CHAPTER XII

THE ELECTION OF PARLIAMENT

Constituencies and Voters
Criticisms of Present Law

Insufficiently democratic

Too democratic

Proportional Representation

Functional Representation
Progress of an Election
Electors and Elected

CONSTITUENCIES AND VOTERS.

The House of Commons is intended to represent the people.
If this purpose is to be fulfilled, every adult should have an
equal share in electing the House. The country is accordingly
divided into constituencies, each of which has the right of
returning one, or, in a few instances, two Members. The con-
stituencies are either "Parliamentary boroughs*' or Divisions of
Counties, so that a vestige of the old plan of burgesses and
knights of the shire is preserved, though the distribution of
Members has changed greatly with the growth and movement
of population. Some towns which have the status of a Borough
for their own local Government—have, for example, a Charter
and Mayor—are too small to have a Member and are included
in a County Division; thus Truro is in the Penryn and Falmouth
Division of Cornwall; other Boroughs in the local Government
sense, such as Manchester, are so large that they must be cut
into several Divisions each returning a Member. The present
arrangement of constituencies, dating from the Representation
of the People Act, 1918, is as follows :~

London is divided, for its local Government, into the City of
London and 28 Metropolitan Boroughs of varying size. The