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In Germany's Bundestag, 299 seats are for proportional representation and the other 299 are for regional representation in a first-past-the-post system. Is it just a coincidence that the seats are split right down the middle?

According to a book that I am reading, this is the only way by which the German system can work. On the other hand, in Japan's parliamentary system, the number of electorate MPs does not have to be the same as that of list MPs.

The author then went on to argue that because the Bundestag seats are evenly divided between electorate MPs and list MPs, the German system is better for small parties. On the contrary, the Japanese system is bad for small parties because the seats are not evenly distributed among electorate MPs and list MPs. But all of this just doesn't make any sense to me, and the book doesn't provide much explanation for the assertions.

One last thing: I am sorry that I might not be able to cite the book. It's written in Mandarin.

Underwood
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  • In my opinion, it seems to have more to do with how they decide the total number of seats a party will have. In Germany, it is decided by the share of the total party votes. In Japan, you have to add up the district seats and the party seats. – Underwood Oct 25 '22 at 21:04
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    It's not 50/50 as it's not fixed. It starts at 50/50, but additional seats are created to maintain proportionality as required. https://www.bundestag.de/en/parliament/plenary/distributionofseats https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestag – Jontia Oct 25 '22 at 21:05
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    @Jontia thanks for the reply. And yes, I am aware of that. But my question is: why does it have to start at 50/50? – Underwood Oct 25 '22 at 21:12
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    @Underwood The rules are set forth in the "Basic Law" of Germany. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html – ohwilleke Oct 25 '22 at 21:29
  • @ohwilleke okay, thanks! Back to the line of argument at issue here, do you think German's system is better for small parties because the seat distribution starts at 50/50? – Underwood Oct 25 '22 at 21:42
  • If there was only 1 or 2 list seats, it would obviously be very poor for minor parties, because they would be unlikely to get representation. And the more seats you have the more accurately you can match the actual representation, e.g. if you have 100 seats but one party has 19.5% of the vote you can't give them 19 1/2 seats, but if you have 200 seats total then they can get 37. This is all very obvious and may not reflect how the German system works. (Equally a parliament with 10000 seats would be impractical.) – Stuart F Oct 25 '22 at 21:45
  • It doesn't have to, but it does 50-50 is a simple ratio. The designers of the constitution set it that way. There is not question here, hence I vtc – James K Oct 25 '22 at 21:45
  • You can certainly find other parliaments with different ratios, just as you can find parliaments with different numbers of representatives. There are trade-offs over constituency size, how many members are needed for ministerial or committee roles, how many it is practical to have in debates so everyone can contribute, how big your building is. This question on the size of parliaments may help you consider some issues. – Stuart F Oct 25 '22 at 21:48
  • "According to a book that I am reading, this is the only way by which the German system can work." The book you're reading is wrong there. The German two votes system would also work with other splits. Indeed that is already the case. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Oct 25 '22 at 22:47
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    I think it could work if the lists seats started at zero, the key feature would seem to be the requirement to increase the list seats until proportionality is achieved. – Jontia Oct 26 '22 at 05:23

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Actually the German system has 299 direct seats and at least 299 list seats. At least 299 seats are assigned so that the total proportions are "right," given the direct seats and certain rounding, state-level aggregation, and cutoff rules. The German term is overhang and leveling seats.

The 50-50 split worked reasonably well during the first half century of the Federal Republic. In recent years, more and more extra seats have been necessary, and a reform has been hotly debated. The Constitutional Court told the parliament to reform the rules. Various parties made suggestions that benefitted mostly them, there was gridlock, and the Bundestag grew.

A lower percentage than 50% direct seats would decrease the impact of independent candidates and those parties which are below the electoral threshold, yet manage to get direct candidates elected. Such parties are very unusual because their votes would need extreme regional concentrations.

o.m.
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