When was the concept of electoral districts / constituencies with their own borders (as opposed to pre-existing towns/counties) invented?
Upvote:3
With the Ordinance for all cities of the Prussian monarchy (Ordnung für sämtliche Städte der Preußischen Monarchie) of 1808-11-19, the first common organisation of city administrations were made.
Depending on the size of the city, based on population (§10), without military, the number of electoral districts (Bezirke) each city would have (§70) and the minimal/maximal amount of persons (§11),independent as to whether they were allowed to vote or not, lived within each electoral district.
For:
- small cities (up to 3500 persons): 24-36 districts
- 400-1000 persons per district
- middle sized cities (up to 10000 persons): 36-60 districts
- 400-1000 persons per district
- large sized cities (10000 or more persons): 60-102 districts
- 1000-1500 persons per district
Each district should have a number and a name which should be based on the name of the main street, square or a well known place to distinguish it from other districts.
Each district sent one representative, who was directly elected (until 1862 when the three-class electoral system was introduced for cities) for a period of 3 years. Each year, one third of the representatives were replaced.
Berlin, which in 1808 had a population of 148500, required the maximun amount allowed: 102. On 1809-03-28 the first election took place as well as replacement elections in 1810 and 1811.
Since the city had to maintain these districts, adapting them when required due to population fluctuations, they were also used as administrative districts (Stadtbezirke). In 1811, the first map was published showing these boundries:
- below the number 51, is where Checkpoint Charlie was later situated.
Sources:
- 'Ordnung für sämmtliche Städte der Preußischen Monarchie'| MDZ
- download als PDF (images only, not searchable)
- Datei:Selter Grundriss von Berlin 1811.jpg – Wikipedia
- 1:5800
Upvote:5
A2
The concept of local representation is probably as old as democracy itself. In Athenian democracy, it seems to have developed out of, and maybe a bit in contrast to, tribal (phyle) representation. Each phyle sent its own representatives to the council (boule). This was a form of decentralization based on persons belonging to relevant groups, not living in a certain area. Another basic idea at the root of distributed representation was the concept of isonomia, the equality of each citizen before the law.
The reform of Cleisthenes in 508 BC introduced a quite sophisticated regional element. Attica was divided into three regions, representing city, interior and costal areas. Each of those was divided into ten smaller regions (trittys). The 139 communities (demes) were distributed to the trittys according to neighbourhood.
The next step was a bit suprising from a modern viewpoint: one trittys from each larger region was combined, forming a total of ten artificial phyles, with each of these phyles sending 50 representatives to the Athenian boule, also known as Council of 500. The reasoning behind this is not that important in the context of the question, but what is important is that it seems there was a fixed number of representatives from each demos. While the numbers do not strictly represent the size of the local community, the idea was a representation proportional to the number of hoplites each of them could provide to the polis.
The German Wikipedia article tries to give a complete list of the demes with the number of representatives, citing the following sources:
- S. Traill: Demos and Trittys: Epigraphical and Topographical Studies in the Organization of Attica. Athenians, Toronto 1986
- Kurt Raaflaub: Einleitung und Bilanz: Kleisthenes, Ephialtes und die Begründung der Demokratie. (1992); in Kinzl (Hrsg.) Demokratia. Der Weg zur Demokratie bei den Griechen. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1995. Raaflaub also published a related work in English, together with Ian Morris: Democracy 2500? Questions and Challenges. Dubuque, Iowa 1998
Another article says that each of the ten phyles was made up of approx. 3500 citizens, but there is no source given for the number.
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