Flexibler und Zielgerichteter Ausgleich — Eine am innerparteilichen Proporz orientierte Alternative zum geltenden Bundestagswahlrecht

The electoral system to the German Bundestag may not only lead to unnecessary enlargements of parliament but it is also not focused systematically on reducing the intraparty distortions. Those distortions played a substantial role in the political discussion as they are crucial for the acceptability of the electoral system. But aside from extreme solutions, none of the existing reform proposals is oriented systematically towards a pre-defined level of intraparty proportionality. Thus, a new procedure is proposed here, which consistently focuses on guaranteeing a minimum level of intraparty proportionality. It does not lead to unnecessary enlargements and may be adjusted via a parameter to deliver the desired balance between attenuation of intraparty distortions and parsimonious enlargements of parliament. Combined with a reform, which leads to far fewer overhang seats, it could eliminate the severest distortions and in most cases still keep within the regular size of parliament.