. (United States Pub. Co., 1872), by Salem Dutcher (page images at HathiTrust)





Proportional representation (T. Y. Crowell & co., 1896), by John R. Commons (page images at HathiTrust)


Proportional representation (Macmillan, 1907), by John R. Commons (page images at HathiTrust)


Proportional representation (1920), by Alva Edward Garey (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)


Proportional representation (The Macmillan company, 1926), by Clarence Gilbert Hoag and George Hervey Hallett (page images at HathiTrust)



Proportional representation [by] Roy E. Curtis... (Wisconsin library commission, 1908), by Roy Emerson Curtis and University of Wisconsin (page images at HathiTrust)




Proportional representation : a study in methods of election (Methuen & co., Ltd., 1911), by John H. Humphreys (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)


Proportional representation; a study in methods of election (Methuen & co., ltd., 1911), by John H. Humphreys (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)





Proportional representation and British politics (J. Murray, 1914), by John Fischer Williams (page images at HathiTrust)


Proportional representation and municipal government (s.n.], 1920), by Charles A. Mullen (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)



Proportional representation applied to party government; a new electoral system (S. Sonnenschein & co., lim., 1901), by Thomas Ramsden Ashworth and H. P. C. Ashworth (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)


Proportional Representation Applied to Party Government: A New Electoral System, by T. R. Ashworth and Henry‏ Ashworth (Gutenberg ebook)



Proportional representation in Ireland (E. Ponsonby, Ltd.;, 1913), by James Creed Meredith (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)




Proportional representation in the League of nations ([New York, 1919), by Arthur Kline Kuhn (page images at HathiTrust)




Proportional representation, its dangers and defects (G. Allen & Unwin ltd., 1925), by George Horwill (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)




Proportional Representation pamphlet (The Society, 1905), by Proportional Representation Society (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)



Proportional representation pamphlets. ([n.p., 1890) (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)  NO INFO


Proportional representation review (Haverford, Pa.) (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)


Proportional representation review (Proportional Representation League, 1914), by Proportional Representation League and American Proportional Representation League (page images at HathiTrust)


Proportional representation. Talbot collection of British pamphlets (Printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street, in the 1880s), by John Lubbock, H. O. Arnold-Forster, and Proportional Representation Society (page images at HathiTrust)


Proportional representation -- the key to democracy (National municipal league, 1940), by George Hervey Hallett, Clarence Gilbert Hoag, Citizens Union of the City of New York, and National Municipal League (page images at HathiTrust)


AUSTRALIAN

AUSTRALIAN

The theory of the quota in proportional representation.--II, (Papers and proceedings of the Royal society of Tasmania, 1913) (J. Vail, government printer, 1913), by E. L. Piesse, Tasmania. Electoral Dept, and Tasmania. Electoral Office (page images at HathiTrust)


RULE OF THREE

A new system of arithmetic, on an improved plan, embracing the rules of three ... and all proportional questions in one rule applicable to the whole, the process greatly simplified and abridged. (S. & G.S. Woodward, 1857), by Charles Guilford Burnham (page images at HathiTrust)


search for "effective voting"

... Effective voting : An explanation of the ballot reforms usually known as "preferential voting" and "proportional representation" ([Govt. print. off.], 1913), by C G. Hoag and Robert Latham Owen (page images at HathiTrust)






Hare System of Proportional Representation: Effective Voting, Real Democracy (leaflet #5, fifth edition; 1919), by American Proportional Representation League (multiple formats at archive.org)


Proportionate [voting]

Proportionate representation as the basis of the vote for grand lodge officers an address delivered by M.W. Bro. J. Ross Robertson, P.G.M., at the meeting of the Past Masters' Association of the Toronto districts, in the Temple building, November 28th, 1908. ([s.n.], 1909), by J. Ross Robertson (page images at HathiTrust; US access only




Fair election

Fair and free elections essential to free government. : Every safeguard should be maintained (Washington, 1879), by William McKinley (page images at HathiTrust

election reform

Hungary: Three Years Struggle Against Feudal Reaction and Against Election Reform (1910), by Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt (multiple formats at archive.orgPolitical Reform in Wisconsin: A Historical Review of the Subjects of Primary Election, Taxation, and Railway Regulation (1910), by Emanuel L. Philipp, contrib. by Edgar T. Wheelock (multiple formats at archive.org)

An essay on constitutional reform ; treating of state credit,--special legislation,--election of all officers by the people ... &c. (Printed at the Globe Job Office, 1846), by Hiram P. Hastings (page images at HathiTrust)


Practical aspects of electoral reform : a study of the general election, 1922 (P.S. King & son, 1923), by John H. Humphreys (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)


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search for "election people":


The City for the People! Municipal Platform of the Socialist Party, Mayoralty Election, 1932: For Mayor, Morris Hillquit (1932), by Socialist Party of New York (multiple formats at archive.org)


The city for the people! : municipal platform of the Socialist Party, mayoralty election, 1932 : for Mayor, Morris Hillquit : Socialist Party (U.S.). New York : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Charter of Bay City Voted upon and passed by the people of Bay City, Michigan, at the general election November 2, 1920. Effective April 4, 1921. (John P. Lambert co., printers, 1920), by Bay City (Mich.) (page images at HathiTrust)


Charter of the city of Spokane, Washington : approved by the people at an election held March 24, 1891, attested and went into effect April 4, 1891, (including amendments). (W.D. Knight Co., 1896), by Spokane (Wash.) (page images at HathiTrust


Election of senators by direct vote of the people (G.P.O., 1906), by George Frisbie Hoar and United States. Congress 1905-1906). Senate (page images at HathiTrust


Papers relating to the election of senators by direct vote of the people ... (Gov't. Print. Off., 1908), by United States Senate, George Frisbie Hoar, and Joseph Benson Foraker (page images at HathiTrust


Government by the people : the laws and customs regulating the election system and the formation and control of political parties in the United States (The Macmillan Company, 1908), by Robert H. Fuller (page images at HathiTrust)


Government by the people the laws and customs regulating the election system and the formation and control of political parties in the United States (Macmillan, 1908), by Robert Higginson Fuller (page images at HathiTrust; US access only


Speech on the bill to give the election of electors to the people, delivered in the House of Representatives, in Committee of the Whole, in December, 1847. (James S. Burges, Printer, 1849), by E. M. Seabrook (page images at HathiTrust)


search for "political reform":


Political Reform in Wisconsin: A Historical Review of the Subjects of Primary Election, Taxation, and Railway Regulation (1910), by Emanuel L. Philipp, contrib. by Edgar T. Wheelock (multiple formats at archive.org)

[direct primary]


Political reform in Wisconsin; a historical review of the subjects of primary election, taxation, and railway regulation : Philipp, Emanuel Lorenz, 1861-1925 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive


Forney Political reform by the representation of minorities (The author, 1894), by Matthias N. Forney (page images at HathiTrust)



Political reform in Wisconsin; a historical review of the subjects of primary election, taxation, and railway regulation (C. N. Caspar, 1910), by Emanuel Lorenz Philipp and Edgar T. Wheelock (page images at HathiTrust)


Political results of land reform (Agency for International Development, 1970), by Princeton Nathan Lyman and Jerome T. French (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)


Principles of reform : political and legal (Smith, Elder and Co., 1865), by John Boyd Kinnear (page images at HathiTrust


Projects of political and economic reform : syllabus of a course of six lecture-studies (University of Chicago Press, 1896), by Frederic William Sanders (page images at HathiTrust)


Reform: an essay on the political, financial and social condition of the United States, showing dangers, defects and remedies (H.S. Crocker, 1900), by Ralph De Clairmont (page images at HathiTrust)


Reform : an essay on the political, financial and social condition of the United States, showing dangers, defects and remedies (Roxburgh Pub. Co., 1894), by Ralph De Clairmont (page images at HathiTrust)


Reform. An essay on the political, financial, and social condition of the United States, showing dangers, defects, and remendies. (The Arena Publishing Company, 1896), by Ralph De Clairmont (page images at HathiTrust)


Reform. An essay on the political, financial and social conditions of the United States, showing dangers, defects and remedies. (Press of H.S. Crocker Company, 1894), by Ralph De Clairmont (page images at HathiTrust)

talks of bodyguard for president, military preparedness for defence of Washington D.C. from out side attacker and also from mob

says president has to much powers

likes Swiss constitution [no mention of P.R.]


Reform in Parliament, or, Balance of political power, or, English constitution and English iron-man contrasted (H. Roebuck, 1867) (page images at HathiTrust)


The reform of political representation (J. Murray, 1918), by John Fischer Williams (page images at HathiTrust; US access only) [not available]


proportional representation category --full view only -- English only

[still need to do]


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Hazlitt, Henry, 1894-1993 Instead of dictatorship Published   1933



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Hathi Trust online also has many old books on PR


(hathi trust

search for "proportional representation" produces many results --- some listed below.

search for "transferable votes" does not produce anything useful

search for "effective voting" does not produce anything useful

"1890 p.r. pamphlets"  is no help not even titles available

======


Canadian books on Hathi trust

five published in Canada.


Proportional Representation Committee of Ontario, Effective Voting the Basis of Good Municipal Government (1898)

(CIHM 1419)


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The Crisis in party politics and the way out. the method and advantages of P.R. and an illustrative election (1916)

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Education, Social and Moral Reform, P.R. (Ontario Provincial Liberal Party 1919)

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Your Committee have given special attention to P.R. as a method of voting (Social Service Council of Canada, Committee on Political Purity and the Franchise, 1920)

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Charles Mullen, Proportional Representation and Municipal Government (1920)

[published in Montreal]

[not actually available online, available at UofA Library and many other major university libraries across Canada]

====

Canadian Institute of Historic Microreproductions

CIHM online has copy of

The first municipal P.R. elections in the United Kingdom: Sligo (Ireland) municipal elections, January, 1919 : a practical demonstration of the working of the single transferable votepublished by the Proportional Representation Society of Canada, in [November] 1919. (CIHM No. 99422;


This is said to be "P.R. pamphlet No. 8" [but I have not come across the previous ones in the series -- a search in CIHM for "Proportional Representation Society" and "P.R. pamphlet" yielded no others]


Says that at that point in time (November 1919), Calgary had used STV for two city elections and that STV had been used to fill the UK House of Commons University seats in 1919.

It says the January 1919 municipal election in Sligo, Ireland was the first use of STV in a municipal election in the UK. And it prophesied that Sligo's successful use of STV would open the door to many more municipalities in UK using STV.

[Ireland soon got its independence from Britain, and many Irish cities as well as Republic of Ireland's Dail elections did begin to use STV. But it would be many years before many UK municipalities adopted STV.

Scottish local authorities now use STV but that is a fairly recent development.]


================================================


Canada pre-eminent lefty of his time, J.S. Woodsworth, called for "Proportional Representation with grouped constituencies" in a book of his speeches published in 1929.

"Proportional Representation with grouped constituencies" at the time meant STV - ranked votes, single voting and multi-member districts.

Peel 10437: Woodsworth, J. S. (James Shaver) (1874-1942); Cohen, Jacob Lawrence (1898?-1950) (editor) ; Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers. Labor's case in Parliament: A summary and compilation of the speeches of J.S. Woodsworth in the Canadian House of Commons 1921-1928. [Ottawa]: Canadian Brotherhood of Railroad Employees, 1929.

Page 76 to 78 also concern that type of electoral reform.


see my Montopedia blog for excerpts on this material.

===============================


Rectification of Parliament (1892) by Sandford Fleming

Fleming was perhaps Canada's most illustrious scientist of his time. And even today we use the system of 24 time zones around the world that he invented.


see my blogs for copies of this, starting with:

==========================


John D. Hunt The Dawn of a New Patriotism (1918)


also author of Democracy in Canada (a chapter in The Dawn... but printed as separate monograph as well)


John D. Hunt was clerk of the executive council of Alberta in the 1920s and was the force behind Alberta adopting STV-PR in 1924. (Of course the government in power at the time - the United Farmers of Alberta - played an important part as well.) (Actually Alberta adopted a hybrid STV/IRV system. In 1926 Alberta was the first legislature in North America to hold an election where all its members were elected using non-plurality methods - the proportional STV or the majoritarian Instant-Runoff Voting system.)


His booklet A Key to P.R. (1924) is accessible in Peel's PP website and also reproduced in the book A Report on Alberta Elections and in the 100 years of Democracy volume of the Centennial Series.


two files at the PAA contain information concerning his work for the Legislative Assembly, some of which centred around the introducfion of STV in Alberta provincial elections:

PR1969.0289/194      1-600-31


see Montopedia blog on him

==================================


Clarence Gilbert Hoag authored the pamphlet The Representative Council Plan of City Government, published by the PR League in 1913.

(Hoag became editor of the PR Review in 1914.

Hoag also was co-author of the book Proportional Representation (1926).)


Clarence Gilbert Hoag  The Representative Council Plan of City Government

The Representative Council Plan of City Government has much info on STV at city level (as per the knowledge level in 1913, which is probably pretty advanced even for us today)

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030959160&view=1up&seq=1(Hoag became editor of the Proportional Representation Review in 1914.


Hoag, Effective Voting (1914)

(I have download)


Hoag also was co-author of the book Proportional Representation (1926).

================


J. Fischer Williams

"Proportional Representation." J. Fischer Williams. Political Science Quarterly. March, 1914.



J. Fisher Williams, The Reform of Political Representation

mentioned in article in the The Common Cause (April 4, 1919)


============


John Humphreys was also a motive force in British PR movement in late 1800s.

his book PR was published in 1911

A smaller work with his name on it, The influence of the method of election upon the constitution of local authorities (1927), was published in Britain.

(it is available at PAA, 71.138, file 126)


see Montopedia blog on Robert Tyson

==========================


1857 Thomas Hare Machinery of Representation

Clause 8. when a candidate achieves quota, he just does not receive more votes (a random method of transferring surplus votes)

although Hare at first envisioned at-large votoing across the Unigte Kingdom, even by 1857 he had taken to propoing districts with porous boundaries:

candidate can run in more than one district.

Votes are counted anywhere, and then if elected, the candidate is said to represent the place where he received the most votes or a place listed first on his nomination paper.


1871 Thomas Hare Minority Representation in Europe


on types of PR

computer p. 195/485 Hare Minority Representation in Europe


Hare mentions

List PR 

Limited Voting  

Cumulative Voting

STV (AKA preferential voting or contingent voting)


List PR


Limited Voting -- "by thorough electioneering discipline, a party far less than two thirds of the constituency can elect the three members under the limited vote."

[CV works that a minority equivalent to a Droop quota is enough to take a seat if the minority voters give their votes to one or mroe minority candidates.

say where limited votoing is used ina three-set district, each voteer gets tow votes. the minorty gives their votes to the two minorty candiates one willbe elegted if the majorty has lessthan

math is: a candidate with 25 percent of the vote gets more votes than a candidate of a party that tries to take three seats with 3/4ths of the vote.

25 percent is equivalent to a Droop quota.

Under limited voting, it is guaranteed that a minority will take a seat if it has Droop quota of votes, and the minority voters casting multiple votes means no plumping involved.

I don't know why some prefer CV to LV])


Hare gives this math: with 84 voters in total two thirds of 84 is 56

51 may obtain the entire rep. by dividing themselves into three sections of 17 each, voting A and B, B and C and A and C.

the other 33 voters would be out-voted by the 34 votes cast for each of the three.


Cumulative Voting

allows a quarter to take a seat in a three-seat district

[CV works that a minority equivalent to a Droop quota is enough to take a seat if the minority voters plump all their votes on one candidate.]


example: three seats to fill --120 votes cast   31 by accumulating their votes, may elect one out of three members, for they may give him 93 votes whereas the remaining 89 voters could not give to three candidates 90 votes apiece, and could therefore elect no more than two.

and if one party puts forward too many candidates, they may be wholly shut out from representation by their better disciplined adversaries."


============================

in three-seat district

[anything more than a quarter would get at least one seat if all votes go to one cand.

anything more than 3/4ths would get all seats (three-person slate)


anything between 1/4th and 3/4th would get 1 or 2 seats (possibly but not likely 3) --depending on how many votes other party has, on how many candidates each party runs and how vote is split among those candidates.


A2 B2 either one may take two, the other taking just one.

more popular party is A:

    result A2 B1 if A gets 102 or more to B's 100 votes and each party shares votes evenly.


    result A1 B2 if two A candidates get less than 50 and B candidates get 50 each (B gets 100)

result A2 B1 if one B cand gets more votes than other, and A gets same or more than  B. 

party with votes equally split more successful than if one candidate gets more than slate-mate unless party has less than half of the votes of the other party, in which case one cand. getting lion's share is better policy


A3 B2 (A gets more votes) 

    result: A2 B1 if A gets 102 to 152 to B's 100 votes or two A candidates each take more than half of B's votes or more than the least popular B cand.

     result: A3 B0 if A gets 153 or more to B's 100 votes and three A candidates each take more than any B cand.



153 to 100:  51/51/51 to 50/50

180 to 100: 60/60/60 to 59/41

200 to 100: 80/65/55 to 54/46


where candidates get 3 - 2 -1 parts of party vote three candidates or 2 - 1 parts of party vote (two candidates)

153 to 100:  76/51/26 to 66/34   A 2 B1  order ABABA

180 to 100: 90/60/30 to 66/34   A2 B1 order ABABA

200 to 100: 100/67/33 to 66/34   A2 B1   order AABBA

210 to 100: 105/70/35 to 66/34   A2 B1  order AAABB

A3 B2 (A gets more votes) A1 B2 if A gets 101-149 to B's 100 votes


A3 B2 (B gets more votes) A1 B2 if A gets 34-99 to B's 100 votes

A2 B3 (A gets more votes) A2 B1 if A gets 101 or more to B's 100 votes

A3 B3 (A gets more votes) 

    result A2 B1 if A gets 153 or more to B's 100 votes

    result A2 B1 if two A cand. get 102 or more to B's 100 votes


    result A1 B2 if two A cand. get less than 50 (each B cand gets 50 -   B gets 100 votes)


==========================

Hare said:

"the question is between a system giving perfect freedom to individual opinion and judgement and systems that render every one who would vote with any effect more or less a machine in the hands of the party leaders."

preferential or contingent voting (it is not clear what he means by this I think it is possible he just means ranked voting where back-up preferences are just used in case of contingency - so STV)

===============================================


1872 W.R. Ware

Machinery of Politics

===============


1872 Charles R. Buckalew,

P.R. or the representation of successive majorities (1872) (Hathitrust online)

328 pages (I have download)


Thomas Hare, the British inventor STV, is mentioned in many places in the book.

======================


1884 Sir John Lubbock Proportional Representation

================


1889 Aubrey De Vere, LL.D.

Essays, chiefly literary and ethical

London Macmillan and Co., 1889


p. 161  talks of proportionate representation and pushes for Cumulative Voting, saying it would be improvement in England and is life or death in Ireland.

U.K. using two-seat district but if we use fewer but larger districts, (say 3-seat districts) each voter has as many votes as the seats to fill, and CV, a large majority can return two representatives in the district, a minority of two-fifths is large enough to return one.


"this is the most typical way to produce Proportionate Rep...


great now is the need for a distribution of seats that aims at giving security to both propertied and the unpropertied classes"


A self-governed nation has undertaken to be directed by its own wisdom, and the wisdom of a nation is Public Opinion, rightly formed and justly estimated. ...

A genuine Public Opinion, which alone should claim the name, is rarer thing than many imagine; and there are countries in which it cannot exist. It is dissipated by the fervours of faction, and frozen by timidity and selfishness....

Public opinion consists of numberless individual opinions attracting each other, blended, but not merged; each of whih must there fore at once possess the independence of real and free thought and unite it with that moderation, charity, and reverence through which real and free thought willingly submits to conscientious modifications, resisting only the incompatible and the arbitrary, until at last there arises that harmony in which many minds become one...." (p. 170)


Forming Public Opinion] is not the result of fierce antagonisms made fiercer by insolent methods of public procedure preferred to the considerate and the courteous by enthusiasts bent upon doing a nation's work rapidly rather than on doing it well. (p. 171)

[representation is more than balance of parties rep.]

unrep. rep in districts is responsible for the delay in such measures as Catholic emancipation, negro emancipation, parliamentary reform, commercial freedom - they had considerable support with in certain factions in a main party but where the reform was supported by the most party members, the party did not have majority in the district; where the party had majority, the reform was not of particular importance to the elected member. (paraphrased p. 173)


"Mere majority (plurality) representation unites two evils of an opposite character." 

It delays adoption of a reform until the reform ceases to be effective. Then conversely

"at periods of excitement it does not tolerate delays that would allow a nation to distinguish between its deeper convictions and mere superficial theories or passions, and thus for reform it substitutes revolution." (p. 173)


"National rep. then when contemplated in the light of an idea [thoughtfully], means the proportionate rep. both of a nation's majorities and larger minorities throughout the whole country, not chiefly to adjust the relations of parliamentary parties, but for the purpose of eliciting the intelligence and maturing the wisdom of a nation."


p. 181 he points out how true democracy is supported in The New Franchise how to use it (1867) by James Garth Marshall. 

in his other book Minorities and Majorities their Relative Rights, Marshall said Limited Voting was part of the 1867 reform bill but he liked CV more.  

in fact he says ballots [secret voting] would not have been needed if proportionate rep. had been adopted early enough "before the age of the Caucus." (p. 182)

"exclusive rule of a mere majority creates like Frankenstein, a Political Monster whose earliest impulse is to hunt its creator to death." (p. 184)




Published in Worcester MA, 189?

[advertized in ABEBOOKS, Aug 2024]

[possibly available on Hathitrust]

====================================================================


1894

Report of meeting on "Proportional representation," or effective voting, held at River House, Chelsea, on Tuesday, July 10th 1894. Addressed by Miss Spence [Catherine Helen Spence], Mr. Balfour, Mr. Courtney, Sir John Lubbock, and Sir John Hall [former prime minister of New Zealand]


======



1895 J.W. Jenks

Social Basis of P.R. (48 pages) (published in Britain) (Hathitrust online)

(I have download)



1900

Eltwood Pomeroy

By the People -- Arguments and Authorities for Direct Legislaion or the Initiative and the Referendum

Consists of the articles and symposiums pub. in the New time, in 1897 and 1898, with introduction by J.W. Sullivan. in which he sets out reasons why "representatives don't represent."

includes an article on P.R. by Robert Tyson in which he discussed the similarities between Direct Legislation and P.R.; different types of P.R. -- the Hare plan (STV), the Gove method, the Swiss Free list; Belgium's first use of PR in a national election in the world; etc.

======



1900 debate on electoral system for Belgium Mahain (Hathitrust online)


1908 Curtis P.R.

(prepared with co-operation of political science department University of Wisconsin) (Hathitrust online)


J.C. RUPPENTHAL. ELECTION REFORMS: THE TREND TOWARD DEMOCRACY.

[Address delivered before the Bar Association of Kansas. Printed from the report of the Association with the consent of the author.] 

hathi trust


======================================================================



Proportional Representation League (U.S./Canada)


P.R. Review and pamphlets


If you get a chance, check out

Proportional Representation Review, published 1893-1896, 1901-1932

Much of the issues of the 1893-1896, 1901-1924 period is available online.


The Proportional Representation Review chronicled the advances and defeats of PR movement in the U.S., Canada and Europe in that period.


1894 Address by the American PR League   (Hathitrust online)

refers to disappointments of the U.S. congressional elections of 1892 and 1894.

... [stopping gerrymandering will help but] Its complete elimination will not relieve us from misrepresentation. The evil [of FPTP] lies deeper, it is fundamental, and so long as plurality elections in single-member districts exist, the evil will remain whether or not gerrymandering exists.

...

[P.R. is what is needed and]

three forms exist: the Hare system, the Gove system and the Swiss or Free List system


Swiss or Free List system

at-large election say city-wide in city elections

each voter having as votes as seats to fill, can place them wherever desired

votes for candidate are taken as votes for parties.

largest remainder sytem to alloate seats to parties,

to fill party's seats, those candidates with most votes are declared elected. (p. 5)


... P.R. is looked upon by many as a means of securing representation of the minority but this is a misconception - the real purpose is to secure the representation of all the people and thus establish the rule of the majority." ...

"the hopeless minorities currently cooped up in political slave pens will be liberated; their votes will bear directly upon the final result, thereby offering the greatest incentive for all men to vote" ...

P.R. will establish the independence of the voter, it will give him perfect freedom in electing his representative and it will establish a true popular government because all the voters will be represented and a majority of the representatives will always be elected by a majority of the voters."

"P.R. bills have already been introduced in the legislatures of Mass., Conn., Rhode Island, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas..."

=============


pamphlets unsorted:


Growing Demand for PR 1927

publication of the PR League [United Kingdom]

round-up of PR across the world in 1927

(PAA 70.158, file no. 72) [see 1927 PR chronology binder]


Electoral Gamble (about Sligo STV election?]

publication of the PR League [United Kingdom]

(PAA 70.158, file no. 72) [see 1927 PR chronology binder]


Sorted pamphlets:


No. 1 Nov. 1914 Efficiency and Democracy in City Government 

#1 - Leaflet. No.1,5-6 1914-1919. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library


Am. PR League pamphlet No. 1 Nov. 1914 "Efficiency and Democracy in City Government" published by Am. PR league, Haverford, Pa.


#3 - Proportional Representation League leaflet. ... no.1-11 (1914-22). - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library


#19 - Leaflet. no.1,5-6 1914-1919. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library


Am. PR League pamphlet No. 2 1913 The Representative Council Plan of City Government by C.G. Hoag 


No. 3 ?


No. 4 ?


No. 5

#19 - Leaflet. no.1,5-6 1914-1919. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

Am. PR League Leaflet No. 5 The Hare System of PR Effective Voting Real Democracy ... (starts at 33/42)


No. 6

Am. PR League Leaflet No. 6      PR The Basis of the better democracy of Ashtabula... ([#19] starts at 25/42)

#19 - Leaflet. no.1,5-6 1914-1919. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library


No. 7 ?

No. 8 ?


Am. PR League pamphlet No. 9 #9 - Address of the American Proportional Representation League. ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

No. 10 ?

No. 11 ?

No. 12 ?

No. 13 ?

No. 14 ?

No. 15 ?

No. 16 ?

No. 17 ?

No. 18 ?

No. 19 ?

No. 19 ?

No. 19 ?

No. 20 ?

No. 21 ?

No. 22 ?

No. 23 ?

No. 24 ?

No. 25 ?


PR pamphlet No. 26 PR in Municipal Elections (starts at 1/42)

Am. PR League pamphlet No. 1 Nov. 1914 Efficiency and Democracy in City Government (starts at 19/42)

Am. PR League Leaflet No. 6      PR The Basis of the better democracy of Ashtabula... (starts at 25/42)

Am. PR League Leaflet No. 5 The Hare System of PR Effective Voting Real Democracy ... (starts at 33/42)


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Proportional representation review

Published  1914

Author    Proportional Representation League.

American Proportional Representation League


see Montopedia blog


===================================================


I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Story of New Zealand by F. Parsons (1904) has a section entitled "Proposed Government Changes" (p. 756) with a sophisticated look at the number of ignored voters and ineffective votes that the country's FPTP elections were producing. Sobering to think it was almost 90 years later that that country got PR (MMP) despite this early and clear expression of how FPTP was not ensuring that a majority of voters got representation. (and somewhat odd that the PR method NZ chose actually uses FPTP, but the dis-proportional results produced by that system are mostly addressed by overall top-up.

=================


Also there are model state constitutions that directly call for PR:


These two documents list that PR was meant to be part of these model state constitutions. It says so near the beginning where it defines the legislature, which is recommended to be unicameral.


The method of election of governor is unclear. Perhaps it is through Instant-runoff Voting .


Note that back then any ranked voting system was often called proportional representation or single transferable voting or even Hare-Spence, even when referring to single-winner elections.

==============================



from List of books on PR (1904) (hathi trust)


Catherine Helen Spence, Effective voting, the only effective moralizer of politics. (Arena, Nov. 1894)  9 pages


1895 PR conference American Academy of Political and Social Sciences  (Annals, Nov. 1895 ) [four pages?

===============================================================

Joseph P. Harris

The Practical Workings of Proportional Representation in the U.S. and Canada (1930)


A very good and detailed examination of processes of STV

and its variations such as a "fixed quota" as a means of making it simpler to communicate and thus easier to sell (p. 3


as well, there is city by city chronology and analysis of STV

Cleveland

Boulder p. 360

Hamilton (Ohio) p. 361

Kalamazoo (Ohio) p. 362

Sacramento p. 363

West Hartford p. 363


Calgary p. 365

Winnipeg p. 366


Past Experience Analyzed p. 368

Effective Votes

Does PR secure a more representative council? p. 371

"the election of capable persons is of far more importance than the election of typical citizens."

Does it increase racial and religious voting?

Does it elect radicals? p. 373

Are better councilmen elected? p. 373

How does PR affect political parties? p. 364

How does PR affect votes cast? p. 364

Invalid ballots

Does the transfer of votes change the results? p. 376

(vote transfers seldom affect results but they are useful back-up measures)

Is PR popular with the voters? p. 378


General Summary and suggested simplifications p. 379

Fixed quota -- as Droop quota is difficult to explain, a fixed quota may be used instead but that means varying numbers are elected.

(I think NY City used fixed quota in city elections but also it had guaranteed representation for each borough. How that meshed - I have no idea.) (See Montopedia blog for more information on NY's STV)


Harris: the real purpose of the quota is not to fix a number that must be reached by a candidate to be elected but rather to fix a number beyond which votes will not be counted for a candidate. There are almost always some candidates elected without reaching quota. ...

the effective principle of the quota is to turn back the surplus votes so as to prevent votes being wasted upon a popular candidate.

Even Hare is simpler than Droop.


p. 381

Surplus vote transfers -- instead of mathematical "exact" whole-vote method or the mathematical and complicated fractional Gregory method, a candidate simply stops accepting votes once quota is reached.


====================

1871 Journal of Social Science

p. 143 Field "Representation of minorities"

a majority of members in a legislature can pass laws but the individual members of that slim majority may each be elected by just a minority of votes in their district,

so a minority of voters can control lawmaking.

"This comes of perverting what should be a personal selection into one that that is local and territorial and makes a legislature almost as likely to misrepresent as to represent the will of the people." (p. 134)

...

"What we have to do is to divorce the quota from the district, either by dispensing with the districts altogether, or by enlarging the districts to the limits of several quotas and allowing the ballots to be divided, making the number equal to the quota sufficient in all cases to elect a representative."

A bill for English parliamentary reform, introduced by the Duke of Richmond in the year 1780, contained a clause looking to a representation of local minorities.

...

Preferential Voting (STV)

[Hare's proposal] say 800,000 votes cast and the number of representatives to be chosen 200, so the quota of voters to each rep would be 4,000. 

[then voter casts ranked ballot]

no vote is to be counted for more than one candidate.

Any candidate receiving 4,000 votes is to be declared elected.

If the candidate first on a voting paper fails to obtain quota, or has already obtained it, the vote descends to the next in order of preference.

When a cand. has obtained the quota, his votes up that number are to be counted for the cand. next in order of preference. and so on till all the votes are appropriated an the whole number of reps. is obtained. If there be not 200 persons credited each with 4000 votes and the representative body is consequently deficient in number, the deficiency is to be made up by taking the candidates who come nearest to the required quota.

This method, which we have called that of preferential voting, is also called by the Swiss reformers that of the electoral quotient (le quotient electoral).

A second plan is that of cumulative voting.... [if each voter has ten votes] one tenth of the votes may so be sure of a representative.

limited voting [say with five posts] the minority party [of the two] will certainly elect two of the judges.

substitute voting [Gove plan?] which permits candidates to cast anew the useless votes given to them and substitute a third person in their place. 

proxy voting ... This is the plan put forth three years ago by the Personal Representation Society of New York.

list voting AKA free concurrence of lists or open list 

these methods are not alike in merit. 

"That of preferential voting is theoretically the most perfect and if faithfully executed, would give the best representative chamber. it would compel a certain degree of deliberation before voting, would ensure to two or more parties PR in the legislature, and would ensure a certain degree of non-partisan representation. Whether it would prove as has been predicted, too complicated in its working among a large constituency can hardly be determined before actual experiment....

Preferential voting avoids both the objection of too great concentration of votes upon one person and the loss of votes below the Quota, since no cand. can have counted in his favour more than enough to elect him, and every vote will be counted, except the number less than a quota left after electing all of the required number of candidates.

=========================================


1844 The List Plan system

The List Plan system was conceived by Thomas Gilpin, a retired paper-mill owner, in a paper he read to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia in 1844: "On the representation of minorities of electors to act with the majority in elected assemblies". List plan was never put into practical use, but even as late as 1914 it was put forward as a way to elect the U.S. electoral college delegates and for local elections

Hoag and hallett, 1926, p. ?      Hoag 1914 , p. 31      Swain, Civics for Montana Students, 1912, p. 163


The List Plan system was conceived by Thomas Gilpin, a retired paper-mill owner, in a paper he read to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in Philadelphia in 1844: "On the representation of minorities of electors to act with the majority in elected assemblies". It ensured at least one popularly-elected member for each part of a multi-member district and also district-wide party-balanced representation. It was never put into practical use, but even as late as 1914 it was put forward as a way to elect the U.S. electoral college delegates and for local elections.<ref name="hoagHallett" /><ref>Hoag, Effective Voting (1914), p. 31</ref><ref>Swain, Civics for Montana Students, 1912, p. 163</ref>

==============================



H.R. Droop

This modification was apparently first suggested by H.R. Droop, a London barrister in 1868. Its significance is discussed in Appendix VI (1). THE WORLD MOVEMENT FOR P. R. § 123. The Spread of the List; System. It was over forty years after the appearance of Hare's first work before the single transferable vote was used for public elections anywhere outside of Denmark. Strange as it may seem, the energetic propaganda of Hare and Mill first bore fruit in the adoption and extension of the list; forms of P. R. described in Chapter V and Appendix VII. For Hare and Mill were the direct in- spiration of the P. R. movement in Switzerland, where the list; type of P. ...

=================================


Hayward, Proportional Representation

Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1884   (Hathi trust: computer  p. 307/1104)


...system of majority [plurality] voting holds the steady Liberals against the staunch Conservatives then if their weights are nearly equal, then the inclination of the beam of the political balance is entirely at the mercy of a small group of voters whose political views are determined at best by some ephemeral cry, some clever catchword, some panic fear, some class interest, or is so many cases by baser considerations [bribery or other corrupt practices]. (p. 299) 


[several principles are clear:]

1. Majority representation, merely counting majorities and not weighing them, does not secure that a majority of electors shall always command a majority of representatives. (the election of 1874)

2. The results of majority representation will always deviate widely from the ideal - PR. 

3. In large groups of generally like constituencies, majority representation gives an excessive preponderance in the representation of the party holding the majority.

4. Majority representation is unstable.  Small shifting majorities have an undue influence on  the representation, enormously exaggerating the fluctuations of political opinion in the country at large. (p. 300)


the plan of equal electoral districts has been spoken of with favor by some prominent Liberal statesmen.This plan has certainly the merit of simplicity. One elector one vote; each constituency to consist approximately of the same number of electors, and to return one member by a simple majority [sic]. Simple enough, indeed; but has the plan any other merit? Will it give a fair representation? Is it fair for the individual elector?

This plan of necessity involves majority representation pure and simple with all the defects that we have just noted for the simple reason that a single member is a unit that cannot be proportionally divided.

... [voters in certain places] are represented by a number of members of one party altogether out of proportion to the numerical strength of the electors of that party... The majority would indeed rule but the minority would not be heard.

... The division of a city or large district into wards or electoral divisions wold inevitably prove a fertile source of contention and chicanery, whatever machiery were devised for effecting it, for the character of the representation might in many cases be altogether altered according as as a line of division was drawn north and south or east and west, the struggle would be renewed from time to time, as with a growing population the divisions would require periodic adjustments.

lastly though the plan professes to give equal electoral right to all electors, it could not in reality do so, for the value of an elector'a vote would depend on the district in which he happened to reside, his vote counting as nothing if his political views were opposed to those of the party dominant among his neighbours.

...

The great mass of our existing constituencies return two members each, and this arrangement admits of only two alternatives - either one party absorbs the whole representation or else it is equally divided  between the two.

he first result generally leaves a large fraction of the electors unrepresented, and the other violates the sentiment that the majority should appear as such in the representation.

...there are twelve constituencies, seven counties and five cities, that return three member each,under he limitation of Lord Cairn's clause that no elector can for for more than two candidates [limited voting] while the City of London returns four members under the like limitation that no elector can vote for more than three members...

[analysis of the elections of 1868, 1874, 1880 tells us that limited voting in the counties yielded more balanced results than FPTP would have.]

Here is clear evidence of the steadying influence of an approx. proportional representation over mere majority representation. But the great value of this general result is that it shows distinctly that a better approx. to a really fair representation than by merely majority voting is practically attainable. 

... all single and double membered districts should be merged in larger ones returning at least three members, while to many constituencies including large centres of population a much larger number should be assigned, the maximum number admissible being limited only consideration of convenience and simplicity in the voting. 

within the limits of each district the electors should be free to group themselves according to their political sympathies, instead of being carved out into sections determined by locality alone, for this only would be secured to each elector the full privilege of the franchise, which otherwise would be liable to be neutralized by his finding himself an enforced member of a group in which he was one of a hopeless minority.

the particular pan for voting, by which within each constituency the best approximation to PR would be secured, whether Lord Cairn's limitation or the method of Cumulative voting, or some method involving the principle of Mr. Hare's plan, or some other plan that the ingenuity of practical politicians my devise, is beyond the scope of his article.

If reformers are once thoroughly agreed as to the end to be attained, though the invention of the machinery for attaining it will demand much careful though and discussion, there can be little doubt but that a practically satisfactory solution of the problem will soon be discovered. (p. 304) (computer p. 316/1104)


[I found no later comments in the same half year of Nineteenth Century on this topic]

==============


check library for this:

Daniele Caramani

=====


Parliament the Mirror of the Nation  Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain date ?

===============



I also see that the Alberta Legislature Library has a copy of

Governing under PR: Lessons from Europe by Jonathan Boston.

Format: Books

Call Number: JF 1001 B68 201

Format: Books

Call Number: JF 1001 D89 Available: 1


that library is open to public although you have to go through a metal detector to get in.

====================================================================


The Glasgow Herald 27 Sep 1971

found online but can't find now


=====================


British Journal of Political Science Oct. 1992

comparison of PR systems [not seen]

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Clarissa Mackie "Elizabeth's Pride A Labor Day story"    Bellevue Times Dec. 5, 1913

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