what is meant by 'proportional representation?

Question

looking for define of prportional reprsentation.

Answer 1

Proportional representation means that each party is usually represented at election. The votes are completed in a 1st choice 2nd choice etc instead of X in the box. From the choices of the people they then calculate how many seats each party has been allocated.

Answer 2

It would mean that the conservatives would win, but they wouldn't have a majority by about 10%, so there would technically be a 'hung parliament' if proportional representation was brought in, that's kind of the whole idea though, that way parties tend to work together (well they have to or they'd get nowhere) as a pose to continually squabbling like they do at the moment. It would also be much fairer on the green party and lib dems, e.g. the green party has around 2% of votes but only one seat, it would be much fairer if they had 12 seats (around 2% of seats in parliament) the current system is a bit biased towards the conservatives and labour.

Answer 3

Proportional representation ensures that there aren't too many people only represented by one person in the legislative body (Congress).

If there is a sudden surge of people, say, in California, then the amount of U.S. Representatives to Congress would be increased, since there are now more people that need representation.

Answer 4

in summary, proportional representation means is an electoral system delivering a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive (usually in legislative assemblies).

a good explanation can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation