Degressive proportionality

Degressive proportionality is an approach to the allocation (between regions, states or other subdivisions) of seats in a legislature or other decision-making body. Degressive proportionality means that while the subdivisions do not each elect an equal number of members, smaller subdivisions are allocated more seats than would be allocated strictly in proportion to their population.

This is an alternative to, for instance,

• Each subdivision electing the same number of members (as in the US Senate),
• Each subdivision electing a number of members strictly proportional to its population.

Degressive proportionality is intermediate between those two approaches. As a term it does not describe any one particular formula.

Uses

Germany

Each German state elects between three and six seats in the Bundesrat of Germany depending on its population. This means the least populous state, Bremen (with 663,000 inhabitants), has three seats while the most populous one, North Rhine-Westphalia (with 18,058,000 inhabitants), has only six seats.

European Parliament

Main article: Apportionment in the European Parliament

Under the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Parliament uses a system of degressive proportionality to allocate its 750 seats among the member states of the European Union. Treaty negotiations, rather than a specific formula, determine the apportionment between member states.

Minimum seats

State population per U.S. electoral college vote for the 50 states and Washington D.C.. States are ranked from left to right based on total population.

Any system that guarantees a minimum number of seats for a subdivision while setting an upper limit to the size of the whole body is almost certain to be degressively proportional to some extent. Several examples of this sort of degressive proportionality can be found in deliberative bodies around the world:

• The US presidential Electoral College consists of at least three electors from each state, while the total number of electors is 538. Therefore, voters in smaller states have disproportionally more say in the election than the national average.
• Section 24 of the Australian Constitution sets the minimum number of members of the House of Representatives for each "original State" at five. Since the size of the House of Representatives is currently set at 150, whenever any of the original States has less than 1/30 of the total population of Australia, that state will be over-represented in the House; this has for some time been the situation for Tasmania.

However, simply reserving a number of seats for a subdivision of the whole does not necessarily result in degressive proportionality. For example, in the New Zealand House of Representatives, the South Island must by law be divided into 16 "general" (i.e., non-Māori) electoral districts. However, this number is used only to ascertain the appropriate population per electoral district, and the number of "general" electoral districts in the North Island and the number of Māori electoral districts are set based on this quota. The fixing of the number of electoral districts in the South Island does not result in degressive proportionality.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• There may be a real or perceived danger that one or more of the largest subdivisions will dominate the legislature. This danger reduces if the votes of these subdivisions are reduced.
• The smallest subdivisions, especially those on the periphery of the territory, may have significantly different interests from many of the other subdivisions. There is a danger that these interests will be ignored if they have a tiny number of representatives. This danger reduces if their representation is increased.
• More pragmatically, the smallest subdivisions may be in a position to cause disproportionate trouble for the whole territory, for example by threatening to secede. This danger reduces if they are seen to be well-represented in the legislature.

Disadvantages

• Degressive proportionality goes against the basic democratic principle that all votes should count equally.
• Many of the advantages listed above would also apply to certain smaller areas which are not recognised as separate subdivisions for electoral purposes. (This may have happened as an accident of history or as a result of gerrymandering.) It is unfair if they are not accorded the same treatment as areas which are recognised electorally as separate subdivisions.

Methods for allocating weights

• Penrose method (square root of the population)