Skip to main content

Maxmin Formulation of the Apportionments of Seats to a Parliament

  • Chapter
Minimax and Applications

Part of the book series: Nonconvex Optimization and Its Applications ((NOIA,volume 4))

Abstract

We consider the problem of apportioning a fixed number of seats in a national parliament to the candidates of different parties that are elected in constituencies so as to meet party and constituency constraints. We propose a maxmin formulation of the problem. The purpose is to obtain a fair apportionment of the parliament seats, in the sense that the minimum number of voters behind any possible parliament majority is maximum. We illustrate the concepts with some examples, including an example from the last Icelandic election.

Travel support obtained from the Nordic Council for Advanced Studies (NorFA) through the Nordic Mathematical Programming Network is gratefully acknowledged.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. M.L. Balinski and H.P. Young (1982) Fair Representation Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote. Yale University Press, New Haven.

    Google Scholar 

  2. M.L. Balinski and G. Demange (1989) Algorithms for Proportional Matrices in Reals and Integers, Mathematical Programming 45, 193–210.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. M.L. Balinski and G. Demange (1989) An Axiomatic Approach to Proportionality between Matrices, Mathematics of Operations Research 14, 700–719.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. V. Elberling (1922) Om Samtidigt Valg af Flere Representater for Samme Kreds (in Danish). Published as Appendix K in the Report on the Danish Electoral Low Gommission of 1921.

    Google Scholar 

  5. G.M. Guiswite and P.M. Pardalos (1993) Complexity Issues in Nonconvex Network Flow Problems, in “Complexity in Numerical Optimization”, World Scientific, pp. 163–179

    Google Scholar 

  6. T. Helgason (1991) Apportionment of Seats in the Icelandic Parliament, Working paper Mar- 1991, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.

    Google Scholar 

  7. T. Helgason and K. Jörnsten (1991) Om Matrix Apportionments, Working paper Oct-1991, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.

    Google Scholar 

  8. T. Helgason and K. Jörnsten (1994) Entropy of Proportional Matrix Apportionment, in “Proceedings from the Nordic Mathematical Programming Meeting in Linköping”, K. Holmberg (ed.), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  9. R. Horst and H. Tuy (1990) Global Optimization - Deterministic Approaches, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. A. Hylland (1978) Allotment Methods - Procedures for Proportional Distribution of Indivisible Entities. Unpublished manuscript. John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Reprinted as Working paper 1990/11 from the Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, Norway.

    Google Scholar 

  11. H. Tuy, A. Migdalas and P. Värbrand (1993) A Global Optimization Approach for the Linear Two-level Program, Journal of Global Optimization 13, 1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1995 Kluwer Academic Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Helgason, T., Jörnsten, K., Migdalas, A. (1995). Maxmin Formulation of the Apportionments of Seats to a Parliament. In: Du, DZ., Pardalos, P.M. (eds) Minimax and Applications. Nonconvex Optimization and Its Applications, vol 4. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3557-3_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3557-3_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-3559-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-3557-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics