I’ve posted this new article at SSRN, which will be forthcoming as part of an election-law Symposium in the University of Illinois Law Review. In a white paper released after this draft was completed, a leading proponent of PR for Congress, Lee Drutman, attempts to address some of the concerns my article raises. I think that effort fails, but the paper came too late to address in this article. I will do so in another forum.

Here’s the abstract:

In recent years political reform advocates and advocacy groups have proposed a form of proportional representation (PR) for the U.S. House.  In their view, the U.S. system of plurality winner, single-member election districts is a major reason for our increasingly tribalistic politics and toxic political culture.  The proposed cure is the creation of a five or six party Congress, enabled by electing Congress from multi-member districts of five to seven members.

This article reflects skepticism about this proposal.  The article first shows the scope of changes to Congress and the voting system that would be required to institutionalize this proposal.  A transition to multi-member districts is no simple matter and would require numerous other accompanying changes.

The article then turns to comparative perspective to challenge the accuracy of the diagnosis PR proponents offer to motivate their proposal.  Other democracies with our same election system do not have our tribalistic politics and levels of affective polarization.  This strongly suggests other factors about the way American politics is institutionally structured, along with distinct features of American political culture, are the source of our current political ailments.

The article then advances an even more important reason to reject the proposal for a PR House.  This “cure,” it suggests, is worse than the disease itself.  By exploring the extraordinarily turbulent multi-party governments that exist today in Western Europe, the article argues that a five or six party Congress would make the political process even more dysfunctional than it is already.

The ability to deliver effective government is the most important challenge democracies across the West face today.  When democratic governments are perceived by many citizens to be failing, it can lead, and has led, to rejection of the institutional structures and norms of democratic government.  Proposals for a PR House face serious implementation challenges; are motivated by a flawed understanding of why American politics is more polarized and tribalistic today; and most troubling of all, would make it even harder for Congress to meet this era’s fundamental challenge, which is delivering effective government.