The European Parliament: Towards a Uniform Procedure for Direct Elections
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
sasse · brew · georgel · hand · huber · van den berghe When in September 1976 the Member States of the European Communities agreed on the arrangements for the first dire« elections to the European Parliament, duly held in 1979, they also reaffirmed that the Parliament itself should draw up a proposal for a uniform pro• european cedure for future direct elections. At the European University Institute, Florence, a team of professors and research students from the departments of Law and Politics set parliament to work on the problems and possibilities of a uniform procedure. Before presenting concise principles for a uni• form system many related topics are analyzed: What is meant by 'uniformity' in this context? Within their national Ufe, what electoral sys• towards tems do the Nine use and how do they relate to the general classification and characteristics of such systems? How did the Member States approach the problems of direct elections in a uniform 1979 and how do the procedures they then adopted compare with each other in detail? What sort of systems have been used by Greece, Portugal and Spain? A long appendix explores the comparison with the United procedure States experience. The final proposals are based on three guiding principles: for direct — that the Council Act of September 1976 is the essential foundation, — that uniformity need not be absolute in matters of detail, — that, within the area represented by each elections Member State, the system should be propor• tional in character. Professor Christoph Sasse, who originally in• spired and directed this project, died in an acci• dent in 1979. His associates have brought it to fruition in this volume. PUBLICATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS DE L'INSTITUT UNIVERSITAIRE EUROPÉEN PUBLICATIES VAN HET EUROPEES UNIVERSITAIR INSTITUUT PUBBLICAZIONI DELL'ISTITUTO UNIVERSITARIO EUROPEO DET EUROPÆISKE UNIVERSITETSINSTITUTS SKRIFTER VERÖFFENTLICHUNGEN DES EUROPÄISCHEN HOCHSCHULINSTITUTS 11 BADIA FIESOLANA - FIRENZE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE SASSE · BREW · GEORGEL · HAND · HUBER · VAN DEN BERGHE THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: TOWARDS A UNIFORM PROCEDURE FOR DIRECT ELECTIONS With contributions by ROLAND BIEBER and HOWARD C. YOUROW BADIA FIESOLANA - FLORENCE A list of sales offices can be found at the end of this publication. 1981 European University Institute Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1981 ISBN 92-825-2527-9 Catalogue number: OX-32-81-706-EN-C Stabilimenti Tipografici «E. Ariani» e «L'Arte della Stampa» — Firenze Printed in Italy TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD vu Hand / van den Berghe / Bieber 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Geoffrey Hand 1.1. Objectives of the Study 3 Guido van den Berghe 1.2. What is a 'Uniform Procedure'? 7 Roland Bieber 1.3. Conditions and Consequences of a Uniform Electoral Procedure for the European Parliament 21 David A. Brew 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF MAJOR VOTING SYSTEMS AND THE NA• TIONAL VOTING SYSTEMS OF THE NINE 29 2.1. Characteristics of Major Voting Systems 31 2.2. National Voting Systems of the Nine 58 Christian H. Huber 3. APPROACHES TO EUROPEAN ELECTIONS 83 3.1. National Approaches 85 3.2. Common Trends and Tendencies. Lessons from the Implemen• tation of the First European Elections 167 Guido van den Berghe 4. ELECTORAL LAW AND DIRECT ELECTIONS 181 4.1. Comparison of the National Electoral Procedures in Nine Member States of the European Communities 183 4.2. From National Electoral Laws for the First Direct Elections to a Framework for Uniformity 221 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS David A. Brew 5. OPTIONS FOR A UNIFORM VOTING SYSTEM 251 5.1. Possible Results of Different Voting Systems 253 5.2. The Choice of a Uniform Voting System 275 5.3. Conclusion 291 The Members of the Direct Elections Group at the European University Institute, set down by Geoffrey Hand 6. SPECIFIC PROPOSAL FOR A UNIFORM PROCEDURE 293 6.1. The Electoral System and the Method of Voting 298 6.2. The Franchise 302 6.3. Elections and Parties 305 6.4. Annex to Chapter 6 307 APPEND« I Jacques George! The Electoral Systems of Greece, Portugal and Spain 315 APPENDIX II Section I Howard C. Yourow The Electoral System of the United States: a Unified Community Elections Procedure in Comparative Perspective 337 APPENDIX II Section II Howard C. Yourow and Guido van den Berghe Synthesis: Comparison between the Electoral Systems of the United States and Canada 403 APPENDIX III David A. Brew Examples of Methods of Counting Used in Different Systems of Proportional Representation 412 APPENDIX IV David A. Brew Additional Simulations Based on the Voting in the First Direct Elec• tions, June 1979 424 APPENDIX V Participants in the Work of the Direct Elections Group at the Euro• pean University Institute 434 Subject Index 437 Name Index 447 FOREWORD When the European University Institute opened in 1976, Professor Christoph Sasse, first Head of the Department of Law, proposed that amongst its projects of research should he the investigation of the problem of establishing a uniform electoral procedure for Oireet Elec• tions to the European Parliament. His tragic and untimely death in a road accident near Florence on 26 February 1979 means that the pro• ject has had to be seen through to completion without his guidance; but it is the hope of all those concerned that the present volume will not be altogether unworthy of the memory of this dedicated scholar and European and deeply liked person. Professor Sasse secured the support of his professorial colleagues, Jacques Georgel (Politics) and Geoffrey Hand (Law), in establishing the project as an interdepartmental one. Closely associated with these three as members of an informal 'steering committee' were three then research students of the Institute, David Brew (Politics), Christian Huber (Politics), and Guido van den Berghe (Law). In successive years European Commission research grants were awarded to two members of the group, Peter Felter (Law: unfortunately Mr. Felter returned to Denmark after a relatively short stay and consequently was unable to participate in the later stages of the work) and Guido van den Berghe. After the death of Professor Sasse, it became possible, through the re• sources of the Research Fund of the Institute, largely provided by the European Communities, to appoint those two of the research students just named who were still at the Institute (Christian Huber and Guido van den Berghe) as junior research fellows. Geoffrey Hand, in consul• tation with Jacques Georgel, assumed the main administrative and editorial burdens. It should be added that several other research stu• dents of the Institute participated in the seminar work of the group in early years, although they are not individual contributors to the end- VIII FOREWORD product (a list of names will be found in Appendix V). With the aid of a grant from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Profes• sor Sasse, in his capacity at the Institut für Integrations-forschung der Stiftung Europa-Kolleg at Hamburg, was able to secure the services of Howard C Yourow for a comparative study of North American ex• perience; the fruits will be found in Appendix II. It is appropriate also to acknowledge at this point the funds made available through the Stif• tung Europa-Kolleg from the German Academic Exchange Service - DAAD - to some of the participants in the project. Finally, upon the death of Christoph Sasse, Roland Bieber agreed to take his place as a contributor to the 'introduction ', though necessarily as a more detached and independent participant. The project group was greatly assisted by individual visitors who agreed, from time to time, to come to discuss problems with it and in particular by the collective discussions in a two-tier Colloquy held in Florence and in Rome in 1978. (A note of visitors and of the particip• ants at the Colloquy will be found in Appendix V). In addition, chap• ter 4, below, owes much to the care with which a questionnaire com• posed by Guido van den Berghe was answered by a respectable number of Community and national experts, whose names cannot be listed here. The thanks of the contributors must also be expressed for the assis• tance provided by the Commission and the Parliament, for the patience of many individual officials in the Community Institutions, and for the help which contributors received in their individual work from na• tional authorities and scholars in the Member States. All of us owe profound gratitude to Alison Tuck, whose cheerful patience somehow survived bombardment with ever-changing drafts, ceaseless correspondence, and complicated tabulations. The text of this book was effectively completed by September 1980, but it has been possible in a few instances to incorporate references to more recent events. Hand / van den Berghe / Bieber 1. INTRODUCTION Geoffrey Hand 1.1. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY As they worked at the European University Institute on the pro• ject which has resulted in the present volume, the members of the team (whose identity and individual concerns have already been very briefly indicated in the 'Foreword') were of course well aware that all over the European Communities other research teams and indi• viduals had been attracted to the same problem. (Indeed, contact and cooperation were to occur in several instances as, for example, the list of visitors to Florence in connection with the project de• monstrates) *. The prospective institutional and historical uniqueness of the European Parliament in its directly elected stage of develop• ment has been a stimulus, intellectual and even emotional, to many and it is hardly necessary to point out that the insights of a variety of national, political and academic traditions must be needed. Yet the European University Institute appeared to offer peculiar advantages to the study. A foundation of the Nine, it is nevertheless not spe• cially tied to the greater European institutions any more than it is to particular individual Member States or, needless to say, to party groupings.