With a proportional system, since its purpose is to ensure that representatives from the various parties are elected according to some granularity of the popular vote in terms of party-preference, with more parties we will get more, but smaller blocks of support, which will show a much pronounced tendency to minority governments.
This is a two-edged sword. In some respects it means that the individual parties cannot act autocratically, and mitigates the power of their leadership accordingly. This suggests that they must all work together to achieve results.
This tempering of party power also to some extent mitigates my own concerns over party-list representatives being fundamentally beholden to the party for their seats, rather than the voters at large. (This is further mitigated where such seats, once allocated, are not re-allocated if the given representative later changed parties, or chooses to sit as an Independent.)
The other edge of this sword, however, is that such minority governments, or coalitions, perhaps, can be, depending on the issues of the day, somewhat fractious and prone to break and re-form in other combinations. This can significantly impact the stability of such governments, and even the ability to form them in the first place, as these PR cases illustrate:
“A parliamentary election was held in Iraq on 7 March 2010. The election decided the 325 members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq who would elect the Iraqi Prime Minister and President. The election resulted in a partial victory for the Iraqi National Movement, led by former Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which won a total of 91 seats, making it the largest alliance in the Council. The State of Law Coalition, led by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, was the second largest grouping with 89 seats…
“The election has been controversial… the Supreme Court in Iraq ruled that the existing electoral law/rule was unconstitutional, and a new elections law made changes in the electoral system. … banned 499 candidates from the election due to alleged links with the Ba’ath Party … there were numerous allegations of fraud…
“The new parliament opened on 14 June 2010. After months of fraught negotiations, an agreement was reached on the formation of a new government on 11 November….” — 2010 Iraq Parliamentary Elections, Wikipedia
“The 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis was a period of tense communal relations and political instability in Belgium rooted in the differing opinions on state reform, and in the continued existence of the controversial electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV)…
“The crisis broke out in the summer of 2007, following the electoral victory of the alliance of the Flemish Christian Democrats and the New Flemish Alliance, who supported a wide-reaching state reform and the immediate split of BHV. After 194 days of often heated negotiations, parties finally succeeded in forming a new government…
“In December 2008, another crisis related to the Fortis case, erupted, again destabilising the country and resulting in the resignation of Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme. The new Herman Van Rompuy-led government brought a brief period of fragile stability, but ended when Van Rompuy left his office to become the first full-term President of the European Council. The succeeding Leterme II Government fell in April 2010 over the lack of progress on resolving the BHV issue…
“New elections were held in June 2010, where the separatist and conservative New Flemish Alliance won a landslide victory in Flanders, while the pro-unity Socialist Party won the elections in French-speaking Belgium. Due to the major differences between the two winning parties on a community and social-economic level, government negotiations and formation took a total of 541 days, breaking the world government formation record of 249 (sic?) days, previously set by Iraq in 2010…” — 2007–2011 Belgian Political Crisis, Wikipedia
Note: “…formation took a total of 541 days [Belgium], breaking the world government formation record of 249 (sic?) days [Iraq]” — this 249 days doesn’t seem to jive with the Iraq quotation dates, which suggest about 100 fewer days. It is in any event an excessive delay after an election that is supposed produce a government based on that election, for a provisional government to remain in office.
These problems are not necessarily the rule for PR, but do highlight real concerns that must be addressed when a PR solution is contemplated.
