Functional Representation and its difficulties

A farmer, a factory worker and a software engineer living in the same street have almost nothing in common as an occupational interest, yet the same territorial constituency represents all three. Functional representation asks whether it would make more sense to represent people by what they do for a living instead of where they happen to live.

In two minutes

Functional representation groups voters by occupation or economic interest rather than geography — giving trade, industry and professional groups a direct voice — but it faces serious practical difficulties in defining occupational categories fairly, which is why it exists only in limited, supplementary form even where it is used.

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