In party-list proportional representation systems, an election threshold is a clause that stipulates that a party must receive a minimum percentage of votes, either nationally or within a particular district, to get any seats in the parliament. The effect of the threshold is to eliminate small parties, or force them into coalitions. Many people hold that this makes an election system more stable by keeping out radical factions. Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems used in multiple-winner elections (e. ...

In Poland's Sejm and Germany's Bundestag (elected through the Additional member system), this threshold is 5% (or 3 constituency seats in the Bundestag, but directly won constituencies are kept regardlessly), while it is 2% in Israel's Knesset (it was 1% before 1992 and 1.5% from 1992-2003), and 10% in the Turkish parliament. In Poland, ethnic minority parties do not have to reach the threshold level to get into the parliament, and so there are 2 German minority MPs in the Sejm. Also, there are countries, like Portugal, Finland, the Netherlands and Republic of Macedonia, that have proportional representation systems without a threshold. This article is about the lower chamber of Polish parliament. ... The Bundestag (Federal Diet) is the parliament of Germany. ... The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. ... The Knesset (כנסת, Hebrew for assembly) is the Parliament of Israel. ... This article is about the lower chamber of Polish parliament. ... Motto: Anthem: Today Over Macedonia (Macedonian: Денес Над Македонија, Denes Nad Makedonija) Capital Skopje Largest city Skopje Official language(s) Macedonian1 Government President Prime Minister Parliamentary republic Branko Crvenkovski Vlado Bučkovski Independence Declared From Yugoslavia September 8, 1991 Area  â€¢ Total  â€¢ Water (%)   25,333 km² (146th) 1. ...

Countries can have more than one threshold. For example, Germany, as mentioned earlier, has a "regular" threshold of 5%, but if 3 constituency seats are won in the Bundestag, the party can get additional representation with less than 5% of the vote. Most multiple-threshold systems are still in the proposal stage. For example, in Canada, one proposal to reform the electoral system would see a 5% national threshold, 1% of the vote and 1 seat in the house of commons, or 2% nationally and 15% of the vote in any one province.

Election thresholds are often implemented with the intention of bringing stability to the political system. However, they can sometimes seriously affect the relation between the percentage of the popular vote and seat distribution. A striking example is Turkey. The 10% threshold in Turkey was established mainly to prevent multi-party coalitions and put a stop to the endless fragmentation of political parties seen in '60s and '70s. However, coalitions ruled between 1991 and 2002, mainstream parties continued to be fragmented and as a serious side effect, the 2002 elections caused 45% of votes (cast for below-threshold parties) to be unrepresented in the parliament. For these reasons some people feel that the side effects of election thresholds (including the effective disenfranchisement of anyone who supports a "fringe" party) are worse than the problems they counter. Disenfranchising refers to the removal of the ability to vote from a person or group of people. ...

Election thresholds can cause a spoiler effect similarly to the Single non-transferable vote, where minor parties who can't overcome thresholds take votes away from other parties with similar ideologies. Fledgling parties in these systems often find themselves in a vicious circle - if a party perceived as having no chance of meeting the threshold, it often cannot gain popular support, and if the party cannot gain popular support, it will continue to have little or no chance of meeting the threshold. The spoiler effect is a term to describe the effect a candidate can have on a close election, in which their candidacy results in the election being won by a candidate dissimilar to them, rather than a candidate similar to them. ... The Single Non-Transferable Vote or SNTV is an electoral system used in multi-member constituency elections. ... The term vicious circle has the following meanings: Circular logic, a kind of logical fallacy. ...

See also

• List of democracy and elections-related topics