PR was discussed in 1793, but was not adopted for government elections anywhere in Europe until 1860s (STV in Denmark).
Single Non-Transferable Voting (SNTV) was proposed by Saint-Just in 1793 in revolutionary France to provide PR through an at-large country-wide district. but it was never implemented there. (source: Hoag and Hallett (1926), p, 163
1793 was just about the same year that here in Canada, Ontario and Quebec got their first elected assemblies using FPTP in single-member districts and Block Voting in MM districts...
First experience in Canada of purposeful PR was not until almost a hundred years later
1886 -- Limited Voting Toronto.
France finally got PR (party-list PR) in 1919 and has since moved to two-round voting (a majoritarian system). (AV/IRV is also majoritarian)
Two-round France, with FPTP UK and tyranny Belarus, are among the few Euro countries without PR.
information provided by Electoral Reform Society (UK) : Which European countries use proportional representation? – Electoral Reform Society – ERS (electoral-reform.org.uk)
That info lists 43 countries in Europe but actually Europe has 50 countries.
Here are those overlooked:
(with info on the system used within (info provided by knowledgeable friend)) Armenia uses a bonus system. EG if 50 seats are proportionally distributed but 10 seats are given to the largest party as a bonus, then they might get perhaps 40% of the vote, 0.4×50=20, plus the 10 bonus seats, and you get 30 out of 60 seats.
Azerbaijan uses a first past the post system.
Georgia uses a parallel system
Kazakstan PR (but is authoritarian and does not have free elections)
Moldova PR
Russia use parallel system
Turkey PR but its districts have a low District Magnitude, d'hondt mechanism of allocating seats, and a 10 percent threshold.
other notes:
Monaco and San Marino have bonus systems. EG if 50 seats are proportionally distributed but 10 seats are given to the largest party as a bonus, then they might get perhaps 40% of the vote, 0.4×50=20, plus the 10 bonus seats, and you get 30 out of 60 seats. The two countries have versions of this.
Hungary has a parallel system. 106 go to the winner in single member districts, 93 to lists. Eg if you win 80 districts and 50% of the vote in an MMP system, you should have 100 seats total and would have an additional 20 list seats, but Hungarian parallel voting gives you the 80 seats and 50% of the 93 list seats, or 47 of them, for a total of 127 seats or 64%.
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