Essays in Honor of Hannu Nurmi Homo Oeconomicus 26(3/4): 489–500 • (2009) www.accedoverlag.d e List Apparentements in Local Elections – A Lottery

Abstract Can fewer votes win more seats? In the 2008 local elections in the Ger-man State of Bavaria the trick worked, thirty-six times. The year 2009 invites party officials in the German States of Rhineland-Palatia, the Saarland, and Thuringia to play the game. The name of the game is list apparentements. We show what it is about. Keywords representation of votes, constitutionality, apportionment 1. List Apparentements List apparentements form a peculiarity of certain proportional representa-tion systems. In some countries they are employed at the national level, as in Switzerland and Israel. In Germany they are restricted to the local level. Here we elucidate their role in a case study, the 2008 local elections in the German State of Bavaria. Bochsler (2009) presents a more general overview of the subject. Political parties, or groups of citizens who submit a list of candidates, may register a list apparentement1 with the electoral bureau prior to the election. On Election Day, the conversion of votes into seats then takes place in two stages. Firstly, in the super-apportionment, the votes cast fo