Party Strategy and Voter Organization under Cumulative Voting in Victorian England
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| Author | Shaun Bowler,David M. Farrell,Todd Donovan |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9248.00237 |
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Party Strategy and Voter Organization
under Cumulative Voting in
Victorian England
SHAUN BOWLER
University of California, Riverside
TODD DONOVAN
Western Washington University
AND DAVID M. FARRELL*
University of Manchester
British electoral history contains a whole series of debates over alternatives to
the ®rst past the post system.1Prominent among these alternatives have been
variations on proportional representation and also such methods as Limited
Vote and Cumulative Vote (CV).2But these alternatives were not just debated,
in some instances they were also put into practice. The ®rst example of CV in
practice came in elections (from 1854 to 1890) to the Cape Leg islative Council,
the colony's upper house.3The means of election to this body were set out in a
Report from a Committee of the Board of Trade and Plantations (30 January
1850). In addition to a description of how the system would work, the report
also provided a justi®cation for its introduction.
By this arrangement, a monopoly of power in the Legislative Council by
any one party, or any one district of the Colony, would be prevented, since
#Political Studies Association 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 CowleyRoad, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main
Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Political Studies (1999), XLVII, 906±917
* Equal co-authorship. Authors are listed alphabetically. A previous version of this paper was
delivered at the American Political Science Association meetings, San Francisco, California,
August±September 1996. We are grateful to our referees for helpful feedback on an earlier draft.
The authors alone bear responsibility for any interpretations and errors.
1V. Bogdanor, The People and the Party System:the Referendum and Electoral Reform in Britain
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981); D. Butler, The Electoral System in Britain Since
1918 (Oxford, Clarendon, 2nd edn, 1963); J. Hart, Proportional Representation:Critics of the British
Electoral System 1820±1945 (Oxford, Clarendon, 1992).
2C. Dodgson, The Principles of Parliamentary Representation (London, Harrison, 1884); I.
McLean and A. Urken, Classics of Social Choice (Michigan, University of Michigan Press, 1995); I.
McLean and A. McMillan, `19th Century Debates on the Properties of Electoral Systemsand their
Implications for the 20th Century Debate', paper presentedat the annual meeting of the American
Political Science Association, San Francisco CA(September 1996); A. McMillan, `The limited vote
in Britain: a failed attempt at PR', Representation, 33 (1995), 85±90.
3The testing of CV in the Cape is consistent with widespread British practice in this period of
trying out new electoral systems in its colonies. See D. Farrell, Comparing Electoral Systems
(Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1998).
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