The Portuguese voting system as a representation mode

Abstract

After the Democratic Revolution of 25 April 74, the country was split in 'electoral districts'. In 1980 election they numbered 20, elected a total of 246 deputies, according to their dimension, the number varying from 4 to 56, using Hondt method. The (global) data for the elections to the Constitutional Assembly in 1975 and the Assembly of Republic, in 1976, 1979 and 1980 analysed by the use x² and linear regression, in what regards the (global) proportion of vote and the (total) number of deputies for parties, shows that: a) the large parties/coalitions are over-representated and the small are under-represented; the representation being only proportional for the «represented» (i.e., with deputies) parties!coalitions; b) the «turning point» from under-representation to over-representation is about 15%; parties/coalitions below 2% are not represented (except for the special caseof the larger electoral district) and for a vote of about 90% they would occupy the Parliament (monolitism); the Parliament majority is attained by about 47%. Finally, some considerations are made about voting systems.