Proportional Representation Applied To Party Government   By: T. R. (Thomas Ramsden) Ashworth (1864-1935)

A NEW ELECTORAL SYSTEM

BY

T.R. ASHWORTH ( President of the Victorian Division, Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association )

AND

H.P.C. ASHWORTH ( Civil Engineer )

LONDON

SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

1901

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION 1

II. THE SO CALLED REPRESENTATIVE PRINCIPLE 22

III. THE PRESENT POSITION or PARTY GOVERNMENT 47

IV. THE REFORM: TRUE PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION 97

V. HOW THE EVILS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM WILL BE REMEDIED 122

VI. THE HARE SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL DELEGATION 141

VII. THE FREE LIST SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL DELEGATION 162

VIII. PREFERENTIAL VOTING, THE BLOCK VOTE, THE LIMITED VOTE, &C. 172

IX. ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE THE PRESENT SYSTEM 188

X. APPLICATION OF THE REFORM TO AUSTRALIAN LEGISLATURES 194

XI. THE CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS 208

"Majority and minority, in and for themselves, are the first requisite of popular government, and not the development or representation of separate groups." Bradford's "Lesson of Popular Government," vol. ii., page 179.

PREFACE.

The subject of electoral reform has been brought into prominence in Australia by a clause in the Commonwealth Bill which provides that the Federal Senate shall consist of six senators from each State, directly chosen by the people, voting as one electorate. The problem thus presented has been keenly discussed. On the one hand we have the advocates of the Block Vote asserting that the party in a majority is entitled to return all six senators; and on the other, a small band of ardent reformers pressing the claims of the Hare system, which would allow the people in each State to group themselves into six sections, each returning one senator. The claim that every section of the people is entitled to representation appears at first sight so just that it seems intolerable that a method should have been used all these years which excludes the minority in each electorate from any share of representation; and, of course, the injustice becomes more evident when the electorate returns several members. But in view of the adage that it is the excellence of old institutions which preserves them, it is surely a rash conclusion that the present method of election has no compensating merit. We believe there is such a merit namely, that the present method of election has developed the party system . Once this truth is grasped, it is quite evident that the Hare system would be absolutely destructive to party government, since each electorate would be contested, not by two organized parties, but by several groups. For it is precisely this splitting into groups which is causing such anxiety among thoughtful observers as to the future of representative institutions; Mr. Lecky has attributed to it, in his "Democracy and Liberty," the decline in the parliamentary system which has accompanied the progress of democracy all over the world. The object of this book is to suggest a reform, which possesses the advantages of both methods and the disadvantages of neither; which will still ensure that each electorate is contested by the two main parties, but will allow its just share of representation to each; and which will, by discouraging the formation of minor groups, provide a remedy for the evil instead of aggravating it.

T.R.A. H.P.C.A.

325 COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

APPLIED TO

PARTY GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER I.