REPRESENTATION, (1) the authorized acting by one person in behalf of another, as in a legislative assembly; also, the system of choosing such representatives. Representation in a modified form was known in ancient times, and the principle was extended by the Church, in its ecumenical councils. The Germanic na tions, however, were the first to adopt political representation, having employed it in their popular assemblies. Later it spread to Great Britain and still later to the United States, in which latter country it developed into the rep resentative democracy which still endures. Representation to-day is found not only in republics, as the United States, but in monarch ies also, as Great Britain. In republics, how ever, representatives are less restricted in their power than in monarchies, it being usual in the latter to place a check in the form of an ap pointed or hereditary upper house to control legislation. In early times representation was largely by classes, and to-day this principle is still carried out to some extent in England. There is much conflict of opinion as to whether a national representative should follow closely the wishes of his constitu ents solely or whether he should, in case of conflicting interests, prefer to use his powers in a manner that would most benefit the entire country. The latter view appears to dominate, but it is nev'ertheless a fact that representatives, especially those seeking re-election, are largely influnced by the wishes of their constituency.
Majority, Minority and Proportional Representation.— In the United States the majority generally rules, and no provision is usually made for giving the proportionate rep resentation to the minority that it would seem in all justice to require. It often happens, owing to the system of representation in vogue in the United States, that a party which casts less than 40 per cent of the votes in a Congres sional or other election may have all the repre sentation while the parties casting the remainder of the votes have no representation what ever. In Illinois an attempt was made to remedy this by the constitution of 1870, which provided for what is known as the ((free vote.) This system, as applied in this State, affects the election of members of the lower house of the legislature only, and by the provisions of the constitution each voter may cast as many votes for each candidate as there are representatives to be elected or he may apportion such votes, or equal parts thereof, among the candidates, if he so desires, and those receiving the largest number of votes shall be elected, three representatives be ing chosen in each district. The chief objec tion to this method is that at best it gives only minority and not proportional representation, gives it solely to a very large minority and ignores third parties entirely. Another objec tion is that the politicians of the two leading parties have rendered the regulation practically valueless by manipulation in naming the can didates. For instances, in districts largely Democratic, the Democratic party makes but two nominations and the Republicans one, thus ensuring the election of two Democrats and one Republican in a very large preponderance of cases. Another method advocated for the re
form of present methods is known as the (limited vote,' which has been used in Eng land, and also in Pennsylvania in choosing Supreme county auditors and other officials and in New York for the select ing of members at large to the Constitutional Convention of 1867. By this method each voter has less votes than there are offices to be filled. For example, where there are three offices, the voter has only two votes. This method, in a modified form, is in effect in a number of countries, among them Portugal and Spain. Another method, known as the (transferable vote' or (Hare system,* is complicated but much favored by advocates of the minority system. By this method a voter indicates his choice (1st, 2d, etc.) by number„ after voting for as many candidates as he desires. The total num ber of votes cast is divided by the number of offices to be filled, and the quotient gives the or number of votes necessary to elect a candidate. At the first count of votes, only the first choices are reckoned and those that re ceive at least a quota are declared elected. After this, if all the offices are not filled, the remain ing votes of the candidates who have been de clared are transferred to the candidate having second choice, and the process is continued until all the offices are filled. Tasmania adopted this method, for all elections in 1907, and it is in use also in Moravia, Denmark and Iceland. Another method, in use in Switzerland and eihe where in Europe, is known as the ree-list' system. Under it any organized party may nominate as many candidates as it desires, but not to exceed the total number of places to be filled. Any voter may cast as many votes as there are candidates to be elected, but not more than one for any candidate. The total vote cast is then divided by the number of places to be filled, and this gives the quota of rep resentation. The total vote cast by each party divided by this quota gives the number of rep resentatives to which each party is entitled. For example, if 20 representatives are to be elected, with 1,000,000 voters in the dis trict, the Democrats polling 400,000, the Repub licans 350,000 and the Socialists 250,000, the quota is found by dividing the total votes cast (1,000,000) by the number of representatives to be chosen (20), equalling 50,000. This would give the Democrats eight representatives, the Republicans seven and the Socialists five. Other systems are in use which are modifica tions of those above described.
(2) In law, an oral or written statement of fact, as one made incidentally or collaterally to a contract. Whether express or implied, a material false representation made by one party to a contract, if acted upon and believed by the other party to his injury, will render such con tract void; (3) the principle by which the lineal descendants of a deceased person inherit or take part of the estate which their ancestor would have inherited if he had survived.