Story of the System
The Rise of Democracy
The Founding Fathers distrusted political parties, yet they knew that parties have an important role to play in the facility of checks and balances. But parties had another role to play, a role the founders could never have seen coming: organizers of mass democracy.
The Founders created a system that gave power to the people, and through the years the right to vote expanded to more and more.
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In America
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To organize this mass democracy, political parties stepped in. They rallied people around common goals, recruited capable people to run for office, and offered voters a type of "brand name" for politics.
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In the World
At the same time in the world, the power of Kings and Queens gave way to democratically elected legislatures. It wasn't just us doing it anymore, and wherever democracy went, so did political parties. Every year, it became more apparent that political parties were here to stay.
As different countries turned away from kings and queens and toward democracy, they used different methods to deal with political parties - keeping them in check and productive.
Let's use this to our advantage. It's common sense to compare our California government to other examples and ask what works and what doesn't, and what could work here. If you're a homeowner, you look at what other homeowners are doing. If you're a business owner, you look at what other businesses are doing. It's just common sense.
Single Member Districts
In our country, it became normal to divide states into districts and elect one person from each district called a "single-member district". (Although not every election is like this: New Hampshire, Idaho, and other states elect multiple representatives in some districts, and many small towns elect multiple city councilors "at-large", which means there aren't any districts.)
The advantage of this method is that it gets districts as small as possible, facilitating a closer relationship between representatives and the people they represent.
The disadvantage is that since only one person can win, support gravitates toward the two frontrunners and nobody else has a shot.
But not everyone did it this way: different countries, states, counties, and cities across the world adopted different practices. Each had their strengths and weaknesses.
Party List Proportional
Across the world, the most common approach was "party list proportional", where parties publish a list of candidates and, instead of voting for a specific person, votes are cast for a party.
When votes have been counted, the seats in the legislature are allocated to parties in such a way that the percentage of seats each party has in the legislature matches the percentage of votes they got on the ballot.
"Party List" ballot
Proportional Allocation of Seats
38%
10%
30%
22%
Votes
% Votes = % Seats
38%
30%
10%
22%
If a party gets five seats, the first five candidates on the party list take office. If a party gets four seats, the first four candidates on the party list take office, etc. etc.
The advantage of this method is better competition between parties. Parties only get power in proportion to their support from voters, and voters got better opportunities to support a party that they feel more accurately reflects their views and is saying what they think needs said.
But there's a downside. In order to make a proportional distribution of seats work, many representatives have to be elected together to a much larger district (up to ten times the size or more). As a result, there's much less connection between constituents and representatives.
The German Distaster
World War One began for Germany in 1914 when, led by the German Emperor and with a legislature elected by single member districts, the country plunged into a disastrous war and a humiliating defeat.
Near the end of that war, the last German emperor stepped down and ceded authority to a democratically elected legislature.
This new German republic, called the Weimar Republic, set up a new constitution that adopted the party list proportional method of electing representatives to the legislature.
Unfortunately, things didn't go well for that republic. The government tried to pay off it's debt by hyper-inflating the currency, then the depression hit, then Hitler took over and the republic died.​
Compromise in West Germany
At the end of WW2, it was back to the drawing board for occupied West Germany. A debate went back and forth about how to construct the new post-war election.
On one side, many Germans wanted party list proportional, where numerous parties can compete on level ground.
On the other side, many Germans wanted the stabilizing effect of Single Member Districts, where representatives are personally elected to represent a small district they know well.
​The result of those debates was a compromise: some representatives were elected from small, local districts of which they have close personal knowledge, and some elected by party list proportional, enabling healthier competition between political parties.
From this compromise came a new system called Mixed Member Proportional.
Mixed Member Proportional
This is the reform we're proposing for California: we keep our districts and the representatives we elected and add a new set of representatives elected by party lists, with seats allocated to achieve proportional representation.
Mixed-Member because some representatives (members of the legislature) are elected personally from small districts, while others are elected by party list vote.
Proportional because the proportion of seats each party gets in the legislature matches the proportion of party list votes they got on the ballot from the party list votes matches
Candidate Vote
Here we decide who we think is the best person to represent our district.
Party Vote
1
Add Party Vote
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Here we decide which party's policies we'd like to see put forward.
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CA Assembly Now
New Seats
%Seats = %Votes
2
Add New Seats To Legislature
3
Distribute Seats
%Seats = %Votes
To Make
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We keep the personal representation of our single member districts, and introduce proportional representation for a competitive party system. Now small parties have a foot in the door to start competing with the big guys. As voters we get better opportunities to support people we feel share our values, reflect our views, and are saying what we think needs said.