Proportional Representation 2: Parties Galore!

A proportional representation system promotes the existence of multiple parties, rather than only two parties, which has been the norm in the U.S.

Let's again look at the example of Israel which, as we saw earlier, has a pure form of proportional representation. At the last election, March 28, 2006, the largest party, Kadima, won only 29 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. 12 different parties are represented in the Knesset. In the election of October 28, 1969, a group called the Alignment, centered around the Labor Party, won 56 seats. That is the closest Israel has come to having a majority party but, of course, it fell short of an overall majority.

Therefore, the State of Israel has constantly had coalition governments since its creation in 1948.

Contrast that with the U.S. House of Representatives which, as we have seen, has no proportional element in its elections. There are currently 236 Democrats and 199 Republicans in the House; there are no independent or third-party members. There have occasionally been independents in the House, such as Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed Socialist, who represented Vermont in the House from 1991 to 2007, before moving over to the Senate. But there have tended to be clear majorities for one or the other of the major parties.

This is an apples-and-oranges comparison in the sense that, unlike the Knesset, the party balance in the U.S. House does not determine the head of government. * However, it illustrates the electoral effect of proportional representation vs. a single-member-district system, and the greater propensity toward multiple parties in the former than in the latter.

* That is not entirely true. If no U.S. presidential candidate gets a majority in the Electoral College, the House then elects the president. But in that election each state votes as one unit, and a majority of states is required for victory. That constitutional provision has only been invoked twice in history. That does not turn the U.S. government into a parliamentary system.