Schwartzberg's weighted voting is a
weighted voting
Weighted voting can exist in a policy or law making body in which each representative has a variable voting power (weighted vote) as determined by the number principals who have made that person their proxy voting, proxy, or the population or the ...
electoral system, proposed by
Joseph E. Schwartzberg
Joseph E. Schwartzberg (February 5, 1928 – September 19, 2018) was an American writer, peace activist, and a world federalist, who was a tenured professor at the University of Minnesota. Author of numerous books, he was the editor and principal ...
, for representation of nations in a
reformed United Nations.
The formula is (P+C+M)/3, where P is the nation's percentage of the total population of all UN members, C is that nation's percentage of the total contributions to the UN budget, and M, the nation's percentage of the total UN membership (which of course would be the same for all members); divide that sum by 3 to get the average.
Under this system, the nations with the greatest voting power would be the U.S. (9.065%); China (7.672%); Japan (7.282%); and India (5.960%). This system avoids giving
microstate
A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, usually both. However, the meanings of "state" and "very small" are not well-defined in international law.Warrington, E. (1994). "Lilliputs ...
s disproportionate influence (as under
one state, one vote
Political representation is the activity of making citizens "present" in public policy-making processes when political actors act in the best interest of citizens. This definition of political representation is consistent with a wide variety of vi ...
) while also avoiding giving a coalition of populous
developing countries such as
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
India control over the UN, as might happen under
one man, one vote.
It is important in the calculation of C (Nation's contributions to the UN budget) that only actual paid contributions be counted rather than owed contributions in arrears, since some major nations are very significantly in arrears in their payment of their agreed level of United Nations dues.
See also
*
List of countries by population
This is a list of countries and dependencies by population. It includes sovereign states, inhabited dependent territories and, in some cases, constituent countries of sovereign states, with inclusion within the list being primarily based on the ...
References
Electoral systems
{{Election-stub
United Nations reform
United Nations Parliamentary Assembly