Hugh Chisholm

“ The sons of famous political commoners, a Gladstone, a Harcourt, a Churchill, a Primrose, a Chamberlain, have by consent a superior claim, even within the radical or popular party, by no means resting originally or primarily on known personal merit or proved experience, for selection as candidates and then for preferment to office; and it is a very common occurrence for younger sons of peers to be selected as candidates (liberal as much as conservative) for parliament, even though from general intellectual considerations they may appear in no way the equals of other men. ”

“ The well-informed and capable man’s opinion being more valuable than that of the barely qualified elector, it should be given more effect by a system of plural voting, which should give him more votes than one. ”

“ Popular election, as thus practised, instead of a security against misgovernment, is but an additional wheel in its machinery.” When, in modern days, advocates of representative institutions seem ready to extend them to all countries, they become doctrinaires who depart widely from the standpoint of Mill, and forget that democracy is itself only a “form of government,” as Sir Henry Maine insisted, for which all communities may not be ripe or fitted. ”

“ The “second ballot” is a device for securing absolute majority, instead of relative majority, representation. Where the two-party system prevails, it is usual for only two candidates, one for each party, to stand for each single-member constituency. But there is nothing to prevent a third or even a fourth candidate standing, The second ballot. and this multiplication of candidates becomes the more common in proportion as parliamentary organization is split up into groups. ”

“ The facts as to the progress of the movement for women's suffrage are given in the article Women. It is only necessary to say here that, where the franchise is limited to the male sex, the theory of “no taxation without representation” is under modern conditions of life carried out in a decidedly one-sided way. The question of women's suffrage is, however, one of public policy, in whatever state it is raised; and even where, as in Great Britain, it has been adopted for municipal affairs, a distinction is commonly made as regards the national assembly. ”

“ But even more than this, he was in favour of a form of plural voting, so that the intellectual classes of the community should have more proportionate weight than the numerically larger working-classes: “though every one ought to have a voice, that every one should have an equal voice is a totally different proposition.” ”

“ We must guard ourselves from supposing that the citizens and burgesses, who were summoned to Parliament, were absolutely elected by the inhabitants of the towns as their representatives. Their presence in Parliament is another instance of representation without election. ”

“ But rules are laid down out of which, even if it had not begun already, representation in the strictest sense could not fail shortly to arise. The distinction which had been growing up ever since the Conquest, and indeed before, between the Witan and the land-sitting men, now receives a legal sanction. The practice of summons makes the distinction. Certain great men, prelates, earls and greater barons, are to receive the personal summons. The rest of the king's tenants-in-chief are to be summoned only in a body. ”

“ The history of the gradual extension of the franchise in the United Kingdom is given under Parliament, and the conditions for other countries under their respective headings. But while, in countries with a representative system at all, the question as to the extent to which the male citizens shall have the vote is mainly one of degree—as The Suffrage. to property or other qualification, up to the inclusion of all adults (see Vote and Voting) —the question of the incapacity of women, as a sex, raises a distinction which is more radical. ”

“ His choice rests with party wire-pullers, and the average individual elector is confronted with the task of voting for some one of whom he may personally know very little, except that, if returned, the candidate will in parliament vote for measures embodying certain general principles as indicated in some vague party programme. Since the elector as a rule himself supports a party, he votes accordingly, but there are always a good many electors who under such a system fail to get a chance of voting for a candidate who fully represents their views. ”

“ It is possible to compare a chamber so composed somewhat favourably with a modern House of Commons, if the point at is surf the provision of “representative men” (Le. men generally accepted as national spokesmen) —be strictly considered, apart from the method of selecting them by direct popular vote. ”

“ The ideal of having a “representative man” in the broader sense as a “representative” in the narrower is only very roughly attained where the conditions of public life make a capacity for electioneering a necessity. To a large extent the political candidate depends purely upon the support of a party organization. ”

“ Where a representative system, as such, is extolled as the ideal polity, the reservations made by Mill, a liberal thinker who cannot be dismissed as a prejudiced reactionary, should be remembered. Mill postulated, in any event, a state of society which was worthy of such a system, no less than the necessary checks and balances which should make it correspond to the real conditions of rational government. ”

“ When a representative assembly is to be elected by a direct popular vote, it is obviously necessary (a) that either there should be some system by which the whole as a unit should elect all the members en bloc, or, as this usually appears impracticable, that the mass of electors should be Systems
of Voting. divided within defined areas, or “constituencies”; and (b) that in the latter case voting shall take place for the purpose of electing one or more representatives of each such area according to some method by which due effect shall be given to the preferences of the electors. ”

“ In theory there can be no perfectly fair arrangement as between constituency and constituency, where a single representative is to be returned, except on the terms that they are exactly equal in the number of electors ”

“ Under the plan of scrutin de liste (or “general ticket”) larger districts are created, each returning several Proportional representation. members, and each voter has as many votes as there are members to elect; but while this system apparently provides the opportunity for the return of candidates with different views, it only requires a solid party vote to capture the whole of the representation for a majority. What is known as the “limited vote” is a form of scrutin de liste by which the elector has less votes than there are seats to be filled ”

“ The knights of the shire, the barons, citizens and burgesses of the towns, were severally, chosen by the communa or communitas of that part of the people which they represented.” [5]
“The notion of local representation, by which shires and boroughs chose representatives of their own communities, had to some extent to strive with another doctrine, that of the representation of estates or classes of men. The 13th century was the age when the national assemblies, not only of England but of most other European countries, were putting on their definite shape. ”

“ British practice, however, is of vital importance for the theory of representative institutions, and it is worth while to point out that the “will of the people” may even so be effectively expressed—some people may think even more effectively expressed than in a pure republic. ”

“ So long as political power rests in a small privileged class, such an idea must be slow to develop; and the primitive notion of a law-making body is that of all the members present in person, as in ancient Greece. ”

“ But it is important to remember, in connexion with the House of Lords question, that, in a country like England, where the constitution has provided for a Second Chamber which is composed of members of an estate or estates distinct in the nation from the estate of the commons, these persons may to a predominant degree nevertheless be really representative men by common consent ”

“ Though allowance must be made for exceptional cases, it is obvious that the son of a man who has been responsible for legislating, who has himself been brought up as one who will have to take his part in legislating, is most likely, in any society, to have qualified himself for the business, as in the case of any profession or trade. ”

“ By the time of Henry II. the force of circumstances, especially the working of the practice of summons, had gradually changed the ancient assembly of the whole nation into a mere gathering of the great men of the realm .... It is in the reign of Richard I. that we begin to see the first faint glimmerings of parliamentary representation The object of his wise ministers, of Archbishop Hubert among the first, was to gain the greatest amount of money for their master with the least amount of oppression towards the nation. ”

“ Moreover, the said knights are to have full and sufficient power for themselves and for the community of the aforesaid county, and the said citizens and burgesses for themselves and the communities of the aforesaid cities and boroughs separately, then and there, for doing what shall then be ordained according to the Common Council in the premises, so that the aforesaid business shall not remain unfinished in any way for defect of this power. ”

“ By this device an elector can indicate on his ballot paper not only his first choice, but also his second or third, &c. To ensure election a candidate need not obtain a majority of the votes polled, but only a certain number, so fixed that it can be obtained by a number of candidates equal to the number of seats to be filled, but by no more ”

“ The 'land-sitting men, ' on the other hand, not summoned personally or regularly, but summoned in a mass when their attendance was specially needed, gradually lost the right of personal attendance, till in the end they gained the more practical right of appearing by their representatives. ”