Book Reviews : Lois électorales et inégalités de représentation en France, 1936-1960. By JEAN- MARIE COTTERET, CLAUDE EMERI and PIERRE LALUMIÈRE. (Paris: Armand Colin, 1960. Pp. xxiii, 403.)
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296101400414 |
| Published date | 01 December 1961 |
| Author | Allan H. Kittell |
| Date | 01 December 1961 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
966
many
and
Italy,
again
using
the
system
which
led
to
the
downfall
of
their
demo-
cracies
after
World
War
I,
go
down
again
for
the
opening
of
a
future
war?&dquo;
And
what
of
Asia
and
Africa?
In
the
author’s
opinion,
Turkey’s
experience,
&dquo;a
shining
example
of
what
can
be
achieved
under
cabinet
government,&dquo;
pro-
vides
some
grounds
for
optimism.
He
believes
&dquo;other
countries
can
now
copy
[England’s]
organization
promptly
and
easily.&dquo;
A
number
have
done
so.
But
whether
even
this
&dquo;nearly
perfect&dquo;
system
can
emerge
and
survive
the
internal
stresses,
to
say
nothing
of
the
external
ones,
may
not
now
be
safely
predicted.
What
may
be
predicted
is
the
vital
concern
of
the
western
democratic
nations
for
the
fate
of
democratic
organization
in
the
emerging
states
of
Africa
and
Asia.
Central
Washington
State
College
ELWYN
H.
ODELL
Lois
électorales
et
inégalités
de
représentation
en
France,
1936-1960.
By
JEAN-
MARIE
COTTERET,
CLAUDE
EMERI
and
PIERRE
LALUMIÈRE.
(Paris:
Armand
Colin,
1960.
Pp.
xxiii,
403.)
The
authors
here
use
the
various
French
electoral
regimes,
reforms,
and
suggestions
of
the
last
three-quarters
of
a
century,
particularly
those
since
1936,
as
a
kind
of
case
study
in
the
political
mechanics
of
representative
democracy,
cap-
ping
it
off
with
a
Postface
which
analyzes
the
new
electoral
machinery
installed
by
De
Gaulle
in
1958.
Their
study,
though
it
begins
with
an
historical
survey,
treats
the
material
in
an
analytical
rather
than
developmental
framework
and
employs
the
concept
of
electoral
inequality
as
a
kind
of
scientific
dissecting
tool.
This
concept
rests
upon
the
assumption
that
ideally
in
a
representative
democracy
every
party,
group,
or
area
should
have
proportionally
the
same
representation
in
the
parliament
that
it
has
in
the
country
as
a
whole.
The
extent
to
which
actual
representation
deviates
from
this
ideal
proportion
can
be
expressed
as
a
percentage.
From
this
base
the
authors
are
able
mathematically
to
correlate
electoral
inequalities
with
certain
other
factors.
The
number
of
these
factors,
however,
appears
to
be
quite
limited.
They
seem
to
be
useful
where
they
concern
geography
or
closely
related
material:
population
density,
rurality,
agricultural
and,
with
somewhat
less
confidence,
where
they
concern
urbanism
and
industrialism.
Statistical
evaluation
may
also
be
applied
to
political
parties
but
primarily
only
to
the
larger,
national,
more
dis-
ciplined
parties
of
the
Left
and
Center:
Communists,
Socialists,
M.R.P.
and,
to
a
much
less
extent,
Radicals
and
Radical
Socialists.
Electoral
inequalities
apparently
stem
from
two
sources:
the
apportionment
of
seats
and
the
mechanics
of
election.
In
spite
of
several
redistrictings
and
re-
distributions
from
1936
to
1960,
the
incidence
of
excessive
inequalities
due
to
apportionment
of
seats
seldom
decreased
for
any
length
of
time.
The
authors
find
during
this
period
such
a
high
correlation
between
overrepresentation
and
rurality
that
they
consider
the
one
almost
to
be
a
function
of
the
other.
Such
circum-
stances
tended
artificially
to
amplify
the
voice
of
agricultural
at
the
expense
of
industrial
areas,
to
give
the
dynamic
portions
of
the
economy
(according
to
total
production
figures)
something
less
than
proportional
justice,
and
to
favor
the
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