PROPORTIONAL MISREPRESENTATION?

For electoral reform junkies, and for those who are alarmed at the possibility � or more likely, the probability � of nasty, unintended consequences stemming from proportional representation, should it ever be introduced here, there are two instructive stories in today�s New York Times. One is about Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi�s re-introduction yesterday of a system of proportional representation, widely believed to be an attempt to bolster his prospects in the Italian general election next April. Since 1993, the country had a mixed system in which three-quarters of the members in both chambers were elected in single-member constituencies, with the remaining seats distributed proportionally. Those rules helped bring into being what was essentially a two-party, or two-coalition system, replacing decades of unstable minority government in Italy. Now all that�s about to change again. There�s a good background document here.
The other story in the Times provides a detailed breakdown of how the new Iraqi electoral system, a form of compensatory proportional representation, is meant to work. Two hundred and thirty of the two hundred and seventy-five seats in the new Iraqi parliament will be elected by party lists directly from the eighteen provinces. The forty-five reserve seats will be distributed both to parties that did well nation-wide but won no provincial seats, or to parties that won some provincial seats, but need topping up to reach proportionality. It was a system designed to accomodate Iraq's ethnic and religious divisions, but it could make matters worse, because it offers no cigar for burying the hatchet, if I may mix metaphors. After today�s elections, despite a year-end deadline, there could be months of bickering and deal-making before a prime minister is chosen and a government is formed. I don�t expect our mainstream media will cover much of this, which is a pity, because that process will be one of the best indicators of what will emerge from the post-war chaos.
More views here and here. And for a broader look at some of the problems likely to follow from today�s elections, see this piece by a leading Iraqi intellectual, Kanan Makiya.