Certain proportional representation (PR) systems tend to lead to the centralization of power within parties. One standard account gives the following summary:
In all countries with some form of party-list proportional representation, the candidates' positions on party lists are almost as important as their presence on them. In each constituency each party is entitled only to a number of seats proportional to its share of the popular votes, and those seats usually go to the candidates in sequence at the top of its list until its quota is filled. Hence each party list has some 'safe' slots at the top and a few 'marginal' slots just below them, and the rest are 'hopeless.'
In most parties in most such countries, the supervisory powers of the national or regional party agencies include the power to determine the final order in which the names appear on the party's list in each constituency. In parties with strong factions that must be appropriately represented, this process plays an especially important role in keeping the factions satisfied and the parties united 13.
Ranney gives the Likud Party of Israel as an example. In 1977, the party was an amalgam of three main factions, each of which had previously been an independent party with its own list. Under the Israeli system of PR, the entire country forms a single constituency of 120 seats:
Hence slots 1 through 40 were considered 'safe', slots 40 through 45 were considered 'marginal,' and slots 46 thorough 120 were considered 'hopeless.' After delicate negotiations among the three groups, the national leaders positioned the candidates thus: of the first 43 places Likud was given numbers 1 (Begin), 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 27, 29, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, and 42; the Liberals received numbers 2 (Erlich), 5, 7, 9, 12, 18, 20, 23, 30, 34, 38, 41, and 43; and La'am was given numbers 3 (Hurvitz), 10, 15, 21, 28, 31, 36 and 40. Number 16 was allocated at the last moment to a leading member of the Liberal Party.
(p. 84.)
For more information see also PR Systems.
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