Current Issues of Apportionment Methods

Abstract

Three apportionment problems are addressed that are of current interest in Ger- many and Switzerland: the assignment of committee seats in a way that pre- serves the parliamentary majority-minority relation, the introduction of mini- mum restrictions in a two-ballot system to accomodate the direct seats won by the constituency ballots, and biproportional apportionment methods for systems with multiple districts so as to achieve proportionality between party votes as well as between district populations.