Sitzvergabe

Sitzvergabe (German for "allocation of seats") refers to the procedures and rules by which seats in legislatures, councils, or committees are distributed among parties, electoral lists, regions or individual candidates. It is a central element of electoral systems and institutional design because it determines how votes translate into political power.

Methods for seat allocation fall into broad categories. Proportional representation systems use mathematical formulas to convert vote shares into seats, commonly employing highest-average methods (for example, d'Hondt/Jefferson and Sainte-Laguë/Webster) or largest-remainder methods (such as Hare–Niemeyer). Majoritarian systems allocate seats in single-member districts, typically by plurality or majority vote. Other approaches include single transferable vote (STV) and mixed systems that combine district seats with compensatory list seats.

Legal frameworks often add features that affect allocation: electoral thresholds to exclude very small parties, rules for rounding and divisors, and mechanisms for overhang and leveling seats to preserve proportionality. Allocation rules are also applied within legislatures to assign committee seats and speaking time according to party strength.

Debates about Sitzvergabe focus on proportionality, fairness, simplicity, and strategic incentives. Different methods yield different biases (for example favoring larger or smaller parties), and rounding can produce paradoxical outcomes. Choice of method has practical consequences for party systems, coalition formation and minority representation, making Sitzvergabe both a technical and a political question in electoral design.