Political Parties and American Democracy Mini-Conference III: “Emergent Proportionality”: Reimagining Proportional Representation for the U.S.

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Part of Mini-Conference

• Political Parties and American Democracy Mini-Conference III

Session Description

Proportional representation (PR) takes many forms around the world, but is underused and under-studied in the United States. In comparative literature, proportionality is typically measured by levels of support versus representation for political parties, but various aspects of the party system in the United States complicate that kind of analysis. Unique factors to consider in the U.S. context include the near-exclusive dominance of two political parties, the relative weakness of those parties, and the relatively larger roles played by non-party interest groups in U.S. politics.

Additionally, there are other dimensions of proportionality beyond partisan proportionality that should be considered, especially in a society as diverse as ours. Issue coalitions, coalitions based on shared racial or ethnic identity, and political ideology all deserve fair consideration. In any given election, some of those factors may take precedence over others, based on the needs of the electorate.

In an age of increasing political polarization, any approach to reform must consider the needs of the populations being served. When discussing proportional representation, it is the responsibility of researchers to consider which groups are included in the concept of proportionality, and how our systems will help or hinder representation for various constituencies. Political scientists and reformers have the opportunity to reimagine what proportionality means for the U.S.

This panel introduces a property called Emergent Proportionality. The panel will explore how electoral systems can proportionally represent coalitions of voters along dimensions that are important to voters, but do not necessarily align with the existing party system. The Emergent Proportionality property is inherently flexible, letting proportionality arise naturally rather than specifying ahead of time which dimensions matter (e.g. specifying that political parties are the axis along which voters must sort themselves). Emergent Proportionality should result in partisan proportionality, but not be dictated by it.

Emergent Proportionality could be achieved by awarding seats to individual candidates from multi-member districts or at the state or national level, and utilizing a threshold-to-elect low enough such that various partisan, issue, or demographic groups can feasibly elect candidates of their choice in proportion to their level of support. Whereas party-centered PR may require or incentivize parties to provide a balanced list in regard to demographic dimensions, Emergent Proportionality lowers electoral barriers to allow representation to occur naturally and on voters’ terms.

Emergent proportionality likely comes with some trade-offs, however. While Party List PR results in nearly-perfect partisan representation, systems that include Emergent Proportionality may sometimes result in a partisan skew because of the mathematical difficulty of achieving perfect proportionality across multiple dimensions at once. For example, if affordable housing is the predominant issue in a given election, a system exhibiting Emergent Proportionality would help the various factions around the housing issue earn exactly their fair share of seats. However, those issue factions may not perfectly coincide with partisan factions. As a result, one party may win less than its “fair share” of seats because some of that party’s voters care more about the housing issue than party allegiance. This flexibility is key to the property of Emergent Proportionality, but trade-offs are inherent.

Emergent Proportionality should be particularly relevant to conversations about reform in the United States. Party-centered PR may not be compatible with the US, where big-tent parties aren’t always ideologically cohesive and there is a considerable amount of cross-cutting cleavages. The racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S., along with our high level of racially polarized voting, also demands a system that can award seats fairly outside of just the partisan dimension. Of course, political cultures and party systems somewhat derive from electoral rules, so when considering what PR should look like in the United States, we must consider both our current political culture and the culture that could emerge from our systems.

This panel will discuss the current state of thinking around PR in the United States; introduce the property of Emergent Proportionality; consider the relevance and implications of the Emergent Proportionality property; and guide a new level of thinking about what proportional representation can and should mean in the U.S.

These and other questions can and should inform critical future research that can inform ongoing and future reform options.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Chair

• Deb Otis FairVote

Presenters

• Rhyane Wagner Black Voters Matter Fund

• Drew Penrose Protect Democracy

• Rachel Hutchinson FairVote