One of the persistent anti-PR myths
is that the Mixed Member Proportional system elects two kinds of MPs. Critics
usually are referring to several different ideas:
1 1. Democratically nominated MPs versus candidates
appointed by the party leader?
This is a common fallacy. In
Scotland, New Zealand and Germany all candidates are nominated democratically.
In fact, as part of the German de-nazification process, the lucky Germans have
laws requiring all nominations to be democratic. Fair Vote Canada recommends
that party election campaigns not be eligible for public subsidy unless all their
candidates, whether local or regional, have been nominated democratically.
2 2. Candidates elected personally versus candidates
elected because of their position on a list?
Fair Vote Canada has said for years
that all MPs must face the voters. MMP with open lists is used in Bavaria. The
Law Commission of Canada recommended in 2004 that “allowing
voters to choose a candidate from the list provides voters with the ability to
select a specific individual and hold them accountable for their actions should
they be elected.” It is true that
the 2009 Ontario model for its referendum proposed 30% of MPPs should come from
closed province-wide lists. No one proposes this model today, but the enemies
of PR keep using arguments recycled from 2009.
3. 3. MPs who serve constituents versus MPs who do not serve
constituents?
Some critics assume that regional
MPs will not have local offices and will not serve constituents. In fact, they
do, in Scotland, New Zealand, and even in party-centric Germany. The definitive
study on “two classes of MPs” in Germany was led by Prof. Louis Massicotte in
2004:
He concluded, in Chapter 8:
“They
will substantially do the same work. . . . Voters do not usually know whether a
Bundestag member was directly or indirectly elected. . . . List members receive
as much mail from their constituents as do constituency members. . . .” After an exhaustive study of the roles of the
two types of MPs, he concludes: “The above data strongly support the prevailing
consensus in the literature: the existence of two types of parliamentary
mandates within the same parliament does not produce two unequal castes.”
4 4. Will regional MPs represent “Real Communities?”
If regional MPs plan to run again
at the next election, they will want to run locally as well; if their party
wins enough local seats their regional seat will evaporate. Even in Germany
“since
most list candidates have contested constituencies — and perhaps hope to do so
again — they, too, will ‘nurse’ constituencies and undertake engagements
there.” Even regional MPs from a smaller party will be locally anchored to
small regions of perhaps 10 or 12 MPs, sometimes as few as seven.
