Mill was an ardent advocate of proportional representation. Proportional representation is that method whereby the percentage of seats in a legislative assembly captured by one party is proportionate to its share of the popular vote.
The assumption is that if the Socialist Party polls 2 per cent of the votes, it should wind up with 2 per cent of the seats in the legislative assembly. The aim is to give representation to all sections of opinion and all interests in the State in proportion to the numerical strength of their votes, and that no vote should be lost.
There are many expedients and forms which are suggested and practised to secure representation for the minorities. But all such schemes are not the varieties of proportional representation. There are only two varieties of proportional representation: the Hare Scheme of Single Transferable Vote, and the List System.
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The idea underlying both these systems is to secure a representative assembly reflecting with more or less mathematical exactness the various divisions in the electorate. The rest are schemes of minority representation. The difference between proportional representation and minority representation is important.
All schemes of minority representation aim at giving representation of some kind to minorities, but not in proportion to the number of their votes, whereas proportional representation gives representation to minorities in proportion to their voting strength. In both these cases, however, the existence of parties or groups is formally recognised, and each party or group is given special representation.
It must, however, be noted that no scheme of proportional representation can work on the basis of a single-member constituency.
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It involves, firstly, a multi-member constituency, and, secondly, the candidate is not elected by securing a relative or absolute majority, but only if he reaches a quota of votes, that is, total number of votes cast divided by the total number of seats determines the quota of votes necessary to get elected.